Trustpilot, Inc.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[My apologies, but I have no interest in contacting any of your teams. That route has been fruitless up until this point. Additionally, I really want nothing to do with your firm, that is why my attorney is now handling the matter. Like I said previously, we are reaching out to former customers who feel the same, so unless you want us to continue down that road, do the right things. And to address your grossly inaccurate claim of"our heavy use of the platform" that seems to be as inaccurate as all of the other information you have supplied thus far. We will continue to move past this platform and actively share our experience until you guys decide to do the right thing. I have no issues devoting mass amounts of time to this cause strictly based on principle. I have no intentions of backing down from this until the case is handled in a satisfactory manner through this platform. On the flip side, I am a business owner and I understand how much negative public experiences can hurt your brand. That being said I do not look forward to placing this complaint and I have issues pulling it back as long as TrustPilot decides to handle this in an ethical manner. We barely used your platform and your firm could not even manage to integrate to our website. Your firm lied straight to my face (yes, I see failing to omit information regarding one of your marketing tactics as a lie]. One of the main reasons I signed up with your firm was to have Google ratings shown on our search results. I inquired about that point extensively and provided plenty of opportunity for that point to be mentioned; however, there was a complete failure to do so. Bottom line is this, I am not going to keep going back and forth with your firm. Either do the right thing here and drop the collections and refund the money I paid originally to compensate for the time that I have had to devote to TrustPilot's poor operational standards and predatory sales tactics, or we will take this all the way and bring everyone else who shares a similar experience with your firm with us. I was perfectly fine with not asking for the original $1800 back, but TrustPilot could not leave well enough alone. You kept harassing me and making me devote time to a matter that should have been resolved a year ago. So either do the right thing here or continue to have public scrutiny of TrustPilot displayed online.
 
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[Your Answer Here]
 
No I am simply not happy with your business model. Attached are 2 screenshots taken from emails sent to me by [redacted]. The company who I left an honest review about after having many problems with their product. The company employees then leave 1 star rating with false review about my website and 5 star ratings on [redacted]. They are allowed to change their review. 1 minute they say "dont go to my website it has malware", I argue that in a reply and then their review is changed to "Rubbish website etc". You should remove your name "Trust" from your business model. How can anyone Trust a service that allows malicious slander against websites and services that is simply not true?I want you to remove my domain [redacted] from your website as I have no faith whatsoever in the service you provide. My domain is my property and I am not allowing you to use it on your business website in open public. You should also take a good look at your business model as it can easily be corrupted with slanderous remarks and reviews by malicious people.I rate TrustPilot an F on Revdex.com for this reply you send to my complaint basically telling us all that you simply have no control over what you do.
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Dear [redacted], The link to the terms and conditions is not hidden, but rather is very clear and conspicuous in the agreement you signed.  Your company agreed to the billing terms and pricing in the agreement, which your company negotiated. We accommodated your company by extending the billing throughout the subscription period, as opposed to requesting an up-front payment, to make it easier for your company to make payments. As a result, while customers are able to stop using our service if they wish, we do not accept cancellation of the agreement and it is fair to expect full payment of the service per the terms your company negotiated, regardless of billing frequency. Your substantial usage of our service also supports our expectation of receiving full payment.   Kind regards,[redacted]Trustpilot, Inc.

Dear [redacted],   Your substantial usage of our service supports our expectation of receiving full payment. Your company agreed to the billing terms and pricing in the agreement and it is fair to expect full payment of the service per the terms your company agreed to, regardless of billing frequency.  We have invested in a Compliance Team dedicated to safeguarding trust, protecting the integrity of our platform and helping us set best practices in the online review industry. We have guidelines which users and business’ who use our platform are required to comply with and which you agreed to comply with upon entering the agreement with Trustpilot.   Feel free to reach out to our Customer Success team if you wish to discuss further.   Kind regards, Trustpilot Legal

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

There were a minimum of 4 positive feed backs left by our customers at our request on the Trust Pilot forum that no longer appear.
 
