Independent review sites should be trusted, not because they say so, but because there should be a balance of good and negative experiences. The site states that any company can flag a breach as in they suspect it's not a real purchaser or a fake review, but if they do it to manipulate their scores then action will be taken. This is not the case as I reviewed Lookfantastic.com and other people had said TrustPilot had deleted them at the request of Lookfantastic. Now, I wrote a negative review and it was up for a couple of days and then lookfantastic flagged 17 negative reviews as a breach in 3 minutes (I have the screenshots). How TrustPilot works is that if a review is flagged, the writer has 7 days to 'prove' they are real with proof of purchase. That's how they work the system, as many people don't get the email or have time to dig out proof and screenshot it and send it. In addition, I sent my proof within an hour and TrustPilot have not done anything, thus lookfantastic look better with no negative reviews for the first 4 pages as they have tried to delete them and TrustPilot have not flagged this as a breach. I have reported it as a breach to the support team. If they don't act, then I will encourage a Watchdog investigation.
Well it sounds like you are taking the right steps Theo. I have never actually heard of either Lookfantastic or Trustpilot though. I do sometimes consult independent review sites for reviews though. I like Survey Police, and another one I think I am going to begin checking is Scamadvisor.com. In general before I sign up for any sites, or add any apps, I read reviews of the site online. I am immediately suspicious of glowing reviews..reviews need to be realistic and well balanced.
It's a global review site, but has different extensions for countries so that people can write in their own language. One issue is that they do rank high in google searches and as a result people see those reviews first. On the wiki page it says; " The firm allows businesses to selectively display reviews about them, which may violate certain laws or regulations..." It says it doesn't but someone reported that they were offered a business account for £800 a year and would have the ability to delete any reviews they didn't like. That person had no reason to lie.
