<story><title>Man to pay £25,000 ($34,000) damages over negative TrustPilot review</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55981600</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dmitrybrant</author><text>Perhaps a bit off-topic, but TrustPilot is a form of near-perfect evil.  If someone leaves a negative review of your business on TrustPilot, you can have it taken down... for a measly $400 per month.  If you refuse to purchase their premium package, they can &lt;i&gt;prioritize&lt;/i&gt; the negative review to be shown above the positive ones until you do.  If your competitor hires a review-bombing spammer to add negative reviews en masse, well, you&amp;#x27;ll just have to upgrade to the next-tier plan.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a shocking lack of integrity, but not surprising, given the business model.
 Anyway, it&amp;#x27;s disappointing that TrustPilot gets any publicity for being anything credible.&lt;p&gt;Edit: A nice little touch is at the bottom of their website that says &amp;quot;See what our customers are saying about TrustPilot&amp;quot;, with a hand-picked selection of reviews... from TrustPilot! About TrustPilot! Chef&amp;#x27;s kiss.&lt;p&gt;Edit 2: This is not to say that Trustpilot&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;intentions&lt;/i&gt; aren&amp;#x27;t necessarily good, and they may even be striving to provide neutrality. But the problem is that their business model is, by its very nature, antithetical to neutrality. And of course Trustpilot is not the only review site that has this issue, but it&amp;#x27;s definitely a site where this issue is glaringly apparent.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ratherbefuddled</author><text>A few years back I left a negative review for one retailer of oak furniture on TrustPilot.  It was deleted for profanity within 60 seconds.  There was no profanity in it.  I repeated this four or five times before eventually it stuck.  I noticed it was quickly buried by the deluge of five star reviews.  Then I noticed they claimed to have over 100,000 Trustpilot reviews.  The numbers were impossible.  It&amp;#x27;s heavily astro turfed and it would surprise me little to see that there&amp;#x27;s a significant review score downside to not paying them for a subscription.  For me, TrustPilot has the reverse effect - if your business uses it I trust you less.</text></comment>
<story><title>Man to pay £25,000 ($34,000) damages over negative TrustPilot review</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55981600</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dmitrybrant</author><text>Perhaps a bit off-topic, but TrustPilot is a form of near-perfect evil.  If someone leaves a negative review of your business on TrustPilot, you can have it taken down... for a measly $400 per month.  If you refuse to purchase their premium package, they can &lt;i&gt;prioritize&lt;/i&gt; the negative review to be shown above the positive ones until you do.  If your competitor hires a review-bombing spammer to add negative reviews en masse, well, you&amp;#x27;ll just have to upgrade to the next-tier plan.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a shocking lack of integrity, but not surprising, given the business model.
 Anyway, it&amp;#x27;s disappointing that TrustPilot gets any publicity for being anything credible.&lt;p&gt;Edit: A nice little touch is at the bottom of their website that says &amp;quot;See what our customers are saying about TrustPilot&amp;quot;, with a hand-picked selection of reviews... from TrustPilot! About TrustPilot! Chef&amp;#x27;s kiss.&lt;p&gt;Edit 2: This is not to say that Trustpilot&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;intentions&lt;/i&gt; aren&amp;#x27;t necessarily good, and they may even be striving to provide neutrality. But the problem is that their business model is, by its very nature, antithetical to neutrality. And of course Trustpilot is not the only review site that has this issue, but it&amp;#x27;s definitely a site where this issue is glaringly apparent.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bjarneh</author><text>&amp;gt; Perhaps a bit off-topic, but TrustPilot is a form of near-perfect evil.&lt;p&gt;That is certainly not off-topic in this context. The horrid behavior (or business model) of TrustPilot is relevant (and immoral), and should be known.&lt;p&gt;Every time I see one of those &amp;quot;4.2 &amp;#x2F; 5 stars on TrustPilot&amp;quot; banners, I&amp;#x27;ll start thinking about the extortion money to keep hiding those negative reviews; what a scam..</text></comment>