Owners ignored bullied and threatened by TripAdvisor

More and more hotels, B&B’s, restaurants and other establishments want to be removed from TripAdvisor. EVERY person in the tourism industry knows they can and will never be able to please and satisfy everyone, no matter how hard they try. No one who works hard to please others are going to be happy with a negative review, but everyone knows sooner or later you will get one, and you will just have to deal with it.

Dealing with a bad review is not pleasant, but when you know a review is purely libelous and a lie, it is unbearable. And when a website like TripAdvisor that makes a lot of money off establishment owners, refuses to even listen to you, things suddenly become a lot worse.

As mentioned above, you would expect a little  ( actually you would expect a lot of )  help from the company that makes money off your back. … FORGET IT!!.. They offer NOTHING, ZERO, ZILCH, NIKS, NIENTE !!.. actually they do the opposite, they bully and threaten you!

First, let us show you just how little TripAdvisor does to help someone that want to have a PROVEN libelous review removed.

Here are some REAL owners looking to get some help / advice from TripAdvisor.. Remember, in a lot of cases libelous reviews can destroy a persons livelihood.

These posts were all posted in the TripAdvisor’s “Business Forum”

•  “ Deleting Obsolete Reviews ”

  Aug 10, 2011, 7:33 AM

  Please help. after 3 months of trying to get reviews from a previous owner removed i finally received an email from Tripadvisor last tuesday 2nd august saying that in 2 or 3 days this would happen. It has now been 6 working days and nothing has changed and there are still reviews belonging to the 2 previous owners. I am exhausted by having to keep asking the same question but will again. WHY is Tripsdvisor ignoring me?

• “ Inappropriate Review – needs to be removed ”

  Aug 08, 2011, 3:12 PM

  For 4 months I have sent Tripadvisor at least 15 emails from my TA business account, they have never bothered to contact me.  How do I contact someone within Trip Advisor to have a very inappropriate review removed. I need to get it removed quickly, it is harmful to my family business. 

• “ Why TripAdvisor – WHY? ”

  Aug 07, 2011, 7:32 PM

  At least 7 months ago  I disputed a review by posting a management response, the response got posted after 11 days, but got removed just 2 days later. I sent another 3 messages over a 4 week period, I did eventually receive a response telling me my management response did not meet their criteria.. but you did not tell me why? My response was very polite and friendly. I posted another polite management response, and again it got  posted, but removed again after 2 days. I am sick and tired trying to resolve this issue. This very demeaning and personal review has now been online for 7 months, I have done my best to resolve this issue, but this is impossible if you are too arrogant and rude to even reply to my 20+ messages. WHY Tripadvisor can you not just reply to my problem, I never asked to have my restaurant put on your site, actually I would rather it wasn’t. It’s disgusting that you have ignored me now for 7 months while my business and myself suffers. WHY?

•   “ Negative review posted about my sexual preference (gay) this is against Tripadvisors Terms ”

  Aug 07, 2011, 11:03 PM

  Can someone please advice me how to get some form of response from tripadvisor?  2 months I have tried contacting them through my account, their website, and even through twitter, they are just ignoring me. A couple posted a negative review about our B&B based on the fact that it is run by “Gays”.  This is a disgrace and against Tripadvisors T&C.  We have been trying to contact Tripadvisor to remove this review, but they never reply to us. Can anyone give me a phone number I can call and speak to someone at tripadvisor? We have tried twice to post a management’s response, but twice now it got declined, we did get a message telling us it was declined because it did not meet their terms, however they did not tell us why it did not meet their terms. It took tripadvisor just 2 days to approve and post this review, but it is taking us months to even get a reply.  Any advice on how to get a response would be appreciated. 
  

 We could easily post another 20 similar complaints  all posted this week. So as you can see, TripAdvisor is VERY quick to approve and post negative, and libelous reviews, actually the average time between posting a negative review and having it approved and posted is 3 days and 8 days for a positive review to get approved and posted.. but that’s another story..

Not only do TripAdvisor ignore owners that have any questions or comments, they also make almost impossible to dispute a review. To dispute a libelous review that can contain unlimited characters, the owner can only dispute it with  200 characters!!.. No, we did not make a typo and forget a few zero’s… MAX 200 Characters to dispute a libelous review. This is just not fair, and in 99.99% is impossible to do.  And now comes the great part.. another true dispute

• “ TA Please Remove this libelous trash review ”

  Jun 03, 2011, 2:13 PM

  On July 25th someone posted a review about our B&B that is obvious a lie, and clear that these persons never stayed at our B&B.
  

•  [ LIE ] They complain about noisy trains coming past our B&B every 10 minutes. [TRUTH] we are more than 40 minutes drive from the nearest railway line ( not station, … RAILWAY LINE ) yes we can prove this.

• [ LIE ] We spent 30 minutes cleaning a filthy rim around the bath tub!!  [ TRUTH ] We have 6 room ALL with JUST Shower, we do not have any rooms with bath tubs… Yes we can prove this.

• [ LIE ] The radiator was peeling paint, rusty,  leaking and made noises through the night.  [ Truth ] We do not have, and never have had radiators in any of the rooms.  Yes we can prove it.

