Product reviews!

[NellieBee]

Thoughts please, hive mind! This is really not a big deal at all, but it's bothering me so thought I'd ask for opinions.

I bought a hamster cage from a company which had fantastic reviews on their website. At nearly £100 I trusted the reviews, and went for it. And it's great! However, they changed the design of the box and it's awful- not suitable for use- I complained as this was not seen on the website and they sent me the old box, which is great.

Anyway I left a review on their website- 3*s out of 5, said it would be 5 BUT people should be aware of the new, awful boxes. They never published it on their site and just emailed me saying thanks for your feedback, we'll pass this on.

I emailed them and asked why they haven't put my review on the website. They replied:

^we try and publish as many reviews as we can on the website that are informative and detailed for other customers.

Others we like to email back personally which we did with you.^

AIBU to think this is outrageous?!

Yes, if they only publish positive reviews then they should be labelled as such. Maybe described as testimonials, or praise.

Presenting them as reviews gives the impression that negative reviews would be published which would lead people to draw the wrong conclusion from the absence of negative reviews.

I don't know if that's something trading standards or the advertising standards agency would be interested in. It might require a change in the law.

Hmmm that is very off.

What can I do about it?!

Can you leave a review via an alternative site such as Google or Trust Pilot? Although it's not on their site, it should still come up when people research the product.
Agree it's pretty poor though.