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

This company is a total scam. They work with the companies listed on their site, to filter out bad reviews. I tried on several occasions to leave a review on my experience with [redacted]. I was first told that listing the pet sitters name was a privacy violation. I replied by providing half a dozed profiles that also contained first names, and asked why that was a rule only I was to follow? The response for Trust Pilot's compliance dept was that they leave it to the companies listed on their site to address any privacy violations. I removed the sitter name from my review, but also indicated in my review that the process in which trust pilot determine who has violated privacy rules, is clearly "discriminatory", since there are multiple reviews all over the trust pilot sire, containing first names. Even after removing the sitter's name, I got another email from Trust Pilot saying that my accusation of [redacted] and trust pilot's review process being discriminatory, would also pose an issue with them posting my review. Clearly, they are going to do everything they can to keep my review about [redacted] off their site. I am disgusted! Why have a review site that focuses primarily on 5 star reviews? It is extremely misleading and as I indicted, discriminatory!

Review: Trust Pilot has a terrible reputation of promoting a businesses negative reviews and hiding positive reviews left on their website. They use this sleazy approach in order to extort businesses to sign up & pay for their review service. Trust Pilot intentionally and maliciously left negative reviews up on their website about our business and intentionally removed any positive reviews. They have also distributed this false information to [redacted] Up until recently, there was one bad review (left in 2012) and several good reviews. All good reviews are gone and only the bad remain with one recent new obviously fake review. We have sent several emails to them to remove this review and have received no response. Have them call me or remove the fake review.Desired Settlement: Remove a negative fake feedback left by a fake customer at [redacted].

Stop intentionally promoting negative reviews in an attempt to extort businesses to subscribe to their review service. Trust pilot knows this is a fake review.

Business

Response:

