I’ve been perusing websites for wedding vendors lately, Wedding Wire and The Knot. Every vendor I look up whether a baker, a florist, a caterer, a DJ…they all have glowing reviews. So I question whether these reviews can be trusted. Do these sites delete any negative reviews?
I usually trust Tripadvisor because one can always find very negative reviews about hotels and restaurants. Most hotels for example have both positive and negative reviews. However, Tripadvisor has come under criticism for deleting reviews of some Mexican resorts when the reviewers told of sexual assaults at those properties.
Even if the review site itself is not compromised by relationships with companies being reviewed, positive reviews could be planted by the company itself, or negative reviews could be planted by competitors or others with a vendetta against the company.
A recent experience I had was I’d contacted a law office and had a 10 minute free phone consultation. Afterward I received an email…if I posted a “glowing review” on Yelp and provided an email to the law group they would immediately mail me a $50 Visa gift card. I said no! Even though I was satisfied with the consult, this felt dirty and wrong. So yeah, I’m not convinced that Yelp reviews can be counted on (or Amazon with their “I received this item free in exchange for an ‘honest’ review”).
Had an Amazon seller ship a product. Attached to item, inside the box, was a tag with multi-step instructions stating “15% off your next purchase for five star review.”
Attempted to ask Amazon chat if that was acceptable under their TOS and think rep was deliberately talking out of both sides of their mouth. “Yes, it is against our terms of service; no, I don’t understand how they could do that.” Do you want a photo of the tag? Not so much…Quite discouraging.