Trade reviews - how do you tell if they are genuine?

[Moovart]

Curious to know if anyone else struggles to sort the genuine reviews from the self posted.  I have had a few tradesmen off the forum who have glowing reviews eg excellent work, great value etc who I have found mediocre and very expensive.  I prefer to only review if the work is good and, for poor or mediocre work, I tend to say nothing as I don't want to blight someone's livelihood from my one mediocre or worse experience.  But I now notice, across different tradesmen, how many reviews come from newly registered names on the forum with only one post saying how a particular tradesman was absolutely fantastic.  Sadly I've started to think these are probably made up.

It's such a shame because it makes the review section lose it's value.

 

[Peckhampam]

This has long been a problem and you are right to be suspicious of a member new to the forum who writes a glowing review of a tradesman.

[Administrator]

Hi Moovart,

Sorry to hear that.

So firstly, let me make it clear that I have a number of methods at my disposal to ensure reviews posted on EDF are legitimate. I'm not going to go into detail exactly the techniques as this will make it easier for people to game the system. However I would like to make it clear that:

• Every single review posted is checked, especially for newly registered users.
• Any reviews posted via IP hiding tools (VPNs) are removed.
• If you have multiple accounts on EDF, you will be detected.
• If even one review get detected as fake or originating from a person connected to the business, all mention of the offending business is completely removed from the forum and permanently blacklisted  (even if you have 100s of legit ones).

In the last 1.5 years since owning the forum, I have blacklisted 8 trades businesses. All reference to them have deleted and they will never allowed to be mentioned on the forum again. One of these businesses I mentioned (an Electrician) had around 100 reviews, probably many of those legitimate. But as soon as I found a evidence of a review posted by the owners account beyond all reasonable doubt, all reviews were removed. 

If a business is genuinely posting fake reviews, then they are taking a huge risk especially if they have years of feedback on EDF already. One slip up and they are gone.

 

1 hour ago, Moovart said:

But I now notice, across different tradesmen, how many reviews come from newly registered names on the forum with only one post saying how a particular tradesman was absolutely fantastic.  Sadly I've started to think these are probably made up.

So this is a valid observation to make.

What I'd say is that on EDF, we get thousands of people visiting the forum per day but only around 50% of these people have accounts and actively post on the forum. Many people even register accounts on the forum but prefer to stay as 'lurkers' (and there's nothing wrong with that!). Many people who visit the forum don't live in East Dulwich (e.g. landlords, people living in other areas of South London) but still visit with the sole intention of finding tradespeople.

The benefit EDF has over other review sites (like Checkatrade, MyBuilder etc) is that if you want to discount the '1 post' and 'newly registered account' feedback from your research, then you can. On those websites I mentioned, don't get to see profiles of people who leave feedback so you have no idea where these are coming from.

Just to add, I absolutely do not trust Checkatrade at all (I will provide evidence of convicted scammers who currently have active profiles when I get time in the future!)

 

1 hour ago, Moovart said:

I tend to say nothing as I don't want to blight someone's livelihood from my one mediocre or worse experience.

This is a good example of why we see more positive than negative reviews in the trades industry. One scathing review for a tradesperson can be very bad when its someone's only source of income. While leaving a bad review for a restaurant, bar, product etc is not so bad and can be done relatively anonymously.

To be clear, you are welcome to post 'average' or 'negative' reviews of anyone on EDF and it won't be deleted, as long as its honest, factual and (if possible), with evidence. If you do not want to post it publicly, you are welcome to send me a private message and I will note it - if more such feedback is given then I'll look into it further.

[Moovart]

Thanks for that comprehensive reply. It is reassuring and appreciated that you, as administrator, are keeping such a close eye on reviews.  I will continue to try to disregard reviews from new accounts with one posting just to be on the safe side.

[Sue]

I have found that some tradespeople ask you to post a review on here after they have completed a job.

This puts you in a difficult position if you thought they were ok but not outstanding, but I imagine is the reason why some people have so many reviews, because their customers feel obliged to post something.

Also, if someone does a really crap job, it would probably have to be extraordinarily bad before anyone would post about it on here, for the reasons Moovart gives.

So the reviews are very useful (thanks admin) but there are downsides.

But then even if you have a personal recommendation from someone, that doesn't necessarily mean that that tradesperson will do an equally good job for you.

It's all a minefield 😂

Edited March 2 by Sue

[Penguin68]

It is always possible to PM a poster (ideally one who is a regular poster, or one who has posted over some time) who is recommending (or not) a tradesman to ask for more details. That may give you a better view about that review and how much you should 'follow' it. The information available from the site (particularly number and range of posts and how long a poster has been registered) is very useful in judging a recommendation's utility

[Pugwash]

I have chosen tradespeople from the reviews- some when contacted by PM ignore my request.

I did research for a particular tradesperson, noting that he had reviews going back several years (all good and from many people). I was very pleased with his work and costs, and when asked how I got his details, explained that I  had checked all his reviews over a number of years before contacting him. I was congratulated for my effort as he explained that he was often called to rectify work done by tradespeople who had been contacted via EDF and people had not checked back reviews (whether they were new posters/regular posters).

Needless to say - the tradesperson number is now in my phone and has done other work for me. He is a well known person to many EDF folk.

[Ruffler]

We once chose a decorator based on a long history of good reviews on here. It didn’t occur to us that he would ‘outsource’ the work to someone else who did a pretty poor job.

Lesson learned. Always check that the person with the good reviews will be actually doing the work.

[CPR Dave]

Had similar with a tradesman on here. Lots of good reviews. First job he did was OK and reasonably priced.

Next job he sent someone else along who was very mediocre, stole some stuff from me and the job ended up costing nearly twice the original estimate.

Edited March 2 by CPR Dave