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The article also describes numerous unethical-at-best practices that some companies have used to skew reviews positively. Some of those practices were ways to b

The article also describes numerous unethical-at-best practices that some companies have used to skew reviews positively. Some of those practices were ways to beat the system so that potentially legitimate reviews might get removed on one of the reasonable-looking grounds.

lazide 3y ago
Yelp does that too. The only bad reviews I got to stick had clear, unambiguous written evidence and were written like a police report with clear, neutral language and specifics backed by documentation. The number of folks who can meet that bar are very, very low. One I did get to stick was the car dealership that tried to scam me into ~$1k in unneeded fluid changes, where I posted the exact times, amounts, and a photo of the written quote (with quote #) they gave me after I demanded it in writing - in the middle of their public showroom where they couldn’t try to avoid it. It’s a jungle out there, and yes the review sites are a problem too. the police are also not very helpful either in many cases. I had someone at Bestbuy steal a VERY expensive TV from me (I ordered it for pickup, but when I got there a few hours later it had ‘already been picked up’ - and definitely not by me), and got clear self serving bullshit from the store manager, including ‘we’ll call the police, you don’t need to do it’ - which they didn’t - and went home. When I called the police later, they required me to drive there (the store was an hour away), and wait for awhile before they’d even dispatch anyone to even take a report, let alone do anything. So figure several hours, just to get a report in. This was solid felony territory too.
- grugagag 3y ago
  How did your story end? You got your money back immediately or it took a while?
  - lazide 3y ago
    I had other things going on in my life that meant I couldn’t do what I needed to do in a reasonable amount of time - and unfortunately just got screwed. I couldn’t charge back on the card without a police report during a specific time window (30 days). Filing it after that might have resulted in some action, but I wouldn’t likely get my money back. I suspect it was the store manager, and I wasn’t the first one. But I had no real evidence, just a pattern of shifty behavior and lies. They’d conveniently avoided having cameras in the areas to document what actually happened, and my pickup code had been used to pick it up, so definitely an inside job. I had video evidence I was at home when the supposed pickup happened, but that was it. So the thief won.
    - grugagag 3y ago
      Sorry to hear that. Yeah, they probably thought about how some people would never follow through with the police report and their scheme will keep on going for some time. But they’ll get caught eventually
      - lazide 3y ago
        Yup, at least if they got greedy. My guess is they’d just do it infrequently and if anyone started asking questions stop. Hard to not get greedy though at some point. In hindsight/next time, I’d just call the police right then and there the moment I heard them say someone else picked it up. Listening to them after that or letting them give me the run around just wore me out and let me be convinced that I wasn’t somehow having a felony committed against me right there. Also, not letting the personal issue escalate to where it was that bad would have let me do that much, much easier. But that is much easier said than done. Lessons learned!

lazide 3y ago

Yelp does that too. The only bad reviews I got to stick had clear, unambiguous written evidence and were written like a police report with clear, neutral language and specifics backed by documentation. The number of folks who can meet that bar are very, very low. One I did get to stick was the car dealership that tried to scam me into ~$1k in unneeded fluid changes, where I posted the exact times, amounts, and a photo of the written quote (with quote #) they gave me after I demanded it in writing - in the middle of their public showroom where they couldn’t try to avoid it. It’s a jungle out there, and yes the review sites are a problem too. the police are also not very helpful either in many cases. I had someone at Bestbuy steal a VERY expensive TV from me (I ordered it for pickup, but when I got there a few hours later it had ‘already been picked up’ - and definitely not by me), and got clear self serving bullshit from the store manager, including ‘we’ll call the police, you don’t need to do it’ - which they didn’t - and went home. When I called the police later, they required me to drive there (the store was an hour away), and wait for awhile before they’d even dispatch anyone to even take a report, let alone do anything. So figure several hours, just to get a report in. This was solid felony territory too.

grugagag 3y ago
How did your story end? You got your money back immediately or it took a while?
- lazide 3y ago
  I had other things going on in my life that meant I couldn’t do what I needed to do in a reasonable amount of time - and unfortunately just got screwed. I couldn’t charge back on the card without a police report during a specific time window (30 days). Filing it after that might have resulted in some action, but I wouldn’t likely get my money back. I suspect it was the store manager, and I wasn’t the first one. But I had no real evidence, just a pattern of shifty behavior and lies. They’d conveniently avoided having cameras in the areas to document what actually happened, and my pickup code had been used to pick it up, so definitely an inside job. I had video evidence I was at home when the supposed pickup happened, but that was it. So the thief won.
  - grugagag 3y ago
    Sorry to hear that. Yeah, they probably thought about how some people would never follow through with the police report and their scheme will keep on going for some time. But they’ll get caught eventually
    - lazide 3y ago
      Yup, at least if they got greedy. My guess is they’d just do it infrequently and if anyone started asking questions stop. Hard to not get greedy though at some point. In hindsight/next time, I’d just call the police right then and there the moment I heard them say someone else picked it up. Listening to them after that or letting them give me the run around just wore me out and let me be convinced that I wasn’t somehow having a felony committed against me right there. Also, not letting the personal issue escalate to where it was that bad would have let me do that much, much easier. But that is much easier said than done. Lessons learned!