I can't see myself deleting a review unless they were offering me thousands of dollars... which would never happen.

I would never be "bought" but my mind could be changed if the service changed, or things got better.  Say they read my review and felt so bad about how horrible they were that they made improvements and then sent me a gift card asking me to re-visit them and re-review them.  I would revisit and would re-review BUT there is a 99% chance I would keep the negative feedback too.  I'd want people to know how they were and how they changed.  I'd do more of an update, not a deletion.

njchicaa said…

I can't see myself deleting a review unless they were offering me thousands of dollars... which would never happen.

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I'm like you. There is a price for my integrity, but it's almost certainly more than someone will pay for my little review to be deleted.

When I worked at a magazine as the editor of the review section, an author wrote a negative review of a product. (This was a product that he was loaned for the purposes of the review.) Knowing the company would be unhappy, I sent the review to the company for "fact checking." Sure enough, the concern was immediately taken a couple levels over my head and we didn't run the review. We did, however, pay the reviewer the $400 article fee. The company covered that... and signed an advertising contract.

Out there in the real world, paid advertising trumps the opinions of writers. It doesn't matter if it's the New York Times or Sewer World Monthly -- money talks and everything else walks. It is highly unusual when an author's opinion takes precedence over advertising.

--Bob

I think that is part of what makes review sites like Viewpoints so useful.  The management here isn't going to go around deleting negative reviews of something just for money (I would hope not).  So you are more likely to find real opinions here than in a magazine.  The flip side is that people at review sites *may* be easily bought.  A 45$ gift card may be enough for a lot of people to turn a negative review into a postiive review... as we've seen reviews in the past where the person was rewarded for their positive opinion.

vivasuzi said…

I would never be "bought" but my mind could be changed if the service changed, or things got better.  Say they read my review and felt so bad about how horrible they were that they made improvements and then sent me a gift card asking me to re-visit them and re-review them.  I would revisit and would re-review BUT there is a 99% chance I would keep the negative feedback too.  I'd want people to know how they were and how they changed.  I'd do more of an update, not a deletion.

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Stamp my name a the end of this statement!  I once reviewed something that wasn't very good at all so I gave it a negative review.  Some time later the company sent me a new batch of their product that had been improved based on my comments and those of others who were also unhappy with the product. I updated the review with the details of my experience but left the old details. 

AMEN to that...stand your ground you shared your true views an feelings.  It doesn involve integrity! -Joanne

I have to say that although I would NEVER change a negative review into a positive one (I do stand by my reviews.) I probably could be bought. For some amount of money - it would have to be in the double digits of thousands I would delete reviews. Again - I would never change a rating but deleting - especially older reviews of products that aren't even made - might be alluring for $50,000:)

And if you think about it, leaving the old details in really could be GOOD for them because it could show how the company was, and how they listened to feed back in order to improve.  So many companies just want to DELETE negative feedback.  Very few use it as a way to improve and those should be pointed out :)

When you find the company willing to pay 50 grand to delete reviews, let me know b/c mine will all be wiped out :-D

Yeah, for 50,000 bucks, I'll change my name to "LiarLiar."

--Bob (who's only kidding a little)

I'm glad to hear you stood your ground Jo.  I can see revising a review based on changes and/or improvements in the product, or making sure the review was even-handed. But if you had a bad experience it's good to let everyone know. Even the best manufacturers sometimes turn out a few lemons.

I'd like to think I couldn't be bought, for any price.  But, I've never been put in that situation.  It's shameful that "money talks, everything walks", but, unfortunately, it's the truth.   America is about money, first and foremost.   All too few are the people who will put principle ahead of money.  Oh, if the money amount is small they will, but as the pile grows and their eyes widen, the principle fades into the rear-view mirror.  I find that sad.

now

bkovacs said…

njchicaa said…

I can't see myself deleting a review unless they were offering me thousands of dollars... which would never happen.

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I'm like you. There is a price for my integrity, but it's almost certainly more than someone will pay for my little review to be deleted.

