Dealers flooding review sites with fake user reviews

[JVRudnick]

@Jason...sorry, I can not see anyway to justify that claim of yours re: phony reviews...but a quick look at that dealership in Google Maps shows 65+ reviews of which most are TOP rated "Best Ever" reviews....that are short single sentence ones.

The ones that are much longer - the ones that explain the reviewers experience, from what I saw, are all 1 Star reviews, in fact they're complaints about the product/service/attitude of the Lasco dealership. Take a look...do you see what I see? And I note that these "Best Ever" reviewers have only a single review about Lasco and nothing else...which seems odd to me too.

In conclusion, are these "Best Ever" ratings phony? I dont know - but after reading a dozen of the complaint ones, it's hard to believe that a dealership would ever get that kind of rating as well as the complaints....i.e. something here is not ringing true, eh!

Sad really....but does tell you something about that dealership management on many levels, eh!

:-|

Jim

 

[yagoparamo]

Ryan,

We disagree in a few things.

The online world in not the real world. Perhaps in some urban areas of thecountry such as for example NY or LA that may be more true than not, but plentyof dealers outside the metro areas will testify that online is not the end ofthe world. I believe that some areas of our society will become more involvedwith online but I wouldn't say that online is the real world. I don't spend myfree time online, but with my kids in the back yard or practicing at the dojo.My friends are not online, and yours aren't either... people you know for bizare online connections or perhaps old friends from high school. But the friendthat will come pick you up because your car broke down in the HWY is not justan online friend.

Hand written is as valid as online. First of all because anyone can hand writea paper (let's hope so, right?) but also because it still describes arelationship and experience between a customer and a business--and that is what we are looking for. I understand that hand writtenreviews will be mostly positive and that negative ones will mysteriously disappearand never get published but frankly I see the online reviews starting to becomea way to get back at the business in some cases because you just got cold feetand I see tha as an unfair disadvantage for the dealer. So having the balance towards the positive in one area is OK.

I don't believe either that a letter review that I got 15 years ago is aged. A15 years old review shows length of character and roots in the community--bothintrinsic characteristics of good car dealers.

We can fill this board with anecdotes like your father's and the FB analytics,but plenty show in the other direction. Older folks don't need to be the escapegoat and be the only ones that supposedly will use a paper review. Every timewe help set a dealer get the online reputation in check we recommend to have acomputer, to have an ipad, to request it in their post delivery emails,letters, etc but we also provide a paper sheet for the customer to write ifthat is what they choose. I would say that 10% prefer that method. I don't seethe advantage of not offering that just because WE that live out of the onlineworld put more value on the E-world.

 

[ryan.leslie]

Has anyone else been a victim of Dealer on Dealer Review Fraud? If I didn't know any better, I would say that someone who works for Lasco Ford in Fenton, MI is going around and leaving false reviews.

We've flagged the reviews as inappropriate with Google, but really aren't quite sure what other steps to take if any....suggestions?

View attachment 507

Jason,

Two things: First I'm sorry to see that is happening. Hopefully Google will be putting the manpower and technology into protecting their own reputation for providing credible review content.

1. This would be aggressive, but you might just post a public response that encourages a reader to click on that profile and "consider the source." Any reasonable person will quickly see the same pattern that you have seen and discount those negative ratings rather quickly. That obviously won't help you on the star count.

2. Bury it with positives. I see you are a certified dealer so the new Push tool we released will help with this as it is encouraging all reviewers with gmail addresses to post to your Place page simultaneously. You may want to pre-screen for gmail accounts and ask them specifically for reviews on the Place page too.

 

[kcar]

The review sites should be working for the car dealerships not against them. Sites like DealerRater are a drain on car dealerships and try to force them into signing up and paying for something extra. There's a reason they don't want dealers posting reviews on behalf of their customers, and I'll tell you this it's not because it's fraud. It's because they want more customers to sign up and drive more traffic to their sites. If a dealer has a PAPER copy of a REAL review, they should be allowed to post it. If they are posting fake reviews, let the legal process catch them, the fines are heavy as is.

I don't remember if it was on here, or another place but LOTS of people are boycotting sites like DealerRater. Also the point that dealer rater posts ads of other dealerships on your page is another thing. Anyways, I'm all for dealers being able to post reviews on behalf of customers and being able to respond to negative reviews ( not remove them). But anyone saying it's fraud for a dealer to post a REAL review by a REAL customer on THEIR BEHALF, is full of shit. Stop trying to capitalize on car dealerships and put them in a situation where they have to pay to keep their online PR up. It's unnecessary.

 

[kcar]

Also I'm glad Google Places removed 3rd party reviews like DealerRater! Another way to keep sites like these out of the picture and help eliminate them slowly.

