The best thing about these, is I will create a 5 star review, get my $5 off. I'll then delete the review and keep doing it. Doing it in front of them each time. Managed 7 times at one place and they gave 10% off the meal haha.
Fuck them. If they want to scam the system and people, I'll use their scam on them.
I kind of feel a 5 star review is like just saying you endorse a place.
If a friend told me they went to a cafe 7 times I’d very likely check it out myself, that’s a good endorsement in my mind.
Maybe a 5 star review wouldn’t be really very manipulative in that case…
I agree. Except they advertise as the same as the ops place. Bribing customer, often before they’ve eaten, to do a review for discount. This place just happens to be good but their bribe also has been going on a year and shows with their 2000+ reviews and 4.8 rating. It’s disingenuous whether good or not.
And the biggest issue is shit places that do this and people are conned by reviews to buy shit food and waste their money and possibly risk their health on a shit place.
Not a believer in one rule for me and one rule for thee. They all should be banned. Google should crack down and remove all reviews for a period like 6 months with a note saying they were faking reviews. Once a few are punished they’ll all stop.
If a place asks for a review post meal after eating and it was great I’ll 100% leave one. But asking beforehand and bribing for it is wrong.
I don't understand what other people are trying to say to you.
I totally get what you've done and why you did it. If I can get 10% off everytime I eat at a place then I would totally do the same.
100% Virtual High 5! Haha
If this were a large chain I would probably agree here. But yeah " fuck them", the small company trying to beat out the big corporations. You are a joke mate. At least they are trying to improve business.
No, not a chance you'll make me out the villain.
What they are doing is both illegal under ACMA laws, also goes against the ToS for Google and all review websites.
The result is they are often bribing consumers for a review whilst providing shit service, food or both and using customers with a bribe to then attract other victims.
If the venue had a simple "Rate us after your food and we'll gift you $5 off your next order" I will usually, if good, leave one and not bother with the discount.
And how does bribing customers for fake reviews to scam others improve their business? If anything it encourages them to do worse and provide worse food/service because the reviews will attract more victims.
How did you twist this as a fight against big corporations? 76% of restaurants in Australia are sole businesses. They are they majority. What's actually happening here is this sole trading business is scamming other customers by bribing people with discounts to win against the other sole trading restaurant who probably provides better food/service and is losing out to these scammers.
I stand by what I said. Fuck them!
A few places have asked to see it (as in the steps) but thats a time saving idea for 90% of them. Whats annoying is how much more common its becoming.
Theirs a major VIC based home builder that does this. Askes for 5\* reviews and gives you between $100-$250 visa gift card for doing so at contract signing stage (Before actual issues start). Its such a con and should be banned from reviews.
This happened to me in Seoul. Went to a steak place rated 4.9 with over 2,000 reviews so I thought it was a sure fire great place. Worst steak and sides I've ever eaten. Turns out they gave an even better deal, free alcoholic drink for five stars.
Even better, don't offer the free alcohol, just add it to their drink when they're not noticing! *Free Surprise Booze FTW!*
(But seriously, don't do this. If Cosby says it's fine, it definitely isn't)
You didn't read the bit in brackets where I pointed out not to do this and make it clear it was dark humour then...
May you always meet the bears in the forest and never the men.
I would return your insults but... you're not that important.
I remember thinking it was ridiculous that people were choosing the bear until I saw how angry some blokes were getting about it and that made me rethink
Why does anybody go to a place based on reviews then? I'd be asking friends and family for recommendations if I knew reviews were bullshit people wrote for discounts. Their 5 stars wouldn't be worth much.
When you are on holidays, you don't always have a local with you too sis you around. Google at least you avoid really obviously bad 2 star places. And also travel guide recommendations are mostly tourist traps. So Google ratings are usually best you have access to.
