Purplebricks has arrived in Australia – and attracted television coverage, which in turn has attracted criticism.
According to commentator Media Watch, Channel Seven ran a “shameless plug” on its news bulletins, “with an even bigger puff piece on Sunrise net day”.
There is acerbic commentary to watch on this link
Separately, Trustpilot in Australia has tweeted that it will investigate Purplebricks’s linking to Trustpilot reviews in Australia.
EYE regular PeeBee tweeted them on Monday saying: ” @TrustpilotAUNZ Pls advise why you are allowing @PurplebricksAus to use BRITISH ‘reviews’ as testimony for the Australian company? #stinks”
Yesterday, he had this response on Twitter: “Hi @Agent_PeeBee Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention as it is against our guidelines and we are now looking into it!”
However, last night a Purplebricks spokesman said: “Our Australian website is very clear and transparent and should a visitor wish to look at our UK customer reviews then they are free to do so as part of understanding the overall service we have provided other customers.
“This is not a breach of any Trustpilot guidelines.”
They are using “reviews” from the other side of the world – a completely different marketplace – to try to fluff up their feathers.
The individuals who are working for them are using “reviews” clearly gained at previous places of employment to try to fluff up their feathers.
At what point will the Aussie public click that THERE IS NOTHING UNDER THE FEATHERS?
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I’ve come to the conclusion you are focusing on the detail too much Peebee, what some deluded neg calls themselves, whatever devious list trick they get up to, whatever law or rule they break or ignore, that isn’t what this is about.
Going into Australia, disrupting the market there, borrowing and promoting a heap of unverified Trustpilot reviews (ignoring the verified reviews at the other end of the spectrum) it is all about getting more investment cash out of investors who don’t really understand what the **** is going on and how they are being ****** * by financial advisers they ought to be able to trust.
* (‘fisted’ isn’t actually blocked by Ros’s Mary Whitehouse filter but as it’s not a nice word so I starred it out myself)
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You owe me a new keyboard.
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Significant comment on the video link above:
‘And no mention that almost 1-in-4 UK customers rate Purple Bricks a lousy one star out of five on its Facebook page, which has this comment right at the top: “Please please think twice before using this company. The whole concept is a fab idea the execution is at best poor.” ‘
Oh, dear.
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That’s the important point here. Fakebook will not allow the removal of a review unless it contravenes their guidelines.
Trustpilot uses Purple Bricks on their marketing literature. I have recently signed up an estate agent to TP and the marketing material I was sent had Purple Bricks all over it. Purple Bricks receive many 1 star reviews which are removed a day or two after. There’s one now which seems genuine but let’s see what happens to it. It isn’t a verified review so the user must, if reported by PB, jump through lots of hoops – customers just don’t want to go through the hassle after suffering from PB so much.
Here is the review posted 3 hours ago:
Don’t touch them with a barge pole!! You have been warned!
The short version of our story is once we signed with them we never saw our ‘local property expert’ again, and after about two months never spoke to her again! She never answered calls from us, she did nothing to help sell our property, we had three viewings in six months and that was it. When we threatened to take action against them we mysteriously got another viewing after having no one for about 3 months, and these people conviniently made an offer, and ended up being fraudsters who dropped out and we were back to square one. Oh and how were we notified of his? A casual email from Purplebricks to say oh by the way your buyers have pulled out. You can’t get hold of anyone to talk to – you just get messages saying they’ll return your call in 48 hours. Which they don’t. Now we are selling through a proper high street agent who found us a buyer within 2 months, and at the point of exchange of contracts the chain has collapsed because the people at the top of it don’t actually have any money to buy a house! How did it get this far without being picked up?? Because their agent and conveyancing firm is PURPLEBRICKS!! So of course now no one can get any answers because no one can get hold of anyone at p’bricks to speak to! They did absolutely nothing to aid in selling our home, and are still causing problems now! You will not save money with them, you will waste your money and time and have more stress than you could ever imagine. I could go on, but this gives you the gist of our story!
The review is by someone called Charlotte Pirrone
Let’s see if the review sticks.
PB had a rating of 9.4 for so long, don’t know how they managed to keep it above 8… It dropped to 9.3 recently and so did their placing on the top ranked agents, from 9th to 14th!!!
These reviews can easily be checked by TP, but they won’t. It’s a blatant misuse of the system and amounts to fraud.
Another one of many examples… is Yopa.
From 04 May 2016 to 23 May 2016 Yopa received 21 reviews.
In those reviews the word professional was mentioned 23 times and the word process was mentioned 19 times.
Every single of those reviews except two (19 out of 21) mentioned the name of the local property expert.
I have been internet marketing for a very long time and consider myself an expert. I have seen thousands of reviews and I know that these reviews look suspicious at best!
If I owned an online estate agency and wanted to reward my local representatives for reviews I would have them posting reviews like this and to be ensuring they mentioned the name of the local expert – how else would I be able to prove the review is theirs and reward them?
😉
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Still there 2 hours later…
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…but THREE of the six previous to it have been pulled due to PBs reporting the reviews, stating the usual:
‘At Purplebricks we pride ourselves on the integrity of our reviews, where we are unable to locate a reviewer as a customer of Purplebricks, we will report the review and await further clarification on the identity of the reviewer. We are currently awaiting confirmation that this review has been left by a customer of Purplebricks.’
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Yes, still there as we speak.
New one just popped up a few minutes ago:
Worst Estate Agents!
My request was a tenant find only service with me holding the deposit as they will not be managing the tenant. I had to deal with a minimum of 5 people for this service.Each time it is passed on to the next person, I am asked questions I had already responded to the previous person. It looked like they don’t have a process of passing on information.I had to secure the deposit and provide proof (Deposit Certificate) to them before they would release the deposit. After providing the certificate, I was once again passed on to another person (probably accounts) who asked AGAIN for me to provide the deposit certificate which I had emailed a week prior before they could release the deposit. Purple Bricks acted on my behalf but they were acting as if I was working for them. After providing the Certificate for the SECOND time it took 10 days (TEN DAYS) for me to get the deposit paid into my account though electronic bank transfer in the UK takes a maximum of 2 hours.Needless to say I will NEVER use Purple Bricks even if my life depended on it. I will advice all I know to stay clear.
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You beat me to it – AND… the best bit – that one’s a verified review.
They actually invited the reviewer to post one!
The best goals are definitely own goals!
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they all are suspicious.
I can pick holes in almost every review on there – from the person who used 3 other agents in 6 months (didn’t mention all his cancellation charges with the other agents) – he offered and was accepted on a property before he SOLD his through PB – which was put on the market and sold in 10 days – although doesn’t mention that he had to pay the previous agent to cancel his contract before the 14 day notice period.
what about the guy it took 1 year and 2 days to sell – and gives them a 4 star review!!!!!!!!!!!
or the one posted by Steve Gaines which is actually from a Mrs King looking at the signature at the end.
shocking!!!
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Strewth Cobber. Well done. You’ve caught ’em with no strides! The whole things smells like a pile o’ dingo dag and their yabber ain’t worth a zack. Looks like the kangaroos are loose in the top paddock.
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“This is not a breach of any Trustpilot guidelines.”
It won’t be long before we see whether @TrustpilotAUNZ agree or not…
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smoke and mirrors.
Whats the betting PB UK folds and all the money is in Australia in the next few months ?
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Interesting slant, Property Paddy.
The marketing guy has already jumped on the boat & gone Down Under.
Whether the Bruce Brothers passports ever receive an Aussie stamp remains to be seen…
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Agree with you Property Paddy
Could that be why the B Bros have just picked up a £250,000 long (way) term incentive package?
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