To Whom It May Concern: This is in response to Wholesale Point’s complaint dated July**, 2015. Backgroundinformation about TrustpilotTrustpilot is anonline open review community that builds trust and transparency betweenconsumers and businesses. Our aim is to provide a platform where consumers mayfind useful information and where businesses embrace the opportunity to getinto a constructive dialogue with their users through an independent thirdparty.Currently Trustpilot has more than 13,000,000 reviews and 8,000,000users. More than 100,000 merchants are reviewed on Trustpilot. More than500,000 new reviews are uploaded on Trustpilot every month. Trust, transparencyand integrity are some of Trustpilot's core values since we find it paramount thatinformation available on Trustpilot is true and accurate.Trustpilot’sBusiness ModelTrustpilot has free and paid services for merchants. Merchants canfreely use the basic features on Trustpilot. These include inviting customersmanually to review them, responding to reviews and reporting reviews forintellectual property infringement, defamatory language, etc. The majority ofthe reviewed merchants are using Trustpilot’s free service, i.e. they are"non-customers". The paid services include Trustpilot’s Review InvitationService, which they may use to invite their users by email to write reviews oftheir buying experiences on Trustpilot. With a subscription, merchants can alsoget the right to display their reviews on their website or via other communicationchannels. Finally, merchants can get access to statistical and analytical toolsand thus obtain insights from their reviews. Only a small amount of themerchants reviewed on Trustpilot are Customers. Customers all have a box on their company profile saying “This companysubscribes to Trustpilot’s Business Services”. User Terms andConditions In order to place a review on our website, a user needs to create a profile onTrustpilot. They do this either by linking their [redacted] profile to aTrustpilot profile or by signing up using their email address and creating apassword. Users can only create a profile by expressly accepting our User Termsand Conditions; these include clauses preventing individuals from creatingmultiple accounts and posting reviews with fraudulent content. Methods to ensureauthenticity in reviewsTrustpilothas a zero tolerance policy against review manipulation, including fake andfabricated reviews. Trustpilot deploy several methods to make sure that reviewsare from genuine customers: 1. Report Option Trustpilot provides business users with an option to “report” a reviewthat may not comply with our review guidelines for users (“User Guidelines”) or appear tohave been written by someone, who cannot be identified as an actual customer(e.g. competitor reviews). Any business user - i.e. both customers andnon-customers - can report a review; but only reviews about the actualmerchant. When the review is reported, it is transparent for all users ofTrustpilot who, when and why a review has been reportedsince we insert a date stamped standard text explaining why the review is notvisible while we investigate the review. Once notified (see below) or reported, one of our agents in the Trust& Transparency department will investigate the matter. Depending on thereason why the review was reported, we may ask the reviewer for furtherinformation regarding the review. Often we initiate this process by requestingconfirmation of the actual transaction reviewed by the user (so-called Proof ofPurchase). The user is given seven days to update the review (e.g. deletedefamatory statements) or provide the requested information, e.g. documentationof the transaction. If the user responds and the review complies with ourguidelines, the review will be restored on Trustpilot. If the user does notrespond, the review is removed from Trustpilot. However, when Trustpilotremoves a review it will be accessible in Trustpilot’s system but not visibleon the platform unless the review is re-activated if the user responds at alater stage. If the user deletes the review by him or herself, the review isdeleted permanently.Our procedure for assessing reported reviews is independentof whether the reporting merchant is a Trustpilot Customer or not. Our handlingprocess is equal to all merchants and it is surely not possible to buy certainreview privileges if you are a Trustpilot Customer. 2. Notify ButtonTrustpilot provides all users with an option to “notify” us aboutreviews that may not comply with our guidelines or appear to have been writtenby someone who cannot be identified as an actual customer (e.g. competitorreviews). 3. Whistle Blower Trustpilot is committed to ensuring better online shopping experiencesfor everyone, which means we do our outmost to root out Fake Reviews. If anyuser experiences Fake Reviews being posted on Trustpilot or reviews collectedin violation of our guidelines, they can fill out our contact form found on ourconsumer site under “contact” and under eachdomain we have a section about trust with a link to the form. When we receive the notification, an agent in the Trust &Transparency department will investigate the reviews on the company profilepage. When the investigation is completed the reviews will either be restoredor removed permanently.4. Consumer alertAs a step to limit fabricated reviews we recently launched an alert oncompany profiles where we have detected many or serious irregularities. Ourconsumer alert is a noticeable graphic informing our users that we haveobserved e.g. several fabricated reviews on the profile in question. Thisenables us to provide useful information to our users. An example of our liveconsumer alert is available on [redacted]. 5. Compliance Engine One of our main efforts against fabricated user reviews is ourdeployment and continuous development of our so-called Compliance Engine. Thissoftware measures a lot of components, e.g. IP-address. The Compliance Engineis working around the clock. Comments to WholesalePoint’s complaint Wholesale Point’s complaint appears to revolve around two reviews: one thatwas submitted by a user on February **, 2012 and was reported by WholesalePoint on June **, 2014 for containing sensitive information in contravention ofour User Guidelines (“Review 1”), and another that was submitted by a user onApril **, 2015 and was first brought to our attention by Wholesale Point onJune **, 2015 (“Review 2”). Our team in the Trust & Transparency Departmentinitiated and conducted the usual investigation into both reviews. During theinvestigation, the reviews were made invisible to other users and replaced witha notice stating that the review had been reported, was currently under investigationand would either be deleted or returned following the investigation. The Trust & Transparency department concluded that Review 1contained sensitive information in violation of our User Guidelines, modifiedthe review accordingly, and reinstated the review on June **, 2014. WholesalePoint and the user were notified of this. We did not receive a response. We first received notice via email of Wholesale Point’sclaim that Review 2 violated our User Guidelines on June [redacted]. Thereview was not reported by Wholesale Point through our standard reportingfunction. Upon receiving notice, the Trust & Transparency Department communicatedwith the point of contact at Wholesale Point, conducted our standardinvestigation and concluded that Review 2 violated our User Guidelines. Theuser was asked to modify their review and when the user did not respond, thereview was subsequently archived. Inshort – Review 2 is no longer visible on Wholesale Point’s Trustpilot companyprofile page. Contrary to Wholesale Point’s assertions and as describedabove, the investigation process is the same whether the company involved is aTrustpilot Customer or not. As emphasized above, we only remove reviews thatcontravene our User Guidelines regardless of whether the reviewed company is aTrustpilot Customer or not. Please do not hesitate to revert if you have any questionsor comments related to Trustpilot or the complaint from Wholesale Point. Kind regards,Trustpilot Legal Trustpilot, Inc. [redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