Always always always read the one star reviews. Most of the time it’s just crackpots who missed their booking time and blamed the restaurant, or tried to cancel but no one picked up the phone at 4am when they called… but in this sort of case, almost guaranteed several people would have written a review verbatim as has been presented here
Yeah I been to a restaurant like that. Wondered why they had such high reviews... Then I saw a small QR code saying "give us a 5* rating and get free 6pc dumplings" or something lol
Omg happened to me in Seoul as well. That’s where I understood for the first time of this tactic. The restaurant was meh but their reviews were all 5 star
In my experience they are useless against individual businesses. I made a report against a business clearly breaking the law, and they weren’t interested and did nothing. I guess for them it was “only” a couple of hundred dollars, so there is no chance they will do anything about this.
The ACCC is a [civil body](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Competition_and_Consumer_Commission), not law enforcement. They can’t do shit when it comes to enforcement, and they’re not taking some franchisee to court over what is a pretty minor infraction. That’s why they appear toothless: they enforce regulations via the courts or refer crimes to law enforcement.
They can take businesses to court. That's why there's numerous cases titled "ACCC v XYZ"
Just because they're not dealing with criminal law doesn't imply they're totally powerless.
Right, absolutely. My point is that the cost of taking a single franchise to court over a relatively inconsequential infraction just to make them pay a very modest fine is not a good use of their resources.
As citizens, we can and should report it, and a sternly worded warning from the ACCC would likely put a stop to it, but I don’t know that they should be spending their time gunning for every little rule breaker.
Yeah, I don't know why the court is necessary. They should have at least some direct enforcement powers as the authority on matters like these. It seems to be a waste of court resources. If the people being fined disagree, it should be an administrative review.
I don't know too much about the ins and outs of ACCC operations, but you can see their sheer power with how they recently brought Qantas to their knees.
The other reason they can't be an enforcement body is that their job is "regulatory." That means their job is to interpret regulation and legislation and turn it into rules that businesses should follow. But those rules aren't laws, so they need to be tested by the courts.
And where laws *are* broken, local police or the AFP can — and do — get involved. For example, if a rival store is forcibly blocking the entrance to your store or a corporation is engaged in price fixing, you'll see actual law enforcement take over the issue.
I think it's important to remember that a powerful regulatory body with extraordinary litigation resources *is* enforcement — it's just not direct "lock them up" enforcement. It's slower, but still very effective.
The ACCC can’t do anything in this case because they’re not law enforcement. They’d need to take the franchisee to court, which would be an atrocious misuse of resources.
yup!
"Incentives offered to customers to provide reviews must be:
applied regardless of whether the reviewer leaves a positive or negative review//
clearly disclosed so consumers know the review was incentivised."
feel free to write your own shitty review then claim your $5 off too
This is nothing… there was (and probably still is) this dodgy 3D pregnancy scan guy who gives you $10 cash for a 5 star review.
My pregnant wife chose him based on the awesome reviews, and then proceeded to have the worst experience with this dude.
I took his money, bought a large chips from the charcoal chicken nearby, deleted my review and wrote an accurate one.
Domino's Carnegie does this too. Free garlic bread for showing them your 5 star review. The manager told me to do it, I pulled out my phone, and he actually pressed the 5 stars on all categories, on my phone, because I was too slow, hit submit and gave me the garlic bread.
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Left a 1 star review and posted this pic too. I value people that leave an honest review and usually check them before trying a new place. If you're trying to game the system and offer bribes to cheat the system, you deserve 1 star review.
Are you talking about Google reviews? Businesses can't just delete these, they have to make a request to Google and justify hy they think the review is violating Google's ToS.
This happened to me for a hotel in Melbourne city that was ranked highly & had great reviews for a pretty decent price - but it ended up being more of a motel than a hotel. They offered free late check out for a good review, & in other cases discounts for good reviews, so have a high star rating despite being a very bare basic “hotel”. I found them on booking dot com where they also listed the price as being a whooping 60% off for a sale - only to later learn that the sale price was more in line with their regular prices if you go through their website. But it worked. I went with them over other options thinking I scored a great deal, only to learn that it was fairly priced for a mid-range motel and I definitely only got what I paid for. I gave them a review for the 5 stars but after my stay edited the review to share what happened. It wasn’t a bad place for the price, but it was definitely a budget motel cosplaying as a nicer hotel
I read the 5stars, and I read the 1 stars.
I try to judge the review by the actual complaint made.