When I worked at a magazine as the editor of the review section, an author wrote a negative review of a product. (This was a product that he was loaned for the purposes of the review.) Knowing the company would be unhappy, I sent the review to the company for "fact checking." Sure enough, the concern was immediately taken a couple levels over my head and we didn't run the review. We did, however, pay the reviewer the $400 article fee. The company covered that... and signed an advertising contract.

Out there in the real world, paid advertising trumps the opinions of writers. It doesn't matter if it's the New York Times or Sewer World Monthly -- money talks and everything else walks. It is highly unusual when an author's opinion takes precedence over advertising.

--Bob

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Okay, this is what I like about ViewPoints.

If someone writes a negative review of a company here, nobody at the Home Office checks with the company to make sure it's okay to publish the review.

And nobody dickers around accepting a payoff for compromising the integrity of a writer who had specifically been assigned to telling the truth as he saw it.

I've got to ask -- if the author had wrote a sterling, wonderful review of the company, would someone have checked to make sure he had he facts right?

2. I got to thinking about how much I (you) would take to delete negative ratings if anything?

Oh...enough money to live on the rest of my life.  Don't feel alone.  I've had correspondence from two companies asking me to change a review.  I refused.

That's my buddy, good for you!

Jo said…

for you to do the following and by the way this happened today and I am still shocked!!! I got an e-mail from a fitness company (ICON) asking telling me they read some negative comments on the site I've been writing on for 9 1/2 years.

We corresponded a few times. It seems they would give me $45.00 toward products (and I'm sure I could have increased  that) to remove the comments. ICON as a company is one I have had to defend over the years - the reason isn't important but certainly I don't love all their products. I know others have left some comments about the customer service but I didn't think I had.

In any case I asked for links to the comments and they gave me a few and said I'd have to dig myself. Well I went to one and saw that there were no comments. I then realized that they were talking about the review itself! I wrote back to them and asked if they wanted me to delete the reviews? The wrote back that yes if I wanted the free products I would have to do that. I wrote back that I stand by my reviews and that no I wouldn't remove them.

1. I feel like someone should know they tried to buy me off.

2. I got to thinking about how much I (you) would take to delete negative ratings if anything?

It goes way beyond the $. It involves integrity, etc. etc. I am blown away by this.

 

I hope that I'm never faced with that choice, even though I'm sure I'd choose to go with integrity over temptation.

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I've never been in that situation; most of my reviews are in categories that often get a mix of opinions and thus the sellers or makers of the products being reviewed either expect rants and raves or are thick-skinned enough not to worry about one individual's written points of view.

All right here, I have to tell you I worked at ICON Health and Fitness in the R & D department for almost two years. That company is crap and they treat their workers as such. You probably had bad customer service because the wages they pay those workers asre so low and the conditons are bad they they have massive turnover, so they get bottom of the barrel.

Also, only the treadmills and some elliptical machines are made in the USA. The other stuff is made in two factories in China and you would have a nasty physical reaction if you saw their working conditions.

ICON thinks they can pay everyone off. They think they are the gods of the fitness industry. I'm not a disgruntled employee, I'm one of many. I could get about 14 other people to send you emails about how they are. They would probably have 10 more each. It's equal opportunity, though. Everyone under David and Scott Watterson (CEO and CFO) gets treated like they are idiots and easily replaced.

They don't value your criticism, they won't do anything to rectify the situation, they just want to shut you up. Don't take the money.

I have received requests to remove negative comments also, but my situations have been a little different from yours. The services in question were web sites and they had changed since I wrote my review. The company was confident that if I gave the site another look, my negative feelings would change, and they were proven correct. 

I have had individual authors offer me their books and other perks in exchange for a positive review. The funny thing about some of these authors, they don't come right out and say this is what they expect. But they strongly imply it with comments like "per our agreement, we will send your gift card pending our acceptance of your review". Translation- if it isn't positive, then you can forget receiving your gift card. 

What happened to you, Jo, is quite different and I would certainly not sacrifice my integrity for a lousy $45. Offer me a few thousand dollars, well, that's an entirely different story :)

Come to think of it, there is one time I changed a review.  When I first reviewed "Traditions" catalog, I was given to understand by the publication itself that there was no website to order from -- that what website they had at that time only gave information on how to obtain order forms, etc.  You either had to order by phone or by the catalog order form.  No one from "Traditions" challenged me on that and that was the way the review stood for months. 