While Trust Pilot finally removed an obviously fake review (which should never have been posted at all), they fail to address two important issues.#1 - Why have ALL positive reviews left for Wholesale Point been removed? There were at least 5 of them.#2 - Why is the only remaining negative review left been re-indexed to [redacted]? Trust Pilot has re-indexed and re-submitted this negative review (while intentionally removing any positive reviews) as if this is a current and accurate review of our business causing us harm as well as monetary damage.Have Trust Pilot remove the old negative review and/or reinstate all positive reviews left by customers on the Trust Pilot site so we can close this matter. In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

In response to Wholesale Point’s complaint, we find it necessary to reiterate that we are an open platform, which means that everyone who had have an buying experience with a company is entitled to leave a review on our platform – regardless of whether that experience is positive or negative. It is important to note that we do not monitor or otherwise censor reviews. Reviews are only removed from our platform if Trustpilot is notified about a review being in violation with our User Guidelines or if the review is removed by the reviewer. First, as to Wholesale Point’s assertion that all positive reviews for Wholesale Point have been removed from Trustpilot, we have conducted an investigation into the matter and we can inform you that these reviews have not been removed from our platform by us. The only reviews we have on record are the two reviews that were at issue here – one of which was removed by us for being in violation of our User Guidelines. We kindly note that a reviewer at any given time has the option of deleting her review and that this may be what happened in this case. Second, in response to Wholesale Point’s references to the remaining review on Trustpilot, the Trust & Transparency department conducted a standard investigation of the review upon receiving Wholesale Point’s complaint that the review contained sensitive information in contravention of our User Guidelines. Upon concluding that the review did in fact contain sensitive information, the Trust & Transparency department modified the review accordingly and reinstated the review on June **, 2014. Wholesale Point was notified of this reinstatement. The remainder of the review was in compliance with our User Guidelines, and will remain active on our platform as an accurate depiction of that reviewer’s buying experience. We do not remove reviews merely for being old. Trustpilot provides an open and neutral platform for merchant reviews and provides consumers with useful and truthful merchant reviews. If we were to accommodate requests for deletion of reviews because they were merely either negative or positive we would limit the users' freedom of expression and this would be against our core values of trust and transparency. As a result, we will not accommodate Wholesale Point’s request to remove the negative review posted for Wholesale Point on Trustpilot. Please do not hesitate to revert if you have any questions or comments related to Trustpilot or the complaint from Wholesale Point. Kind regards, Trustpilot Legal Best, -- [redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