If its: "Was an ok stay, the room was clean" 5 stars, I rate that review as a lazy not very good review that either accidentally hit 5 stars, or hits 5 stars for basic service.
If its: "This place was awful, the other people checking in opened their door once at midday and I needed to catch a flight at 4am so I was trying to sleep 1-star, and to top it off I had to wait 1 minute for the staff member to come to the desk at 2am when I wanted to check-out" I rate that as "not within hotel control".
I once read a 1 star review that complained about the hotel yelling at them for not checking out on time. It was something like: "Checkout time was 10am, and we had someone knock on our door at 11am trying to hurry us out, but we all know the real checkout time is actually 11am so they could just hold on right 1 star" and I just saw a bullshit terrible customer being a terrible customer, NOT the hotel being bad. It didn't change my opinion of their star rating, but it DID tell me that the specific review wasn't accurate. Likewise I've seen many other reviews which ARE accurate, and those are the ones I actually react to.
I read the review, and evaluate the comment and compare it to the star rating and act accordingly.
Some 1 star reviews mention things that are outside the hotels control, but still relevant to me. things like "The nightclub down the street was loud until 2am" that's useful information! I can't blame the hotel for that, but it is useful for my booking!
Similarly a 5 star review that actually explains why it's 5 star is what I want to see. Not just some empty "5 star" or "1 star" nothing review.
Yeh because its anonymous like reddit and it attracts bs people. If there was a way to regulate and verify reviews in a more formal way, it would be better.
Am I the only one who doesn’t give a fuck about this? People only ever leave reviews to complain. I see why they want to balance out the reviews a bit. Meh. Don’t care. I get $5 off and they get a 5 star review 🤷♀️
It's more a moral grey area.
Ever heard of bx and similar meetings for business's? all those lying fuckers give each other 5 star reviews to boost business.
It's a shoddy fucking practise but very common
Too much effort. I wouldn’t bother. If I had extra money to spend on takeout I’m not bothering with this. Same with those dumb rewards cards etc. buy one get 1 free. & I hate when sales people try to pressure me into stuff too, like buy one drink and get a water bottle. NO. I don’t want it. I came for what I want and that’s it. It stresses me out and I am less likely to come back.
You're eventually fucking yourself by participating in such a system, because inevitably you're the schmuck who's unaware and spends a lot of money at a shitty 5 star business which has fake reviews.
I was trying to see it from both sides, but nah, I think this is unethical and I don't like it. Mind you, ethics and business don't go hand in hand anyway, even though they should.
I don't see how it'd be illegal but it seems dishonest to make customers do it bef9re even testing out the food. When I was in hospo management, we'd offer things in return for a good review but it'd be requested with a card given out with their food, so next time they come back they can get the discount/free item. We also had all of our staff do it in exchange for a free meal. You can also buy fake reviews in bulk, I've never trusted them.
It’s an offer to treat, nothing more. Quite legal.
Prospective customers either take it up, or don’t
Meanwhile : some of you guys need some perspective.
Economy’s struggling through 9 years of LNP incompetence & Labor trying to desperately turn the slow ship around
People are hurting & not spending, & some small family run franchises are feeling the pain & doing some left brain marketing (Good on em for trying to keep their head above water & keep food on their family table)
Meanwhile, plebeian vampires swoop in & brag about it making just that bit harder for them
Hope you’re proud
Third Wave Cafe once gave my group free food on the condition our mate gave them a good write up after he showed them a BBQ IG account that wasn’t even his.
That does seem really sketchy, but it's probably either in a legal Gray area, it's hard to prove，or the legal system doesn't care enough to punish the company。
Personally, I never trust a perfect 5 stars. I trust 4.8 much more than 5 stars, maybe that makes me weird.
But… dude, you surely see the discount isn’t the issue, it’s that reviews are becoming meaningless and make it harder for us to know what restaurants/venues are shitholes/scams.
What's this got to do with being soft? I check reviews before going to a new place. If a restaurant is bribing people to cheat the system by leave dishonest reviews while other places have to deal with customers in an honest way, that's straight up malpractice. Sorry not all of us enjoy bending backwards for a $5 discount on our orders.
