I've had people leave 1 star reviews, then call up and demand payment to change the rating.
UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
11–20 of 232 posts
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#12how is this news?
because as tuned in as you might be, the majority of people out there still have their collective heads in the sand and put a lot of weight on the reviews on commerce sites.
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#13how is this news?
Many people still believe online reviews are mostly authentic. I've heard more cynical people state that they can spot the fakes. They are wrong, or course, which is why this is news.
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#14The BBC didn't dare to name the businesses? Weak as hell. I remember when the BBC was a shining beacon of broadcasting excellence via shortwave radio. How the mighty have fallen.
If many companies are doing it, and many are forced (or feel forced) to do it in order to compete, then it isn't fair to just single one or two of them for public shaming via a publicly funded broadcaster. There's also libel ... maybe the threshold of evidence is high enough to write an article about some unnamed company buying reviews, but not high enough to hold up in court.
"In American courts, the burden of proof rests with the person who brings a claim of libel. In British courts, the author or journalist has the burden of proof, and typically loses."
(https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/03/21/394273902/...)
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#15The BBC didn't dare to name the businesses? Weak as hell. I remember when the BBC was a shining beacon of broadcasting excellence via shortwave radio. How the mighty have fallen.
At this point there seems to be little benefit in shaming individual companies. At best it's a relatively minor cleanup, at worst you risk harming innocent people[1]. It looks like Which? focused on Google, this seems an appropriate long term approach.
[1]: There's no guarantee that a fabricated review has been paid for by the business owner; or that all reviews from a given account are forged reviews (some might be genuine).
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#16I can't blame these companies, they are people, they have to make a living. It's not like they are actively harming anyone. So who should we blame? Google are also just trying to make money, they are also not hurting anyone over here.
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#17At least Google didn't build their rating system specifically to blackmail businesses into paying for tools that can get negative ratings removed. Unlike Trustpilot.
And you can have your Trustpilot 'stars' included in your Google search result snippet, paid and organic.
Maybe Google don't know about the practices of Trustpilot or maybe 'there is no evidence'?
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#18I'm shocked, I tell you. /s This is common with any company with a social media strategy, and pretty essential for certain companies in the B2C sector to get off the ground.
> pretty essential for certain companies in the B2C sector to get off the ground
Which "certain companies" are you talking about? I'm running a software company, restaurant and a SaaS, all B2C and neither have "buying fake reviews" as a part of their social media budget. Neither does any of my acquaintances who also run a different set of businesses.
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#19I can't blame these companies, they are people, they have to make a living. It's not like they are actively harming anyone. So who should we blame? Google are also just trying to make money, they are also not hurting anyone over here.
> It's not like they are actively harming anyone.
How am I not harmed if I buy a product that is no good?
Re: UK businesses caught buying five-star Google reviews
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
If many companies are doing it, and many are forced (or feel forced) to do it in order to compete, then it isn't fair to just single one or two of them for public shaming via a publicly funded broadcaster. There's also libel ... maybe the threshold of evidence is high enough to write an article about some unnamed company buying reviews, but not high enough to hold up in court.
> If many companies are doing it, and many are forced (or feel forced) to do it in order to compete, then it isn't fair to just single one or two of them for public shaming via a publicly funded broadcaster. Sorry but if you're doing shady shit, it's no defence that everyone else is doing it too.
In a corrupt society, you get nowhere being morally absolute. There’s different shades of shady, but you only have one life to live, and depending on the circumstances, your best option might be to play ball.
Push comes to shove, people are going to choose to feed their family. Apple doing fake reviews and a struggling low profit restaurant because all the other restaurants are inflating their reviews are different circumstances.