How useful are rating and review sites?

[Guest]

I've come across a few rating and review sites after browsing around for various tradespeople (mods, please don't shunt me off to the property section, as this is more of a general question which could include hotel/travel sites and so on). Apparently satisfied customers leave glowing reviews for jobs well done etc.

 

Has anyone used such sites? Are they reliable? Am I incorrect in my cynical assessment that some tradespeople simply make use of IP proxies and/or friends and family to leave appropriately happy reviews?

[tinfoilhat]

Couldn't tell you about trade people review sites - I think that's a difficult one to do. You might think you've had a good job and review only to find little wrinkles or huge faults later. Reviews for hotels can be useful, you might pick up some decent info - once you've filtered out the dross.

[mickey finn]

I read somewhere that systems are in place that allow you to pay for positive reviews, I would imaging this was an easy thing to set up.

[willman]

I've used checkatrade and had a positive experience, which you can comment on.

However you can't leave a negative comment if they don't turn up to do the jobs, which to me is a nonsense.

 

I always leave a review for food/hotels/attractions on tripadvisor.

[Guest]

Entries on the travel ratings sites I've seen do seem to have a fair (as far as you can tell) collection of positive and negative ratings for some establishments and companies.

 

Entries on the trade sites I've browsed seem to be almost exclusively 100% positive. Admittedly, I've only just started having a look, but still... suspicious.

 

The Federation of Master Builders site might be the way forward, in this instance.

 

---------- Post added 29-07-2016 at 14:51 ----------

 

I've used checkatrade and had a positive experience, which you can comment on.

However you can't leave a negative comment if they don't turn up to do the jobs, which to me is a nonsense.

 

I always leave a review for food/hotels/attractions on tripadvisor.

Now that might be an explanation for the 100% ratings, and for the gaps and clusters in some companies' profiles.

 

Finding a decent workman amidst the stetsons and spurs is probably down to a good chunk of luck, in the absence of a relevant personal recommendation from a trustworthy source.

[tzijlstra]

It requires statistical validity to be useful, that requires large numbers. A site like IMDB is very useful to get an idea of how people like movies, a lot of localised services are not that useful. Like you say, they can be manipulated quite easily. You also get the phenomenon of spiting, ie. people leaving horrible reviews just because they had a bad experience (OMG! This restaurant didnt even have a babychair! Just because there were ten other mums with babies! Never going again! 1/10!), even if it was subjective and not relevant to most. People are also, in general quicker to leave a negative review than a positive one.

[tinfoilhat]

It requires statistical validity to be useful, that requires large numbers. A site like IMDB is very useful to get an idea of how people like movies, a lot of localised services are not that useful. Like you say, they can be manipulated quite easily. You also get the phenomenon of spiting, ie. people leaving horrible reviews just because they had a bad experience (OMG! This restaurant didnt even have a babychair! Just because there were ten other mums with babies! Never going again! 1/10!), even if it was subjective and not relevant to most. People are also, in general quicker to leave a negative review than a positive one.

 

The last bit is spot on. Try finding a delivery company with a good review - its easier to try finding a unicorn. I read one who gave a company (TNT? Cant remember now) 1 star out of 5 because the company he bought from failed to send the order and TNT didn't tell him.