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Not my headline, but from today's Sunday Times who have investigated some of the issues with 'paid-for' comparison/recommended trader websites.

It's of interest to me/us/our industry, not just due to the recent tie up's between BALI / Which ? and APL / Trust Mark and the drive to push clients towards these services.

Worth a read, it notes a lack of transparency from some such schemes when things go wrong, as well as questioning the impartiality when Traders pay over £1000 pa to be listed. It repeats a conern I have raised on here before, in that these are commencial businesses who must make money. Who do they serve best ?

Also provides guidance for clients to look past these individual schemes at many other methods of finding good trades/contractors - so gaining a balanced view.

Considering some schemes have been 'caught' out with fake reviews, it leaves one wondering....

Is there a conflict of interests ? Is open to abuse from all sides ? Read and make you own decision:

If you have ST Online access it's here...

or, here as a jpg:

So%20you%20think.jpg

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  • It is a tough one as without online reviews how can customers know quickly how good your work is. Pictures are one thing, but sometimes reading a review left by a customer can be far more swaying.

    With all these sites where a business pays to be listed and have customers leave reviews. There will always be a slight grey area where it is open to abuse. I highly doubt it would be something that is to hard to falsify on some of these websites.

    I used to use rated people and I have to say it was awful. All I encountered were competitors who would work for very little and do a average job. The fact you pay a monthly fee, plus you have to buy a lead for a job based on the customers value was annoying if you didn't get the job. As you could be spending out on loads of leads but lose out to someone willing to work for peanuts. 

    Personally there needs to be a platform out there for service based business to leave reviews. But I fear whatever that platform is, will be open to abuse. I just can't see how it can be 100% safe and genuine. When we use a contractor for work I will always ask for a couple of recent previous clients to check with about quality of work and so on! 

  • PRO

    This is what we covered on 19 June:

    "The Competition and Markets Authority is to investigate whether businesses are posting fake reviews on websites in a bid to unfairly boost trade, and whether it needs to clamp down on the illegal practice.

    The business regulator said an initial study on the issue had unearthed evidence that restaurants and other firms were posting fake reviews in sufficient numbers to warrant a formal investigation. It also found that online reviews greatly influenced more than half of adult when they were shopping online.

    The CMA has deliberately not named any companies, but the study is likely to focus on the types of reviews posted on TripAdvisor, TrustedTrader and Checkatrade – and the host of websites that increasingly rely on reviews posted by customers to build trust."

    http://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/competition-regulat...

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