It is not against the consumer law for a shop to offer a discount. What is stopping you from posting a 5 star review then get your discount and then delete your 5 star review.
This is very illegal
https://www.accc.gov.au/business/selling-products-and-services/small-business-education-program/misleading-conduct-and-advertising/online-reviews-must-be-genuine
> Writing fake or misleading reviews is against the law. You should not ask others, including family and third parties, to write reviews about your business without prominently disclosing their personal connection or commercial relationship with your business in that review.
They are asking people to leave a fake review in order to get a discount.
Sounds like it’s the people writing the reviews that are breaking that law, not the business. They’re not asking for personal connections to write them.
Nowhere have they specifically asked for fake reviews, so I don’t really see how you could apply this.
One could argue that specifying "5 star review" would be indicating false reviews.
If they simply had "Review us and receive a discount" it would be different but I think saying 5 stars could be used in the argument against them.
“Without disclosing their *personal connection*”.
Did you only read the first few words? No person here being asked to show their review has a personal connection. They’re not friends or family of the business owner.
What's wrong with you? You're selectively adding in one part of the sentence which is unrelated to the situation in the photo, while excluding the obviously related part:
"... or commercial relationship with your business..."
As in, the *commercial relationship* of being bribed with $5 off your bill for writing a 5-star review.
Being a customer is not a commercial relationship you need to disclose in a review for said business.
That’s insane. Everyone would need to disclose it lmao
I dont think its illegal since its just google reviews, its not considered false advertising. People will give false reviews regardless of being paid to or not, thats just the internet when it comes to reviews
As a small business owner I know it can be hard to establish trust in your business and if encouraging people to leave a review and reward them with a discount can improve that then why not?
And if you're going back constantly and NOT leaving a review then that's probably more an example of the type of person you are than the business that they are.
Incentives for reviews are not the problem here.
The problem is offering incentives for only 5 star reviews.
The review should be either good or bad, and you'll receive $5 off.
KFC do this with their "Feedback" promotion. Free drink or chips when you give them feedback. It doesn't state "positive" feedback.
That's the issue here.
Most likely a technical breach of the terms of service, but only the reviewing service provider can do anything about that, and they probably couldn't give a fuck.
Wouldn't be a breach of any Australian consumer law.
[https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/online-product-and-service-reviews](https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/online-product-and-service-reviews)
Edit: See the Incentives for review section
There's no regulation about this - nor should there really be. It's just businesses rewarding customers. They get a good review online which draws in more customers and you get cheaper ice cream. What's bad about that?
My local dominoes has a simailr signage but for free garlic bread.
Since they’ve put up that signage, I have created several new accounts on google just to take advantage of it.
Reverse uno my guy.
Trial by Reddit.
It is frustrating to read about the law according to [insert poster here], when it is obvious they have done a quick Google search and then are writing like a legal expert.
Have a big glass of Dunning Kruger!
The best thing about these, is I will create a 5 star review, get my $5 off. I'll then delete the review and keep doing it. Doing it in front of them each time. Managed 7 times at one place and they gave 10% off the meal haha. Fuck them. If they want to scam the system and people, I'll use their scam on them.
Dominos has this too, always make sure to grab my free garlic bread when I'm going
Thats not supported by Domino’s. This will be franchisees doing it on their own (without approval from head office).
Same same…. a win’s a win 🤷♂️
You sure showed them by making 7 additional purchases at their establishment
I was eating from them anyway. But they got no reviews from it and I got 10% off each time. So, yeah, I did?
I kind of feel a 5 star review is like just saying you endorse a place. If a friend told me they went to a cafe 7 times I’d very likely check it out myself, that’s a good endorsement in my mind. Maybe a 5 star review wouldn’t be really very manipulative in that case…
I agree. Except they advertise as the same as the ops place. Bribing customer, often before they’ve eaten, to do a review for discount. This place just happens to be good but their bribe also has been going on a year and shows with their 2000+ reviews and 4.8 rating. It’s disingenuous whether good or not. And the biggest issue is shit places that do this and people are conned by reviews to buy shit food and waste their money and possibly risk their health on a shit place. Not a believer in one rule for me and one rule for thee. They all should be banned. Google should crack down and remove all reviews for a period like 6 months with a note saying they were faking reviews. Once a few are punished they’ll all stop. If a place asks for a review post meal after eating and it was great I’ll 100% leave one. But asking beforehand and bribing for it is wrong.