 

[kcar]

Also to the people having issues removing fake reviews off Google, Good luck! It's near impossible, even with legal action involved. The best thing to do is let people say it's unhelpful and keep telling them to remove it, till someone gets the point. If all else fails, find someone on the corporate level or send in better legal notices.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

kcar, you're the kind of competition of like in my back yard.

 

[ryan.leslie]

The review sites should be working for the car dealerships not against them. Sites like DealerRater are a drain on car dealerships and try to force them into signing up and paying for something extra. There's a reason they don't want dealers posting reviews on behalf of their customers, and I'll tell you this it's not because it's fraud. It's because they want more customers to sign up and drive more traffic to their sites. If a dealer has a PAPER copy of a REAL review, they should be allowed to post it. If they are posting fake reviews, let the legal process catch them, the fines are heavy as is.

I don't remember if it was on here, or another place but LOTS of people are boycotting sites like DealerRater. Also the point that dealer rater posts ads of other dealerships on your page is another thing. Anyways, I'm all for dealers being able to post reviews on behalf of customers and being able to respond to negative reviews ( not remove them). But anyone saying it's fraud for a dealer to post a REAL review by a REAL customer on THEIR BEHALF, is full of shit. Stop trying to capitalize on car dealerships and put them in a situation where they have to pay to keep their online PR up. It's unnecessary.

kcar,

I don't know if you are a REAL dealer or a vendor SHILL or just somebody that has fun on a Friday night by being a troll. You have done nothing but attempt to stir up threads and be confrontational behind an anonymous username. Unless you reached out to Joe privately, you didn't respond to a very well respected moderator's questioning of your motives so I have no expectation that you will reply to mine either, but c'mon man, surely you recognize that this kind of stuff doesn't better this community or this industry.

Come here with your opinion and be forthright with your identity and you will find this to be a great place to hangout, learn and discuss mission critical topics from the best and brightest in the industry. If you ARE a dealer you have NOTHING to fear. Most of the vendors will go out of their way to help you just for a chance to win your business. Only the agenda driven vendors need hide behind an anonymous username. That really hurts your credibility.

I'm not going to rehash this whole post to defend DealerRater or my personal position, read back a few pages and search the other recent posts and you'll see information on Google's definition of "impersonation" from their TOS and the WSJ articles that clearly explain that Google didn't remove third party content, it was removed FROM them by an impending Antitrust investigation.

If you ARE a real dealer you need to be challenged, to Jeff's point some of your opinions aren't helping you. Call me right now if you like, my cell phone is in my signature. I'm a real guy that really cares about seeing this forum continue to be the best in the industry. I hope you will consider raising the veil and truly joining the discussion, I think you'll be glad you did.

 

[yagoparamo]

The review sites should be working for the car dealerships not against them. Sites like DealerRater are a drain on car dealerships and try to force them into signing up and paying for something extra. There's a reason they don't want dealers posting reviews on behalf of their customers, and I'll tell you this it's not because it's fraud. It's because they want more customers to sign up and drive more traffic to their sites. If a dealer has a PAPER copy of a REAL review, they should be allowed to post it. If they are posting fake reviews, let the legal process catch them, the fines are heavy as is.

I don't remember if it was on here, or another place but LOTS of people are boycotting sites like DealerRater. Also the point that dealer rater posts ads of other dealerships on your page is another thing. Anyways, I'm all for dealers being able to post reviews on behalf of customers and being able to respond to negative reviews ( not remove them). But anyone saying it's fraud for a dealer to post a REAL review by a REAL customer on THEIR BEHALF, is full of shit. Stop trying to capitalize on car dealerships and put them in a situation where they have to pay to keep their online PR up. It's unnecessary.

Review sites should be neutral. If they take sides they lose their true value: To help consumers make decisions on who to do biz with.

We do branded sites where we encourage dealers to post those paper reviews. We see those as a way for dealers to maintain a database and an archive of their relationships with their community. We encourage them to keep hard copies of these.

Branded sites are not neural, and therefore other sites must fill the void: Yelp, DR, Google, etc.

That doesn't mean that I agree with DealerRater, but there is a need for them in this market, if anything for the knowledge and help that they bring to many dealers.

All this being said, the online review landscape will change soon as laws, rules, and regulations start to shape it.

 

[joe.pistell]

Kcar posts are about one thing... kcar.

I've asked kcar for any example of his new ideas and we got NOTHING. Why? Is it because he has nothing to show?

Have I ever asked this of anyone? No. kcar is the exception.

kcar, I challenge you! Pick a topic, start a thread and join our community!