There were a minimum of 4 positive feed backs left by our customers at our request on the Trust Pilot forum that no longer appear.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Review: Trustpilot offered us a free trial in October 2013. The trial involved Trustpilot attracting customer reviews for our company and posting them on their site. We agreed to try their service without binding ourselves to any future cost or anything else. We soon received 3 reviews from customers which Trustpilot posted on their site. One of the reviews was an false, libelous claim by a customer of ours who would not respond to us when we tried to resolve her false complaint. After much protesting from us, Trustpilot finally agreed to remove the review. They said they hoped that we would eventually sign up with them for a paid subscription to which we made no promises. Today, Sept [redacted], we see the negative review is back up for anyone to see. I emailed Trustpilot this morning asking them why they put the review back up after they agreed to take it down, and their response essentially equals extortion; saying "if you want to sign up with us, we can flag the review again and remove it". Here is the email exchange: to: [redacted]: Tue, Sep **, 2014 at 11:16 AM -Hi [redacted],Seems the bad review is back up. Why is that?[redacted] Thank you,\ From: [redacted]11:20 AM (12 minutes ago)to me Hey John, It was temporarily removed. Since you are not a subscribed customer with us, it looks like it has gone back up because it has not gone through the formal investigation process. As discussed before, if you want to sign up with us , we can flag the review again and remove it... Let me know what you'd like to do. Best, [redacted], Trustpilot_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ So, you see that Trustpilot is telling our company they will remove the false review only if we sign a contract with them. This practice is unethical and illegal.Desired Settlement: I would like Trustpilot.com to permanently remove the review in question, or remove all reviews they accumulated and posted for our company. We only agreed to a trial, no one made it clear to us that any and all reviews would be on the Internet 'forever' regardless of whether we paid Trustpilot or not.

Business

Response:

To Whom It May Concern:

This is in response to [redacted]'s complaint dated October *, 2014.

Background information about Trustpilot

Trustpilot is an open and neutral web-based platform for merchant reviews. Trustpilot's goal is to provide useful information about merchants (mostly online merchants) to Trustpilot's users. Currently, Trustpilot has more than 10,000,000 reviews and 7,500,000 users. 100,000 merchants are reviewed on Trustpilot, and 400,000 new reviews are uploaded every month. Trust and integrity are some of Trustpilot's core values, since we find it paramount that information available on Trustpilot is true and accurate. If it is not, Trustpilot is meaningless.

Included in Trustpilot's business model is entering into agreements with merchants ("Trustpilot Customers"). Such Trustpilot Customers have access to our Review Invitation Service, which they may use to invite their users by email to write reviews of their buying experiences on Trustpilot. Trustpilot Customers also have access to some statistical information. Only a small amount of the merchants reviewed on Trustpilot are Trustpilot Customers, i.e. the majority of the reviewed merchants are "non-customers". However, it is important to know that all basic features on Trustpilot are available to all businesses/merchants, i.e. both Trustpilot Customers and non-customers. Such basic features include the possibility to comment on reviews and to report reviews for intellectual property infringement, defamatory language, etc.

We believe that all consumers expect authentic reviews as part of every online purchase and that businesses have a responsibility to transparently share feedback from their customers. We do not monitor reviews posted on our website. However, there is a reporting function which enables companies and other users to report a review that they believe contravenes our User Guidelines. This reporting function is available to all businesses regardless of whether the business is a Trustpilot Customer or not.

In order to place a review on our website, a user needs to create a profile on Trustpilot. They do this either by linking their [redacted] profile to a Trustpilot profile or by signing up using their email address and creating a password. Users can only create a profile by expressly accepting our User Terms and Conditions; these include clauses preventing individuals from creating multiple accounts and posting reviews with fraudulent content.

Trustpilot users must comply with our User Guidelines when posting reviews on our website. If a review is reported for contravening our User Guidelines, e.g. is defamatory, contains course language, contains personally identifiable information on another individual, or refers to another company or website, our standard procedure, which we always follow, is to make a true and loyal investigation of the review in question. If the review contravenes our User Guidelines, we request the user to make any required amendments to assure that the review complies with our User Guidelines. If the user does not comply with our request, we will remove the review in question. During our investigation of a reported review the review is not displayed on Trustpilot. If we assess that a reported review does not contravene our User Guidelines the review is restored on Trustpilot. It should be noted that a review that merely describes a consumer’s negative experience with a company does not violate our User Guidelines.

Our procedure for assessing reported reviews is independent of whether the reporting merchant is a Trustpilot Customer or not. Our Quality and Compliance department, which handles all review reporting, does not even know if the reporting merchant is a Trustpilot Customer or not (unless such information is provided to Trustpilot by the reporting merchant when the review is reported). In other words: Our handling process is equal to all merchants and it is surely not possible to buy certain review privileges if you are a Trustpilot Customer.