WOW, well surely this is a clear case of someone that has obviously posted a review that is fake..
Correct, this review is a targeted FAKE… HOWEVER  Tripadvisor refused to remove this review on the following grounds ” We have checked the review in question and it is within our guidelines and will not be removed. Please read our.. bla..bla..bla 

So, it’s not about what is said, lies or not, all TripAdvisor is concerned with is if the Review falls within the Guidelines..

And, when it comes to Guidelines, again  owners are treated like shit!. The reviewer can write (almost anything ) even names are openly mentioned in reviews, along with personal details.. However TripAdvisor makes it extremely difficult to post a TRUTHFUL  Management Response. If the MR ( Management Response) is not kiss ass response , then it will not get posted. You cannot dispute any of the lies posted by the reviewer, you cannot mention any names ( unlike the reviewer)  

@StephenKaufer recently said during an interview that he was surprised that so many owners did not make use of the “Management Response”,…  he obviously has not got a clue that it is a complete waste of time.. 

When an owner responds to someone that has just posted lies and libelous reviews about them and or their establishment, they want to respond by telling their side of the story, NOT by kissing ass and saying amen!!

For the lucky few owners who have not yet experienced the lies and negative review campaigns against their establishment, TripAdvisor will find and threaten them, with an arrogant email and by removing a handful of positive reviews.. 

The BIG problem TripAdvisor has, is they REALLY think they are Gods Gift to the Travel Industry.. what they don’t realize is, that at least 75% of ALL establishments listed on TripAdvisor would prefer to be removed for good.
TripAdvisor is a joke, no one takes them serious, and their time is coming very quick..

So, out of the blue an owner gets this threatening email from TripAdvisor.. 

Sent: 11 May 2011 14:49
To: ******@**********.co.nz
Subject: Official Notification from TripAdvisor

To Whom It May Concern at **********,

Evidence has come to our attention which establishes that you and / or others in your organization have submitted material with intent to manipulate your listing and position on TripAdvisor by submitting positive reviews of your own property.  This is strictly against TripAdvisor policy and in some cases is also a violation of federal law.

This is an official notification that your property is now being actively
monitored by TripAdvisor for suspicious activity on our website.  If these
attempts continue, TripAdvisor may take one or more of the following actions
on your property listing:

-  Drop it by several pages in the TripAdvisor popularity index
-  Post a large red penalty notice, explaining that the reviews are
suspicious
-  Exclude it from TripAdvisor’s Travelers Choice awards, Top 10 lists,
press releases, etc.

We understand that you may have a few questions after receiving this notice,
such as:

“I don’t know why I received this letter. We haven’t submitted reviews for
our own property or others.”

We suggest familiarizing yourself with our review moderation and fraud
detection policies. Then, speak with your staff, as well as third-party
vendors (webmaster, marketing companies, etc.) and remind them of these
policies.  Subversive activity on TripAdvisor can result in long-lasting
penalties for your business.

“What action should I take to rectify this situation?”

Please contact us with information about violations you or your staff may
have made on TripAdvisor.  TripAdvisor’s privacy policy prohibits us from
sharing the details of our findings, so we will not be able to furnish you
with any information regarding the nature of the violation we’ve detected.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
James
The TripAdvisor Support Team, Content Integrity

So, what this threat is saying, is that the same “Bafoons” that have so far approved and posted almost 600 FAKE reviews since May 2011, have got evidence that “you or someone”  has posted a good review about your establishment… WTF!.. suddenly after sometime YEARS, and after a review has gone through TripAdvisor’s strenuous validation system, and has been approved and posted, they find some bullshit evidence that you or someone else has posted a  fake that benefits your property, and it is removed and an arrogant threatening email is sent to you.. 

Why is it that when an owner supplies TripAdvisor with GENUINE and HARD evidence that a review is FAKE and LIBELOUS, they just back on their fat ass-holes and completely ignore the situation?
Now all of a sudden an owner that in some cases has never heard of TripAdvisor, and doesn’t even know they are listed on the site gets this arrogant threatening email. Warning them that there are severe consequences!.. Why don’t they threaten to REMOVE an establishment completely?.. The reason is simple, EVERY right minded owner will start posting fake reviews about themselves, just to get removed.

Anyway, now the owner is in complete shock, and angry, ‘cos they have not got a clue why they received  this arrogant threat.. So of course like ANYONE they reply to TripAdvisor asking the ACCUSER to please share the evidence they have, because they have not got a clue what TripAdvisor is talking about, and they have NEVER reviewed themselves, and have ABSOLUTELY ZERO control over others that post a positive review.. 

The standard WEAK and FEEBLE reply is :

TripAdvisor’s privacy policy prohibits us from
sharing the details of our findings, so we will not be able to furnish you
with any information regarding the nature of the violation we’ve detected.

WHAT??.. do us all a favor, and keep your threats to yourself if you are not going to do the right thing and supply the so called evidence

The bottom line is, if TripAdvisor are so arrogant and pathetic and claim to have EVIDENCE then they should either supply the evidence so the owner can respond to the matter, or just keep their gob shut!! and stop threatening property owners!!!

TRIPADVISOR, GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE!!

You are arrogant, stuck up and pathetic, strutting around with your head stuck up your own ass.

Go ahead, continue to ignore, bully and threaten the very people that un-willingly make you money. 

Just remember this…

“One day you are the cock of the walk. Next, a feather duster“

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