Trustpilot reviews
I received an email from CAMC asking me to fill in a Trustpilot review as follows...
Your feedback is hugely important to us and helps us to shape your Club around the things that matter most to you.
We’d love it if you could let us know on Trustpilot how your Club experience has been, so we can make changes and improvements and keep doing the good things well.
So I did, giving three stars (out of five) and saying “Expensive club sites” and nothing else.
However, the following quickly appeared from Trustpilot...
To make sure the reviews on our platform are of high quality and useful to everyone, we run random automated checks of review patterns. Our software flags reviews consisting of promotional references, marketing material, and / or repeated postings.
Your review of www.caravanclub.co.uk has been flagged by our automated software. This means we’ve removed it from our platform.
I believe my review was a valid and acceptable opinion and as such should be allowed, even if it is critical of how this aspect of the club is run. So, does this mean that CAMC have instructed Trustpilot not to accept critical reviews? If (as I hope) not, why was a mildly critical review refused?
Comments
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I've 'reported' your post in an effort to alert a member of staff and, hopefully, get you a response.
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Thanks
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There are a good few critical responses, I wonder if you have done a review not so long ago and it’s come up as a repeat? Didn’t know Club we’re using this review site.
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I am surprised the Club is suggesting that anyone writes a review on Trustpilot, or any other such review site. There is ample opportunity to right reviews on this website. It will be interesting to see what the Club say.
David
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Can you write or read generic reviews about the Club on this website, or, are the reviews only prevelant to individual sites? Reviews, especially glowing reviews, submitted to external platforms will reach a wider audience of current non members in the hope it will attract more to join.
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Sorry I didn't make it clear in the OP but the review asked for by the CAMC/Trustpilot was about my club experience as a whole - not any specific site otherwise I would have reviewed that site alone.
As it happens, I have only used one club site (twice) in the last three years and keep my membership for the CL network amongst other reasons.
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I also received the email yesterday and was somewhat surprised at why they wanted members experiences via trust pilot. As Watendlath says they were after general experiences, not for a particular site. I have copied the relevant section of the email below.
Your feedback is hugely important to us and helps us to shape your Club around the things that matter most to you.
We’d love it if you could let us know on Trustpilot how your Club experience has been, so we can make changes and improvements and keep doing the good things well.In case you’re not already familiar with Trustpilot, it is a consumer review website, open to everyone.
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First time I have ever posted on Trustpilot so no excuse as a repeated review
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Surely to use Trustpilot or any other outside firm must put more expence on anything that the club does, I understand that certain things have to be carried out by outside contractors like tree felling and electrical and plumbing jobs, but l would have thought that there was enough brains at East Grinstead to complete this themselves?
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Strange then indeed Watendlath.
I think a lot of folks, myself included, get a tad confused about Trustpilot. If I look to review say a certain item I am interested in purchasing, I might click on the only visible link to reviews, and it comes up with stuff unrelated to the item, but all about using/buying from the supplier. So useful in terms of what you can expect from the company, but perhaps not the specific item. These are often covered elsewhere.
I did note someone had left a review mirroring our exact experiences regarding Club Insurance, and it was not complimentary.
Trustpilot is useful, it allows reviewers to comment on the whole experience of using a company, rather than the products they sell.
Would be good to have a response from HQ.
I had a notification from Trip Advisor about a review I left a good few years ago. It was a very positive review. The restaurant in question had been bought by new owners, and all reviews were being removed so that they reflected only the current experience, which I had no issue with. It’s not good for new owners/management to carry long term baggage.
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Hi there,
I've forwarded this on to my colleagues to investigate.
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Thanks for the response Ro.
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We have been sending out emails to a number of members asking for their experiences of Club Membership, and it has been great to have had so many responses. We’ve started using Trustpilot’s platform to provide an unbiased and independent view of the Club as a whole, so everyone, members and non-members, can see a fully honest view of what our members think.