Comments to [redacted]'s complaint

[redacted] reported the review in question on August *, 2014 for containing sensitive information in contravention of our User Guidelines, and our Quality and Compliance team initiated and conducted the usual investigation. During the investigation, the review was made invisible to other users and replaced with a notice stating that the review had been reported, was currently under investigation and would either be deleted or returned following the investigation. Contrary to [redacted]'s assertions and as described above, the investigation process is the same whether the company involved is a Trustpilot Customer or not.

Quality and Compliance concluded that the review did not contain any sensitive information, and, as a result, restored the review on August **, 2014. An email was then sent to the reporter at [redacted] notifying him of our decision. We did not receive a response.

We can confirm that [redacted] signed up for a free trial of our services in October 2013. [redacted] claim that it was not made clear to them that the reviews collected during this trial would remain on Trustpilot after the expiration of the trial period.

Firstly, it should be noted that merchants do not own or control any reviews on Trustpilot. Any review is obviously owned and controlled by the reviewer since the review contains that user's expression of his/her experience with the merchant. If a review were owned by the reviewed merchant, it would lack all characteristics of a neutral and trustworthy review.

Secondly, during a free trial, a company's use of our Review Invitation Service is subject to the Company Terms and Conditions. This link can also be found at the bottom of the front page and any sub-pages of our business website: [redacted] Once a company submits the form found on the business page of our website for a free trial, an email is sent to the provided email address containing an activation link. At that point, the company must select check-box stating that they agree to our Terms and Conditions in order for their free trial to commence. A link to the Terms and Conditions is also provided. Until the box is checked, the company cannot start their free trial. [redacted] had multiple opportunities to review the Terms and Conditions before commencing a free trial with Trustpilot.

In section 6.5 of the Terms and Conditions, it is stated that "…such reviews will remain on Trustpilot until removed by the Consumer providing the review or by Trustpilot." As emphasized above, we only remove reviews that contravene our User Guidelines regardless of whether the reviewed company is a Trustpilot Customer or not.

Following the complaint from [redacted], we have initiated an investigation of the matter and have reminded all staff of the standards of trust and transparency that we strive to uphold. We apologize to [redacted] for any misinformation suggesting that we would remove the review if [redacted] were to subscribe to our services and for any resulting confusion. We strongly disassociate ourselves from any suggestions that Trustpilot is not a neutral and trustworthy platform for merchant reviews.

In keeping with our status as an open and neutral platform, however, we will neither delete the review in question, as it has already been formally investigated, nor will we remove all of the reviews posted for [redacted]. Any reviews of [redacted] on Trustpilot are legitimate and entitled expressions of [redacted]'s customers, regardless of whether [redacted] requested the users to write the reviews or if the reviews are organic.

Please do not hesitate to revert if you have any questions or comments related to Trustpilot or the complaint from [redacted].

Kind regards

Trustpilot Legal

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

The company, Trustpilot, in their response to [redacted]'s complaint, is intimating that they clearly make it known that their trial is binding and the results of the trial will be posted on the internet for all eternity. But 'clearly' does not equate to FINE PRINT in a long legal document, where the potential client is expected to digest and understood each line-- Especially when the salesperson on the phone assured me that [redacted] could 'just try out their service with no obligation'. I ask the Revdex.com and TrustPilot, what greater obligation are we forced into during a free trial than to become beholden to the results of the trial forever whether we sign a contract or not??

