Shill reviewer apologises

Gurtie · February 16, 2012, 12:46:50 PM

Manchester based marketing manager publically apologises for fake reviews

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9085715/TripAdviser-user-apologises-for-false-reviews.html

I thought when I was sent the article it was a corporate strategy but looks like it was just a personal grudge. Be interesting to see what, if anything, it stirs up though.

keano · February 16, 2012, 01:10:07 PM

Ouch. Her employer is going to love seeing that...

ergophobe · February 16, 2012, 05:11:25 PM

Quote from: JasonD on February 16, 2012, 01:01:32 PMI would bet a penny to a pound that the notice was part of a settlement to not sue.

From the article:

Quotehas been forced to apologise after receiving a police caution,

ergophobe · February 16, 2012, 05:14:41 PM

Now to the juicy parts....

Quote from: Gurtie on February 16, 2012, 12:46:50 PM
I thought when I was sent the article

Are you referring to this?

Quote"One of her last reviews was on a local site, and the chap who ran that was really helpful. The IP (internet protocol) was linked by police to Warrington, which is where Ms Griffiths worked."

And this ruling which might come back to bite TA in the long run

QuoteThis month the Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints that TripAdvisor's claims to offer "trusted advice from real travellers" was misleading.

ergophobe · February 16, 2012, 05:15:33 PM

Now to the juicy parts....

Quote from: Gurtie on February 16, 2012, 12:46:50 PM
I thought when I was sent the article

Are you referring to this?

Quote"One of her last reviews was on a local site, and the chap who ran that was really helpful. The IP (internet protocol) was linked by police to Warrington, which is where Ms Griffiths worked."

Or do you just mean when you first saw the headline?

And this ruling which might come back to bite TA in the long run

QuoteThis month the Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints that TripAdvisor's claims to offer "trusted advice from real travellers" was misleading.

Gurtie · February 16, 2012, 07:35:26 PM

someone sent me the clipping I attached, and I assumed it was marketing for a client (or against a clients competitor) but the Telegraph article makes it sound like a personal vendetta rather than a business strategy.

ergophobe · February 16, 2012, 11:45:53 PM

I'd love to see Trip Advisor be forced to be more strict about reviews.

We are a pretty low-volume business and we don't have that many reviews (100% 5 stars and we aim to keep it that way). Someone could easily hurt us with just a few bad reviews.

Gurtie · February 17, 2012, 07:59:37 AM

my problem with even honest reviews is that its so easy to tell the truth as you see it yet be totally unfair, if you know what I mean. We went for a meal the other night and a) one of the waiters made some mistakes b) there were several qute loud kids in the restaurant c) there was a dog wandering around in reception. Which all sounds terrible. Except a) he was training b) its half term and they were staying at the hotel. And they were loud because kids talk loud not because they were badly behaved c) it was a country house hotel and a spaniel farting in reception is a bonus.

So if I was grumpy (don't say it!), or had saved up for a 'special' meal with an idea of what a posh meal should be like, I can imagine the stinking review I mught have left, without a word of a lie.

Although that sounds horrible like an argument for more social reviews, now I read it back. ich.

I do think *some* star systems remove the outliers before calculating though. Probably not TA.

4Eyes · February 17, 2012, 10:09:24 AM

@Gurtie

Totally agree

Some people are unreasonable oafs .... and on the other hand, some people are far too easily pleased.

Reviews need to be filtered, I have the following categories in mind when reading them:

* friend of the owners
* enemy of the owners
* complete tit, with unrealistic expectations
* complete tit who is easily pleased
* 'real' person

... but then I am clearly not typical, and probably don't fit in any of those categories myself.

TallTroll · February 17, 2012, 10:50:42 AM

>> my problem with even honest reviews is that its so easy to tell the truth as you see it yet be totally unfair, if you know what I mean

Thats the (supposed) point of aggregation - for everyone who has a poor experience for purely subjective reasons, someone else should have a good one. Over large datasets, it balances out, and via the magic of the wisdom of crowds, a true and fair picture emerges.

If it weren't for that tiny, tiny problem of human nature not working that way, even in genuinely huge datasets sometimes, it would be a great theory

ukgimp · February 17, 2012, 11:13:15 AM

I am sure google will come along and fix this with an algo.

:-)

Brad · February 17, 2012, 12:58:45 PM

>Reviews need to be filtered

Good list of review types 4Eyes. What I look for is a pattern in reviews. It helps to have a certain mass of reviews, or just a few detailed reviews written by People Who Know and who are not just on some hobby horse.

Gurtie · February 17, 2012, 03:07:36 PM

Quote from: TallTroll on February 17, 2012, 10:50:42 AM

If it weren't for that tiny, tiny problem of human nature not working that way, even in genuinely huge datasets sometimes, it would be a great theory

Yes, that is a small problem

Amazon reviews used to make me laugh. You would get one item, and perhaps ten colourways. Each used to have seperate reviews, although I think they aggregated it now. So you would have a red one at 5* and a blue one at 1*, even on quite high volume stuff.

ergophobe · February 17, 2012, 07:51:13 PM

Quote from: TallTroll on February 17, 2012, 10:50:42 AM
If it weren't for that tiny, tiny problem of human nature not working that way, even in genuinely huge datasets sometimes, it would be a great theory

And a large part of that is complainers like to complain. Happy people like to run about being happy.

But true story from a B&B up the street. They get a terrible review on Trip Advisor from an English woman. The complaint: it was so noisy she couldn't sleep at night. Outside her window, she could hear animals rustling in the woods. Coyotes that wouldn't stop howling. She could hardly sleep.

The owner is a salty older woman and her response was roughly: "This is a national park, not a petting zoo. Wild animals are not all soft and cuddly and cute and they do not adapt themselves to our schedule just because we want to sleep. Coyotes howl, owls hoot and raccoons forage all night long. There's nothing we can do about it."

A month later, they get a reservation inquiry from a Dutch guy that, after all the formalities, ends with a note: "We decided to book with you because of your response to the woman from England. We are hoping to be kept awake all night by coyotes." They came and had a wonderful stay.

Which tells you a few things
1. There's no accounting for taste. One person's poison....

2. Negative reviews if they actually have useful detail might not be that bad and might attract the customers you want. I don't want an antiseptic experience. I want coyotes howling outside my bedroom and spaniels farting in the reception area.

I think the problem is actually with the star rating - someone gives you a one-star rating and you need a lot of 5s before the rounding algo gets you back to five stars.

Rupert · February 18, 2012, 07:08:19 AM

QuoteSomeone could easily hurt us with just a few bad reviews.

Just had that today. Just before a weeks holiday. Chap bought 5 items, gave me zero for products and for me on feefo... and we have only just started feb 1st, so it was devastating. 10 bad reviews. Just had the response to my personal email to him. He apologised. It was a bad day. We had been out of stock on an item. That one I think can be removed now.

Same happened with Amazon last year. We were stopped from selling on Amazon because of two poor reviews. There was nothing wrong with either the products, or our srvice, it was just a bad day. It took months to get back on Amazon.

But, over time that is aggregated, and so the negative impact reduced.

Do we need to start pooling not only Google+, facebooks, but trip advisor reviews, Google places reviews and others? I can see an new part of the forum for "Exchanges"