To not want DH to post a fake review for himself on Trustpilot?

[WindInThePussyWillows]

DH is self employed within a franchise of a huge company in the U.K.
He was being weird and using my iPad weird as he has his own and I asked what he was doing. He said he was making a new email account to leave himself a Trustpilot review.

He has lots of Trustpilot reviews and an average rating of 9.4
I told him it was wrong and shady and misleading.

He told me to grow up and live in the real world, it's business and it happens all the time. I accept it probably does happen all the time but that doesn't make it right.

His argument is that lots of his customers say they will leave one but never get round to it and the positive reviews he deserves from working 12 hours a day 6 days a week will help grow the business which supports our family.

I feel really strongly about this, he's now not talking to me and it's my birthday in the morning. We were meant to be having a nice evening and now apparently I'm a bitch and he's a sulky child.

AIBU?

[WindInThePussyWillows]

Just to add, he has never actually left a fake review for himself.

[Thatznotmyname]

I do agree with you but can I dooooo kind of see his point.... however yes it's dishonest... so no.

[DeadGood]

I can see where you are coming from, but this falls under the "pick your battles" banner for me. Not worth the damage it will do to your relationship. Just leave him to it.

[WindInThePussyWillows]

I completely see his argument but it seems so wrong! I was never one for rule breaking though

[KickAssAngel]

Very few people pay any attention to online ratings. It's about as 'naughty' as him chatting to you in public, and saying "Oh, I'm great, me" a bit too loudly so that other people can overhear him.

And he's right, people leave bad reviews way more than goo ones.

I'm a real rule following, btw, not one to be dishonest (I can't even answer "How are you?" inaccurately) so I would say it registers as 0.5 on the richter scale of fibbing.

Still, name calling and sulking are more of a problem.

[Flatbox]

I've used the site mentioned and from my experience I think lots of people do the same. Ihave had at least three tradesmen who have glowing reports on the site who have never even got back to me with a quote. I don't trust it at all.

[WindInThePussyWillows]

Thank you, maybe I am being a little precious.

[BolivarAtasco]

Hmm. Actually, I'm not sure I agree it's harmless. There is a person who lives near me who set up a building company, but he has numerous convictions for burglary, fraud and assault. I saw that he'd registered himself on one of the trade websites and within a week had several 5 star reviews saying how great and honest he is.

I'm not suggesting the OP's DH is like this, but I think if I was in that position, I'd rather build up my rating on my own merit rather than fake it 'just because everyone else is'.

[BobbieDog]

This is very common! The trick is to not make the writing style the same as it gives it away that they are fake reviews.

Everyone i know whos self employed or owns a company makes up new email address so they can put reviews on about themselves

[HowMuchDoWeNeed]

"Actually, I'm not sure I agree it's harmless. There is a person who lives near me who set up a building company, but he has numerous convictions for burglary, fraud and assault. I saw that he'd registered himself on one of the trade websites and within a week had several 5 star reviews saying how great and honest he is."

But that isn't what is happening here.

It's weirdly childish to have a blanket rule about something like this - you have to be an adult about it and use your judgement.

The OP's partner is right in that happy customers rarely forget to review (I know I do.) So, in this instance, I would consider it in the interest of the OP and her family to have her husband in work, and he sounds hard working and deserving of a good rating.

[WindInThePussyWillows]

HowMuch but he does have good reviews or 'excellent' as rated by the site, he just wants more to reinforce the good ones.

He has no bad reviews and only one 4 out of /5 one, which the customer explains in his review was due to a spelling mistake in a piece of correspondence.

[pipsqueak25]

yanbu about this.

[HerculesMulligan]

Please tell him to be very careful. The Government's looked at this recently, and its likely to breach the terms of his franchise agreement. Try reading this:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-reviews-and-endorsements-advice-for-businesses/online-reviews-giving-consumers-the-full-picture

[WindInThePussyWillows]

Thank you Hercules. I will pass that on to him when he's cooled off a bit. I don't understand why he's kicked off. When he told me he said 'you're not going to like this. but...' what did he expect!?
I've told him how I feel about it, and he's told me not to come to bed tonight. Looks like I will be sleeping on the sofa and waking up on my birthday tomorrow alone, cold and with a bad back!

[rumpelstiltskin43]

Told you not to come to bed, and you're going to pay attention to him? Good grief! It surely wouldn't be me sleeping on the sofa.

[Butterymuffin]

Just read sofa thread. Definitely go and get in bed. He's the one planning to lie, not you, so you shouldn't be told off and sent to sleep on the sofa. And he knows it's wrong, else he wouldn't have put it that way. Not wrong at serious crime level maybe, but still wrong.

[YouHadMeAtCake]

Trustpilot is full of fake ratings. I wouldn't worry about it .

[ProfessorBranestawm]

Maybe it is just business and lots of people do it, but I would think less of him for wanting to do it TBH.

I set up my own business last year and it hadn't occurred to me to make stuff up.

Could he offer some incentive to his customers for doing a feedback form or something? A prize draw (I won an Amazon voucher through one of these recently), or a discount on next purchase etc?

[indigox]

This is pretty common, and there's a whole shady industry where people hire people from the likes of India to mass produce fake reviews.

If your DH had lots of bad reviews and he was trying to water them down then ethically I'd consider it worse than just adding to already positive reviews, but even then, not really something to get into a fight over?

How many times has he done it? Even with multiple email addresses if he's doing all the reviews from your home internet Trust Pilot will pick up on it and delete them/reduce the trust score.

[Matchingbluesocks]

Although yanbu you're not going to be able to stop him so ultimately bit of a pointless argument

[ProfessorBranestawm]

Wow that govt link is fascinating.

Don’t offer inducements – money or gifts – to customers to write positive reviews about your business

Just wanted to clarify in my post above this is NOT what I was suggesting - certainly not "if you give me a 5 star review you can have X" type thing - but maybe an anonymous feedback thing on SurveyMonkey or something? So they get the reward for filling it in, NOT dependent on whether it's positive?

[Ratsapholian]

Businesses always do this which is why i dontvtrust reviews and yes its shady and dishonest.

[Bogeyface]

I think that you are both being silly tbh.

You for over reacting and him for over reacting to your over reaction!

OK so it isnt strictly legit but in the great big scheme of things its hardly the crime of the century. That said, it is very silly of him to do it on your home broadband as it will be very easy for the site to trace his ISP and see that he posted it, the same way that MN can see PBP's.

You both need to apologise, and no dont sleep on the sofa, I cannot STAND people who pull shit like that! Its your bed too and he doesnt get to dictate whether you sleep in it or not based on his sulking.

[StrawberryLime]

No, you're not the one in the wrong. What's the point in a review site if half of the reviews are made up or written by yourself about yourself?!
I couldn't give a shit if everyone else was doing it or not.
As I was always told as a kid " if little Johnny jumped off a cliff, would you?!!" Seems appropriate in this grown up scenario too!
People read reviews as they want to get a feel of what you're about. If you're there bigging yourself up and not an actual customer, how are they to know that?
I have a high social media presence and write stuff. I wouldn't dream of telling people I was great pretending to be someone else in the hope they'd read my articles! I'd want people to read them because they actually wanted to or had had them legitimately recommended to others.
Not because of fake reviews.

[Eminado]

I hope you are in bed OP 👀.

I think the review thing is dishonest.

The sofa thing is much worse though.

HIB VVVV U.

Happy Birthday!