Equally disturbing in their response from both a moral and LEGAL perspective is TrustPilot trying to brush aside the charge of extortion, which their salesman clearly engaged in when he wrote in his email to us: "if you want to sign up with us, we can flag the review again and remove it"

That is in writing and I demand action be taken for trustPilot's attempt at extortion! Prior to any lawsuit AND NEGATIVE PRESS [redacted] will initiate, I feel the most amicable way to settle is for TrustPilot to remove our reviews and close our trial account results.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

To Whom It May Concern:

First, we feel it is necessary to reiterate the fact that Trustpilot’s procedure for assessing reported reviews is independent of whether the reporting merchant is a Trustpilot Customer or not. Contrary to [redacted]’s assertions, companies cannot purchase any privileges with regard to reviews on Trustpilot, e.g. a right to have a negative review removed merely by becoming a Trustpilot Customer. We acknowledge that the communication from the salesperson with whom [redacted] was communicating could be interpreted incorrectly as suggesting that we would remove the review if [redacted] were to subscribe to our services. As we previously stated in our initial response, we have investigated the matter and have reminded all staff of the standards of trust and transparency that we strive to uphold. We reject any suggestion that Trustpilot is anything but a neutral and trustworthy platform for merchant reviews, which is the fundamental basis of the Trustpilot service.< br />

Second, as previously stated in our initial response, Trustpilot is an open platform for merchant reviews, i.e. the Trustpilot service is available to anyone who has had a buying experience with the reviewed merchant. Such user can write a review on Trustpilot regardless of whether the user has been invited to write a review by the merchant or not and the merchant can obviously not prevent the user from exercising his or her right to freedom of speech. That has nothing to do with fine print in a legal document.

Third, [redacted] actually had multiple opportunities to review the Terms and Conditions, which [redacted] expressly accepted, before commencing a free trial with Trustpilot. Section 6.5 of the Terms and Conditions clearly states that "…such reviews will remain on Trustpilot until removed by the Consumer providing the review or by Trustpilot." As all reviews on Trustpilot are owned and controlled by the reviewer, we do not delete a review unless the review is found to violate our User Guidelines. This applies whether the company requested the user to write a review or the user came to Trustpilot to write a

review on their own volition.

Fourth, our offer to try the Trustpilot service without obligation is obviously related to the fact that [redacted] had no obligation to enter into a customer relationship upon expiry of the free trial. This is similar to other free trial offers, e.g. subscription services or SaaS services.

Trustpilot provides an open and neutral platform for merchant reviews and provides consumers with useful and truthful merchant reviews and we will not accommodate [redacted]’s request to remove all of the reviews posted for [redacted] on Trustpilot.

Please do not hesitate to revert if you have any questions or comments related to Trustpilot or the complaint from [redacted].

Kind regards,

Trustpilot Legal

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

It is a valient attempt by the legal department of Trustpilot to brush aside the extortion attempt that was documented in the email that I forwarded to the Revdex.com. However, the facts remain the same. Their business practice was clearly deceptive when we initially tried out their service on a free, no obligation trial. The salesperson over the phone assured me that I could just 'kick the tires'... she did not in any way intimate that I would need to read fine legal print, while not entering into any legal agreement. If she had, a warning flag would have went up and I would have read their legal pages.

It's obvious what happened but they CANNOT admit it, because that would cause them to change their business practices, and likely lose revenue.

Undeniable Fact: As I demonstrated to you in my last correspondence, the TrustPilot representative, via a recent email, made the mistake of telling me he would remove the poor review, if I paid the company. I AM CERTAIN that that policy is no where to be found in their legal documentation customers are supposed to read.

We will not give in, especially since TrustPilot was caught red-handed here requesting money to remove a review. The least they could do is to simply close our account. It's the easiest, FAIREST resolution for all involved.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

TrustPilot engages in fraudulent business practices. They shield businesses who pay them a monthly fee, even after being presented with iron clad evidence that the business is purchasing fake reviews. Additionally, they lash out against any person who reports a business for fraud that is paying them. They will remove every review you have ever written. They are a revenge company with very little business education. Their communications are rude. Their people have very little knowledge of how to communicate with customers. Other review platforms are much more knowledgeable.

If you write a review for any company they represent they will send you endless spam emails. The company I purchased a product from and wrote a review at TrustPilot, wont ever receive my business ever again because TrustPilot is spamming my email. TrustPilot is a company that probably will sell your personal information for a profit!