At the time of writing, this forum is hosted with MDDHosting (my review). Now, I hope you'll forgive me for a digression, I think it will help put things into perspective:
With that in mind, here is the feedback I got from MDDHosting upon my first review of their service:
Here, you can see the MDDHosting review Facebook discussion.
Now, it's fair to note that my review was very positive. But it is also fair to note that over the years I've been "dealing with hosting providers" and active on several hosting-related forums, I've never seen MDDHosting ask for anything else than honest feedback reviews (even if they are not positive).
Here, you can see the original MDDHosting's (non-customer) Trustpilot review.
You can read the full story about this review (and how Trustpilot let that stand) on the MDDHosting owner's blog:
https://www.mikedvb.com/2023/11/10/a-word-of-warning-about-trustpilot-automatic-invitations/
I have no horse in this race (apart from being a happy MDDHosting customer), but I hate injustice. To me, this looks like an unjust 1-star rating. I would not be thrilled to see any similarly unjust reviews on BikeGremlin Trustpilot profile. Read the above-linked story and decide for yourself whether that is a trustworthy way for the Trustpilot to handle company reviews and reputation.
What got me to write this post was a second red flag I saw from Trustpilot. The same company, a different reviewer. This time it was not a "verified customer" (see the above-linked article to understand how this "verified" status can be faked and abused - and Turspilot not doing anything about it). The review's goal was apparently to try to place some obscene words on the company's Trustpilot reviews and their website's review page (the "review" was a 5-star one). Again, Trustpilot decided to do nothing about it (though, in this case, the "reviewer" decided to delete their "review" after MDDHosting replied to it).
You can see the whole story on the Michael Denney's blog:
https://www.mikedvb.com/2023/11/16/trustpilot-content-integrity-team-doesnt-know-what-a-reach-around-is/
This is just one of the many cases where big companies simply don't care about "the little guy" and doing the right thing. At least in my opinion and based on my moral compass.
For more details on this, see this LinkedIn post:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thibeau-maerevoet-13b354166_where-are-trustpilot-reviews-activity-7130669616627904515-z8LE/
And this forum:
https://community.elfsight.com/t/where-are-trustpilot-reviews/871/3
Update, December 2023
Two more articles about Trustpilot's policies:
I guess I can't really "leave."
P.S.
If I had known, when I started writing this, that it would be this long, I would probably have made it a website article. Sorry for the long "rant." I just wanted to note and document this. After all, the company is called "Trustpilot" and they market themselves as the place for genuine, trustworthy user feedback. I sure hope Trustpilot fixes how they handle abuse and make this post obsolete - but I doubt that will be the case.
Relja FiveStar Novović
Digression
Since my BikeGremlin websites gained some "Google ranking and popularity," I started getting offers from various hosting providers to take money, or "at least" some free service in order to write a review for their service on my website (my web hosting reviews, and my service review policy). Despite that, practically all the hosting reviews on my site are not sponsored - they are just my notes as a service user - for my own reference and service comparison. Such was my MDDHosting review - not sponsored, not requested or paid for.With that in mind, here is the feedback I got from MDDHosting upon my first review of their service:
Here, you can see the MDDHosting review Facebook discussion.
Now, it's fair to note that my review was very positive. But it is also fair to note that over the years I've been "dealing with hosting providers" and active on several hosting-related forums, I've never seen MDDHosting ask for anything else than honest feedback reviews (even if they are not positive).
Trustpilot's trustworthiness issues
I think the digression above was important in order to understand the context of this post and the problem. Now, to get to the point, here is a Trustpilot review by a person who is not (and, apparently, has never been) an MDDHosting customer:Here, you can see the original MDDHosting's (non-customer) Trustpilot review.
You can read the full story about this review (and how Trustpilot let that stand) on the MDDHosting owner's blog:
https://www.mikedvb.com/2023/11/10/a-word-of-warning-about-trustpilot-automatic-invitations/
I have no horse in this race (apart from being a happy MDDHosting customer), but I hate injustice. To me, this looks like an unjust 1-star rating. I would not be thrilled to see any similarly unjust reviews on BikeGremlin Trustpilot profile. Read the above-linked story and decide for yourself whether that is a trustworthy way for the Trustpilot to handle company reviews and reputation.
What got me to write this post was a second red flag I saw from Trustpilot. The same company, a different reviewer. This time it was not a "verified customer" (see the above-linked article to understand how this "verified" status can be faked and abused - and Turspilot not doing anything about it). The review's goal was apparently to try to place some obscene words on the company's Trustpilot reviews and their website's review page (the "review" was a 5-star one). Again, Trustpilot decided to do nothing about it (though, in this case, the "reviewer" decided to delete their "review" after MDDHosting replied to it).
You can see the whole story on the Michael Denney's blog:
https://www.mikedvb.com/2023/11/16/trustpilot-content-integrity-team-doesnt-know-what-a-reach-around-is/
This is just one of the many cases where big companies simply don't care about "the little guy" and doing the right thing. At least in my opinion and based on my moral compass.
Charging an arm and a leg to let you display your Trustpilot reviews on your company's website
A cherry on the top of the cake is the fact that Trustpilot will file a cease & desist complaint if you display your company's Trustpilot reviews on your company's website. We're talking hundreds of dollars per month fees.For more details on this, see this LinkedIn post:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thibeau-maerevoet-13b354166_where-are-trustpilot-reviews-activity-7130669616627904515-z8LE/
And this forum:
https://community.elfsight.com/t/where-are-trustpilot-reviews/871/3
Update, December 2023
Two more articles about Trustpilot's policies:
Claiming your reviews as Trustpilot's
Based on the above-noted Linkedin post's comment (by its author), Trustpilot claims your reviews as their property. At least that's the way it seems to me. See and decide for yourself:
You can't leave
After all this information, I had decided to delete the BikeGremlin Trustpilot profile. However, I was "thrilled" to read this:I guess I can't really "leave."
P.S.
If I had known, when I started writing this, that it would be this long, I would probably have made it a website article. Sorry for the long "rant." I just wanted to note and document this. After all, the company is called "Trustpilot" and they market themselves as the place for genuine, trustworthy user feedback. I sure hope Trustpilot fixes how they handle abuse and make this post obsolete - but I doubt that will be the case.
Relja FiveStar Novović
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