Then suddenly, someone from "Traditions" weighed in with a comment on the review that they now had a website which a person could order from over the Internet.  There was no attempt to compromise my integrity, they were nice about telling me and I was glad to insert the new information into the review with a clear conscience. 

Sometimes it's not what someone says, it's the way they say it.

Jo you've brought up a great question. It show the power of our reviews impacting not only consumers but sponsors as well.  So far I've only been contacted by a few who said basically, "thank you, we're glad you like our product" and one website that I gave overall a good review on but had pointed out some weaknesses simply reached out to say basically, "we're working that and we hope you'll keep checking us out."

If this company was REALLY smart, they would have said something to the effect of "we're sorry you didn't have a great experience and we'd like to offer you for free a new/improved product." Period.

Great point anna.  It's funny how many companies don't realize that they don't have to bribe you to improve their reviews, they just have to improve their product!  I've had that happen to me before where a store or website left a comment like "btw, we added this feature you were asking about", and then I went and checked and updated my review.  They didn't offer me anything, they were just letting me know they fixed something!

They don't have enough money to buy my opinion. They could offer me the sum of both bailouts and I'd have to turn it down.

Just kidding! d;-)

Or not......

And these weren't bad experiences necessarily. Maybe a 3 star recommended product or two or twenty!

awlafon said…

Jo you've brought up a great question. It show the power of our reviews impacting not only consumers but sponsors as well.  So far I've only been contacted by a few who said basically, "thank you, we're glad you like our product" and one website that I gave overall a good review on but had pointed out some weaknesses simply reached out to say basically, "we're working that and we hope you'll keep checking us out."

If this company was REALLY smart, they would have said something to the effect of "we're sorry you didn't have a great experience and we'd like to offer you for free a new/improved product." Period.

 

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That is so true. Your comment gave me the chills because I actually have defended ICON to consumers i.e. as someone else said it is a HUGE company and I hear the bad stuff; rarely the good stuff.

My husband pointed me to this but I also think (Though I didn't go digging) that something happened to a company because it was discovered that employees were writing positive reviews. We know about that. This has to do with "bloggers" getting free samples. I always write and it's true of course that I received xxx in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

http://www.ijustsurf.com/2009/04/bloggers-to-be-sued-for-false-claims/

New York was the first to prosecute Lifestyle Lift, a plastic surgery firm for flooding the internet with hundreds of false positve reviews and harassing people who posted negative comments on their blogs/sites. It's called "astroturfing." I am glad they are setting a legal precedent for this type of thing. If shilling is illegal, astroturfing must be treated in the same fashion.

I think by that example, changing a review from negative to positive based solely on an incentive by that company and not an improvement in their product or services is deceptive and fraudulent. You wouldn't want to be tricked into making a monetary investment so doing it to others is pretty bad karma IMO.

PS If you want to read about the landmark astroturfing case, go here:

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2009/july/july14b_09.html    

These people went overboard with the things they did and I wonder about what other companies are doing.

I think we can all agree that at least it is gratifying to know that someone at these places is reading our reviews.  Sometimes I feel like a "voice crying in the wilderness" with nobody out there but us paying any attention!

It was recently Travelocity though they deny knowing about the influx of positive reviews.

pitcherday said…

New York was the first to prosecute Lifestyle Lift, a plastic surgery firm for flooding the internet with hundreds of false positve reviews and harassing people who posted negative comments on their blogs/sites. It's called "astroturfing." I am glad they are setting a legal precedent for this type of thing. If shilling is illegal, astroturfing must be treated in the same fashion.

I think by that example, changing a review from negative to positive based solely on an incentive by that company and not an improvement in their product or services is deceptive and fraudulent. You wouldn't want to be tricked into making a monetary investment so doing it to others is pretty bad karma IMO.

PS If you want to read about the landmark astroturfing case, go here:

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2009/july/july14b_09.html    

These people went overboard with the things they did and I wonder about what other companies are doing.

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We've already seen companies and groups come in here and try to do that at ViewPoints.  Little good it did them!