Over the last 4 or 5 years we have worked with various media outlets to look at a whole variety of worrying issues related to several review platforms but in most cases (90%) relating to one platform which is Trustpilot.
Investigative journalists such as ourselves are usually engaged by organizations such as TV channels and media outlets with the objective of gathering evidence and unmasking potential abuses which negatively impact businesses, this is clearly the case when they are subjected to what are clearly fake negative online reviews, the objective of media outlets and TV programs is to seek to prevent such abuses and negative outcomes.
The issue with Trustpilot is clear if you look at the reviews of Trustpilot itself on other review sites, we have added the links below they make interesting reading.
https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/trustpilot
https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/trustpilot.com
https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/news/2022/03/23/fake-reviews-undermine-confidence-in-trustpilot/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3SkLXs4RK24Lzx0sPYXVRpg/trustpilot
Also see details of a Class action against Trustpilot by a U.S law firm at the link below. https://www.frankllp.com/trustpilot-deceptive-practices-action.html the legal documents are here https://www.frankllp.com/files/trustpilot_compl_ecf_1.18.21_8.45p.pdf
Of course here at the link below the reviews for Trustpilot are great but they would be wouldn't they on their own platform! https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/trustpilot.com
The fundamental issue with Trustpilot is they fail to address obviously questionable reviews some examples are below but you can make up your own mind if you look at the positive versus negative reviews. It does not need an expert to see something does not ring right! This is just one example but we have many more on file.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.worldsim.com
Trustpilot claim to aggressively deal with negative and positive reviews which are clearly fake the only problem with this is we are contacted by many people and I'm sure you've probably come across some yourself who receive an email which normally reads as below. This heppens when they post a genuine positive review.
"Hi Angela
Thanks for writing a review about xxxxxx.com on Trustpilot. As part of our efforts to ensure that our community can trust the reviews they read on Trustpilot, we’re constantly on the lookout for unusual activity. We do this by using customized software, dedicated Content Integrity Agents, or a combination of both. In this case, your review of marcaria.com has been flagged because we couldn’t verify its authenticity, and on that basis we’ve removed your review from our platform. While we’re confident that this is the right call, we appreciate that sometimes we get it wrong. If you think there’s been a mistake here, please do let us know by replying to this email and a member of our Content Integrity Team will review this decision with you.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Trustpilot Content Integrity Team"
The fundamental problem here is that even we have experienced a situation where we receive one of these emails when we have posted positive reviews for companies which we have worked actively with, even when we have sent proof of the relationship such as invoices the issue is still not addressed, this tells you that there is something fundamentally wrong with the entire system and that Trustpilot cannot be relied upon to be accurate. It is the part which we have highlighted in bold above which makes the thing extremely annoying because they are so convinced they are right when clearly in very many cases they are 100% wrong! We have multiple reports going back over an extended period indicating that the accuracy of these takedowns is extremely questionable in a large percentage of cases.
When we come to negative reviews one company sent us a review which had been posted below which was clearly fake because they were being targeted deliberately by a particular customer posting under all different names.
"These are not genuine products. XXXXXX are liars. Just do a quick internet search and you will see."
The above was highly defamatory especially as the company in question was the actual manufacturer of the products and not a reseller, this is obviously extremely damaging and even though the company pointed out the defamation Trustpilot refused to remove the review. In some countries legislation is being prepared to prevent this abuse, an example is shown here which relates to the United Kingdom https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61154748 we are working with a large number of media outlets to ensure that online review platforms cannot abuse their position in the future and we are liaising with both clients and our legal partners to enable them to seek financial recompense.
There are a number of law firms who can assist with Trustpilot issues and in the UK we recommend https://www.internetlawcentre.co.uk/social-media-and-defamation and in the U.S https://www.minclaw.com/can-business-sue-for-bad-review/ and https://www.katzlawgroup.com/removing-defamatory-online-reviews
We have four agents in Europe and the U.S who specialize in the types of inquiry relating to organizations such as Trustpilot, if you work with a media outlet or television company please get in touch we are more than happy to work with you especially because we have a number of ongoing inquiries where there is considerable synergy between them. These type of inquiries tend to be very paperwork intensive and require significant examination of documents and other relevant information but ultimately building a case for legal action or media publication follows are very similar pattern.
We feel confident that after you have looked through the above you will come to the same conclusion we have, essentially it comes down to one thing "You can't trust Trustpilot"!