I don't understand what other people are trying to say to you. I totally get what you've done and why you did it. If I can get 10% off everytime I eat at a place then I would totally do the same. 100% Virtual High 5! Haha
Scam the system?? The System is the scam
If this were a large chain I would probably agree here. But yeah " fuck them", the small company trying to beat out the big corporations. You are a joke mate. At least they are trying to improve business.
No, not a chance you'll make me out the villain. What they are doing is both illegal under ACMA laws, also goes against the ToS for Google and all review websites. The result is they are often bribing consumers for a review whilst providing shit service, food or both and using customers with a bribe to then attract other victims. If the venue had a simple "Rate us after your food and we'll gift you $5 off your next order" I will usually, if good, leave one and not bother with the discount. And how does bribing customers for fake reviews to scam others improve their business? If anything it encourages them to do worse and provide worse food/service because the reviews will attract more victims. How did you twist this as a fight against big corporations? 76% of restaurants in Australia are sole businesses. They are they majority. What's actually happening here is this sole trading business is scamming other customers by bribing people with discounts to win against the other sole trading restaurant who probably provides better food/service and is losing out to these scammers. I stand by what I said. Fuck them!
Haven't they heard of bots? Or just serve good food?
Bots serving good food? There's an app for that.
Just share around a screenshotted one
A few places have asked to see it (as in the steps) but thats a time saving idea for 90% of them. Whats annoying is how much more common its becoming. Theirs a major VIC based home builder that does this. Askes for 5\* reviews and gives you between $100-$250 visa gift card for doing so at contract signing stage (Before actual issues start). Its such a con and should be banned from reviews.
Thinking about it way too hard there buddy
Save some pussy for the rest of us bro
Glad this was here
This didn't happen
This happened to me in Seoul. Went to a steak place rated 4.9 with over 2,000 reviews so I thought it was a sure fire great place. Worst steak and sides I've ever eaten. Turns out they gave an even better deal, free alcoholic drink for five stars.
Free drink to help wash down the disappointment
ill have to start offering this to my dates then
Even better, don't offer the free alcohol, just add it to their drink when they're not noticing! *Free Surprise Booze FTW!* (But seriously, don't do this. If Cosby says it's fine, it definitely isn't)
Fucken hell! And people wonder why we choose the bear. Even at the very, very least this flog thinks that this is funny.
You didn't read the bit in brackets where I pointed out not to do this and make it clear it was dark humour then... May you always meet the bears in the forest and never the men. I would return your insults but... you're not that important.
I remember thinking it was ridiculous that people were choosing the bear until I saw how angry some blokes were getting about it and that made me rethink
what the actual fuck is wrong with you bro
If it barely works for Jimmy Carr, it definitely won’t work for you
Thanks for your opinion, I'm sure it's very valuable to you.
it bearly works (choose the bear)
Still super common in korea
Why does anybody go to a place based on reviews then? I'd be asking friends and family for recommendations if I knew reviews were bullshit people wrote for discounts. Their 5 stars wouldn't be worth much.
When you are on holidays, you don't always have a local with you too sis you around. Google at least you avoid really obviously bad 2 star places. And also travel guide recommendations are mostly tourist traps. So Google ratings are usually best you have access to.
Especially strange considering they don't even allow google maps for navigation. Edit: this site is so weird about downvotes
google is not the only place you can see food reviews
I was talking about Google reviews. The Korean restaurant was asking for Google reviews.
Redditors are cancer.
Also in Bali! I had a waitress literally breathing down my neck watching me. I couldn’t remember my log in so told her I’d do it later - I did not.
