Martin McKenzie, the head of property review website, Allagents.co.uk, has once again criticised Trustpilot, this time accusing the reviews site of a ‘fake review PR stunt’ after they yesterday announced that they have issued legal proceedings against a company for the first time ever after finding evidence of online abuser and fake reviews.
Trustpilot, which announced last week that it is stepping up enforcement against companies, including property firms who repeatedly break the rules by soliciting fake and misleading online reviews, is taking action again Global Migrate.
It is alleged that the UK-based immigration company failed to respond to repeated enforcement action to end its abuse of the platform by misleading consumers through soliciting fake reviews.
Trustpilot, which removed more than 2.2m fake reviews from its site last year, says that it has enhanced its automated fraud, enforcement and anomaly detection technologies, which safeguard the platform from misuse.
It has also pledged to take legal action against other firms that continue to abuse the site.
But McKenzie of allAgents is not convinced by their actions.
“This is simply a fake review PR stunt from Trustpilot in an attempt to halt their share price from plunging further,” he said. “Their pre-PLC days are catching up with them. Trustpilot has been turning a blind eye to this for a long time and now they are having to be held accountable.”
McKenzie, an outspoken critic of Trustpilot’s CEO Peter Muhlmann, has once again called on him to resign from his role.
“Stand down in order to begin the process of repairing both Trustpilot’s reputation and that of the reviews industry as a whole,” he added.
Trustpilot has once again dismissed McKenzie’s claims as being simply untrue.
allAgents renews call for Trustpilot CEO to quit – claims ‘reputation’ in tatters
Comments (3)
Perhaps Mr McKenzie should have a good look at Bundingo.com
He can find me on Twitter @Agent_PeeBee – or happy for Nick Salmon to pass my email details to him if he wants to make contact.
Hi PeeBee. I’m really using this post as a way of eliciting a response to my last answer to your criticism of Google reviews. In that you wrote:
“We all know that reviews have been gamed… this is why more and more consumers prefer google reviews above all else.” Google reviews can be bought. Google reviews can be posted by friends and family. Google reviews can be posted by employees, Managers, Directors and xxOs (insert copious relevant initials). Why, then, should “consumers” prefer them?
And I responded with:
‘Why, then, should “consumers” prefer them? It’s not a case of consumers preferring Google reviews. It’s what they are faced with whenever they make a search. Google reviews all the way; the likes of Trustpilot, Feefo and allAgents are all but invisible now. So businesses need to focus their efforts there: on Google. Your three points – about buying reviews, friends and family and employees – are all valid (we came across a large London agent where branch managers had all been asked to write a review of their neighbouring branch – some had even done so using their real names!). But, and this is a BIG ‘but’ – any business that does so is breaking the law (the CMA rules) and Google’s T&Cs; when a staff member leaves and whistleblows I wouldn’t like to be that business. But that doesn’t mean consumers won’t reference Google reviews and businesses shouldn’t focus all their efforts on getting them. They (consumers) will and they – estate agents – should.
Hopefully you’ll see this before comments close.
I did indeed see the comment.
A certain portal’s Google page features three reviews seemingly posted by staff members. Two of them were posted before the portal went live.
And a look at who seemingly posted one a fortnight ago might raise an EYEbrow or two…
I rest my case regarding the trustworthiness of Google reviews.