To think Boden censor bad reviews?

[currentbuns]

I've reviewed various things I've bought from Boden in the past, most of which have been positive and have subsequently appeared on the site. A couple of months ago, I reviewed about 6 items (children's wear) and only the three positive reviews were published. There was nothing rude or unreasonable in the negative reviews (they were more neutral, than negative, to be honest) so I don't understand their justification for not publishing them. It completely undermines the whole purpose of the customer review feature if a company deliberately cherry-picks positive reviews and ignores the negative ones. AIBU to now assume that the reviews published are not representative and to completely ignore them in future?
Oh, and I already know IABU to shop at Boden in the first place- just to pre-empt that.

They would be utterly stupid if they didn't - it's their site and they want to promote themselves in a positive way so why would they publish negative reviews? If you want unbiased reviews then look to an independent site.

Because negative reviews help the customer to make an informed choice. Some items are sized much bigger than usual, or smaller, so it's helpful to read feedback about that, for example. If you remove all the helpful feedback, people will be far more likely to buy things that they end up having to return. Surely helping customers to choose the items they are likely to want to keep makes better business sense in the long term?

Last season, they let through my review of the embellished cardigan where the model looked like a vulcan. That wasn't positive.

I have no idea what might have happened in your case OP, but I don't think they do generally. Eg www.boden.co.uk/en-GB/Womens-Dresses/Above-Knee-Dresses/WH511/Womens-Cadiz-Dress.html?NavGroupID=4

I've put negative reviews up and they have all been published.

Yes, there are some negative reviews, and some of mine have been published in the past. But I do suspect they are manipulating the reviews of certain items.

I only tend to buy children's clothes on there, so I can't really comment on the reviews of women's wear etc. But if you look at this page of girls' dresses for example, every single item has 4-5 stars. I just don't believe that's representative.

Oh, I appreciate that customers want honest reviews rather than just positive ones, but if someone makes comments that are unreservedly negative (rather than just advisory) then there are not many sites that would want to have those on a page where they are trying to sell the items. Sites like Amazon who are just agents of the various brands and manufacturers don't mind, but brands like Boden will want to maintain their image and control what's on their site. It may be that they take the negative comments on board but don't post them e.g incorporating sizing info in the product description but not adding a review which brings down the average 'star rating' for those just browsing, which is a compromise a lot of businesses plump for as it gives them the best of both worlds.