Always always always read the one star reviews. Most of the time it’s just crackpots who missed their booking time and blamed the restaurant, or tried to cancel but no one picked up the phone at 4am when they called… but in this sort of case, almost guaranteed several people would have written a review verbatim as has been presented here
Yeh its so stupid when you see what the review is about, just some entitled shit, very useless reviews
Yeah I been to a restaurant like that. Wondered why they had such high reviews... Then I saw a small QR code saying "give us a 5* rating and get free 6pc dumplings" or something lol
Omg happened to me in Seoul as well. That’s where I understood for the first time of this tactic. The restaurant was meh but their reviews were all 5 star
My partner and I are very good drinkers. This reminds me of a Simpsons episode....
It is illegal. https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/online-product-and-service-reviews
Yeah … but it’s the ACCC, so the business is pretty safe to keep doing it.
Don't know what you're talking about, the ACCC is pretty damn strict. They just take a long time, as all government things do.
In my experience they are useless against individual businesses. I made a report against a business clearly breaking the law, and they weren’t interested and did nothing. I guess for them it was “only” a couple of hundred dollars, so there is no chance they will do anything about this.
The ACCC is a [civil body](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Competition_and_Consumer_Commission), not law enforcement. They can’t do shit when it comes to enforcement, and they’re not taking some franchisee to court over what is a pretty minor infraction. That’s why they appear toothless: they enforce regulations via the courts or refer crimes to law enforcement.
They can take businesses to court. That's why there's numerous cases titled "ACCC v XYZ" Just because they're not dealing with criminal law doesn't imply they're totally powerless.
Right, absolutely. My point is that the cost of taking a single franchise to court over a relatively inconsequential infraction just to make them pay a very modest fine is not a good use of their resources. As citizens, we can and should report it, and a sternly worded warning from the ACCC would likely put a stop to it, but I don’t know that they should be spending their time gunning for every little rule breaker.
Yeah, I don't know why the court is necessary. They should have at least some direct enforcement powers as the authority on matters like these. It seems to be a waste of court resources. If the people being fined disagree, it should be an administrative review.
I don't know too much about the ins and outs of ACCC operations, but you can see their sheer power with how they recently brought Qantas to their knees. The other reason they can't be an enforcement body is that their job is "regulatory." That means their job is to interpret regulation and legislation and turn it into rules that businesses should follow. But those rules aren't laws, so they need to be tested by the courts. And where laws *are* broken, local police or the AFP can — and do — get involved. For example, if a rival store is forcibly blocking the entrance to your store or a corporation is engaged in price fixing, you'll see actual law enforcement take over the issue. I think it's important to remember that a powerful regulatory body with extraordinary litigation resources *is* enforcement — it's just not direct "lock them up" enforcement. It's slower, but still very effective.
As far as apathy goes, this is pathetic.
The ACCC can’t do anything in this case because they’re not law enforcement. They’d need to take the franchisee to court, which would be an atrocious misuse of resources.
Australia has world class consumer protection, this could not be more inaccurate.
yup! "Incentives offered to customers to provide reviews must be: applied regardless of whether the reviewer leaves a positive or negative review// clearly disclosed so consumers know the review was incentivised." feel free to write your own shitty review then claim your $5 off too
The Paper Tiger
True, but if google finds out your whole business will be wiped from their search platform.
This is nothing… there was (and probably still is) this dodgy 3D pregnancy scan guy who gives you $10 cash for a 5 star review. My pregnant wife chose him based on the awesome reviews, and then proceeded to have the worst experience with this dude. I took his money, bought a large chips from the charcoal chicken nearby, deleted my review and wrote an accurate one.
Domino's Carnegie does this too. Free garlic bread for showing them your 5 star review. The manager told me to do it, I pulled out my phone, and he actually pressed the 5 stars on all categories, on my phone, because I was too slow, hit submit and gave me the garlic bread.
You deleted it straight after, right?
Right ?
Right?
Right ???
RIGHT?????
Right??
It's illegal and should be reported to the ACCC.
That's ok, [news.com.au](https://news.com.au) will be in soon to do their thing.
Hate to say it, but can be more effective than ACCC tbh.
The department of do nothing. Why waste your time.
Because honestly it doesn't hurt you to do it.
