Contractors say bogus damaging Google critiques a major hit to their business
Nicholas Waldram of EaveSafe Gutter Protection and Jackson Mayers of Gutter Guys Plus each say that starting a couple of weeks ago, negative reviews started to seem on their business pages at the rate of about a single a day.
Both contractors say they promptly compared the names of the posters to their client list and determined that the reviews weren't written by actual clients. In some instances, they posted replies stating such.
Mayers mentioned he was notified right after receiving a a single-star review on Google's 5-star scale back in February. But it wasn't just the low rating that was a challenge, it was also the written overview. Mayers was suspicious right away because at the time one particular of the unfavorable reviews appeared, daytime temperatures had been nevertheless well below freezing. He generally doesn't install gutters in winter due to the fact the caulking applied to waterproof seams frequently won't seal correctly.
But it wasn't just Gutter Guys. Mayers started to compare notes with his buddy and competitor Nicholas Waldram of EaveSafe Gutter Protection.
Waldram had also been dealing with suspicious a single-star testimonials posted by accounts with names that didn't match his client database. He reached out to the posters for clarification, but didn't get any response back.
He mentioned he had a five-star Google rating prior to the current string of a single-star evaluations but the negatives pushed that down considerably.
“These new evaluations have dropped us down to a 4.four star rating,” he mentioned. “It requires an emotional toll. Everybody right here takes a lot of pride in what we do.”
When there are some similarities in the comments, both contractors mentioned the account profiles utilized in the 1-star critiques weren't identical.
Some of the accounts had been new, other folks had numerous critiques of distinct organizations from months or years just before. 1 account utilized a photo lifted from the Facebook page of what seems to be a higher school student.