There are a number that raise criticisms and we welcome these honest reviews. We won't (and can't) tell Trustpilot to remove any reviews - if we think a review is inaccurate (or not about us) we can ask Trustpilot to review it, these are all reported here: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.caravanclub.co.uk/activity
Trustpilot do have an system that will detect suspicious or unusual activity, which would result in the review being removed, and they have advised that this is what has happened in this case.Trustpilot's Compliance Team have reached out to the user to explain this; if the reviewer can prove this is not the case then it will be put back online. Based on Watendlath's review it may be due to the short content that it was flagged with the automated system, so if you contact Trustpilot as per their email then they can look to get the review re-added.
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And such a quick response from HO. Thanks.
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Thanks for the explanation and the possible reason for the deletion.
However, there is nothing to say that the review must be in excess of a minimum length.
And, I emailed Trustpilot's Compliance Team immediately and have since heard nothing other than their holding email acknowledgement.
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I am still of the view that there is a degree of jeopardy linked to encouraging such reviews. It gives sucker to all sorts people with axes to grind and often ends up receptacle for the disaffected and I don't see how that helps the Club. Do people who might be interested in joining the Club really read reviews on such sites before joining the Club?
As to the OP, I can see, given the explanation by Rachel above, why it was removed. Three words is a comment not a review. There surely needs to be some context by way of an explanation as to why the reviewer feels the sites are expensive?
David
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There surely needs to be some context by way of an explanation as to why the reviewer feels the sites are expensive?
I'd I say that that it is an explanation in it's own right. A Bentley Continental GT is expensive. Does that really need qualifying?
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I presume the club wants to see reviews on more platforms? They are already reviewed on various web sites like ukcampites etc. However how much work do the staff intend to do looking at reviews and surely the best place to add comments or delete anything inappropriate is on the club web site itself where very few responses occur. The opposition moderate their reviews before they appear, with strict guidelines in place. Some think that negative comments don't get through on the C&CC reviews but they do if you look more closely and expand the reviews.
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The Club has a reasonably good mechanism in place for reviewing Sites. Others have added Club Sites and CLs on UKcampsites, and other Touring websites. Trustpilot is about the Club as a whole, as a company providing different services. So these reviews take in Club HQ and products/experiences other than Sites as well. All reviews are useful, in one way or another.
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Most of the reviews in truth just replicate the site reviews, and the usual grumbles and gripes on here. Lots of complimentary comments as well though. There are a few about Red Pennant and Insurance Services.
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I agree Brue, I think the club are making a rod for their own backs unless they subscribe to the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity to quote Phineas T. Barnum? Perhaps with the proliferation of sites like Trustpilot and Trip Advisor they feel they are missing out on a section of the great general public.
David
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It’s very easy to review the Sites, that is carried out on a host of review websites such as inhouse, Trip Advisor, UKcampsites, Google Etc.....
What isn’t as easy, is to be able to comment on an independent website on the Club and its services generally. I think this is where TP will fill that gap. I think TP has a reasonable reputation, and like a lot of other review sites, the art is being able to distinguish the useful review from the not so useful review. The Club I suspect will generate mainly positive reviews, it is usually well regarded by its membership and potential membership. But TP is like TA and UKcampsites, you don’t have to be a member to generate a review. The Club provides products and services to none members (insurance for example), so it allows those who only contact the Club for such services to comment. People can now usefully comment on their contact with HQ, give an opinion on how good the insurance, marketing, ferry booking service, shop etc..... are.
It would work best for me if it was used as such, rather than as another Site review website. 😀
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So would it perhaps be best to ignore 'TP' on the grounds that it is too loosely constructed and of little value to members? After all it is based on members views and it is surely well known that only people with extreme feelings (for or against) are likely to respond.
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I wouldn’t ignore it, but I would hope to be able to pick the sensible balanced reviews from those offered.
I was looking at lighting on M&S website last night. Clicked on something I liked, decided to check out reviews. First one, “bought it as a gift, haven’t opened box yet, hope she likes it, 5 stars”
Oh for the ability to instil a touch of reality into some folks little lives........😂😂😂
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