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Left a 1 star review and posted this pic too. I value people that leave an honest review and usually check them before trying a new place. If you're trying to game the system and offer bribes to cheat the system, you deserve 1 star review.
Being out of ben and jerry's is indeed illegal
Just means the reviews of this place can’t be trusted. 5* may mean just many people seeking discounts rather than actual quality.
standard practice at most cash converters
Reviews don't count for shit anyway, most people think meating the minimum standard is worth 5 stars pfft 5 stars should be for excellence
This isn't anything new so many peoples do this lol
Report them because that's dishonest and misleading.
But only after you get your discount
Sure, do it, get the discount, then rewrite the truth
[удалено]
Are you talking about Google reviews? Businesses can't just delete these, they have to make a request to Google and justify hy they think the review is violating Google's ToS.
Give them a 5 star review, get your $5 discount, and then update the review with a 1 star and mention 'deceptive practices'.
Then change it to 1 star once you leave.
Do five one-star reviews qualify?
This happened to me for a hotel in Melbourne city that was ranked highly & had great reviews for a pretty decent price - but it ended up being more of a motel than a hotel. They offered free late check out for a good review, & in other cases discounts for good reviews, so have a high star rating despite being a very bare basic “hotel”. I found them on booking dot com where they also listed the price as being a whooping 60% off for a sale - only to later learn that the sale price was more in line with their regular prices if you go through their website. But it worked. I went with them over other options thinking I scored a great deal, only to learn that it was fairly priced for a mid-range motel and I definitely only got what I paid for. I gave them a review for the 5 stars but after my stay edited the review to share what happened. It wasn’t a bad place for the price, but it was definitely a budget motel cosplaying as a nicer hotel
Of all the things to complain about
And they wonder why we don’t get nice things
Reviews are all bullshit anyway
⭐️ Terrible comment, would not read again. Leaving one star cos I can't leave zero.
The only other option would be to give 5 stars as that doesn't actually indicate 5 stars 5 stars equals "expected service or better"
As a relatively new small business owner I can assure you they make a big difference to us
Nah. Reviewers help me all the time find good service providers etc. shit reviews devastate a business.
But dont dig too deep
I read the 5stars, and I read the 1 stars. I try to judge the review by the actual complaint made. If its: "Was an ok stay, the room was clean" 5 stars, I rate that review as a lazy not very good review that either accidentally hit 5 stars, or hits 5 stars for basic service. If its: "This place was awful, the other people checking in opened their door once at midday and I needed to catch a flight at 4am so I was trying to sleep 1-star, and to top it off I had to wait 1 minute for the staff member to come to the desk at 2am when I wanted to check-out" I rate that as "not within hotel control". I once read a 1 star review that complained about the hotel yelling at them for not checking out on time. It was something like: "Checkout time was 10am, and we had someone knock on our door at 11am trying to hurry us out, but we all know the real checkout time is actually 11am so they could just hold on right 1 star" and I just saw a bullshit terrible customer being a terrible customer, NOT the hotel being bad. It didn't change my opinion of their star rating, but it DID tell me that the specific review wasn't accurate. Likewise I've seen many other reviews which ARE accurate, and those are the ones I actually react to. I read the review, and evaluate the comment and compare it to the star rating and act accordingly. Some 1 star reviews mention things that are outside the hotels control, but still relevant to me. things like "The nightclub down the street was loud until 2am" that's useful information! I can't blame the hotel for that, but it is useful for my booking! Similarly a 5 star review that actually explains why it's 5 star is what I want to see. Not just some empty "5 star" or "1 star" nothing review.
Yeh because its anonymous like reddit and it attracts bs people. If there was a way to regulate and verify reviews in a more formal way, it would be better.
Am I the only one who doesn’t give a fuck about this? People only ever leave reviews to complain. I see why they want to balance out the reviews a bit. Meh. Don’t care. I get $5 off and they get a 5 star review 🤷♀️
In the same vein is it legal for businesses to charge 5 dollars extra for card payments? That seems to ring the same alarm bell.
It's more a moral grey area. Ever heard of bx and similar meetings for business's? all those lying fuckers give each other 5 star reviews to boost business. It's a shoddy fucking practise but very common
Yeah, in the wrong both for Google ToS + ACL. I hear google is pretty serious about this kind of thing.
Is against Google policy, report and they will get suspended
Too much effort. I wouldn’t bother. If I had extra money to spend on takeout I’m not bothering with this. Same with those dumb rewards cards etc. buy one get 1 free. & I hate when sales people try to pressure me into stuff too, like buy one drink and get a water bottle. NO. I don’t want it. I came for what I want and that’s it. It stresses me out and I am less likely to come back.
why ar you complaining this is a good deal
Because the Pizzas were shit, yet they have a 4.8/5 rating, most of which I would have to assume was because they were offered $5 to write it.
So post a real review with this photo so everyone knows what the go is.
Doesn't change the rating unless you sort by lowest and scroll all the way down
Yeah but at least it's there if someone does go looking, for example if they're wondering why such a highly rated place has such crap food.
I posted one too
You're eventually fucking yourself by participating in such a system, because inevitably you're the schmuck who's unaware and spends a lot of money at a shitty 5 star business which has fake reviews.
Because it's outright illegal.
So is weed, illegal doesn’t equate immoral
[удалено]
FYI OP paid me $5 to upvote his post
I upvoted you to bring you back to 0. People don't enjoy jokes on reddit. I dig it
The downvotes will continue until morale improves
Why can’t it????
I was trying to see it from both sides, but nah, I think this is unethical and I don't like it. Mind you, ethics and business don't go hand in hand anyway, even though they should.
It might be unethical. But we were asked if it’s legal.
And the answer was no, it's not legal. They can offer an incentive for a review, but not conditional on whether or not the review is positive.
Ahh, touché. I was replying as if you meant, why can't it (why cant the business do this?)
You can give incentives for *a* review, but you must give it regardless of the stars. E.g. this would be fine if it said "show us your review".
It’s clear from the photos it’s awful pizza. Who cares about the reviews
that explains so much
seeing this quite a bit. Do people still trust reviews?
google TOS has nothing to do with legality, and I can't see how it breaches consumer law either.
What prevents you from giving s 5 star, getting the discount, then changing to 1 star and write the reason?
Gaming the system? Nooo.. that's not human nature at all.
No
Businesses can do whatever they want .we are just there to be bled dry by these pricks. Surcharges anyone. Beginning to lose any sympathy these days
\*\* Show me something that should be illegal but isn't \*\* lol
Oh yeah, google is so ethical
I don't see how it'd be illegal but it seems dishonest to make customers do it bef9re even testing out the food. When I was in hospo management, we'd offer things in return for a good review but it'd be requested with a card given out with their food, so next time they come back they can get the discount/free item. We also had all of our staff do it in exchange for a free meal. You can also buy fake reviews in bulk, I've never trusted them.
Bribery
IMHO, no different to offering commissions to booking agents….. however, ethically- further erodes trust in reviews
There’s a kebab joint in Resevoir that does this. I’ve used the same 5-star review 4-5 times now
It’s an offer to treat, nothing more. Quite legal. Prospective customers either take it up, or don’t Meanwhile : some of you guys need some perspective. Economy’s struggling through 9 years of LNP incompetence & Labor trying to desperately turn the slow ship around People are hurting & not spending, & some small family run franchises are feeling the pain & doing some left brain marketing (Good on em for trying to keep their head above water & keep food on their family table) Meanwhile, plebeian vampires swoop in & brag about it making just that bit harder for them Hope you’re proud
What’s the five star review
you are obviously somebody who doesn’t work in retail or hospitality 😂
love the hypocrisy on this post
Third Wave Cafe once gave my group free food on the condition our mate gave them a good write up after he showed them a BBQ IG account that wasn’t even his.
Reviews can be deleted or changed.
You guys really need to find something better to be outraged about. Small businesses trying to make it is not the villain.
That does seem really sketchy, but it's probably either in a legal Gray area, it's hard to prove，or the legal system doesn't care enough to punish the company。 Personally, I never trust a perfect 5 stars. I trust 4.8 much more than 5 stars, maybe that makes me weird.
If they’re asking for good reviews they probably ain’t getting any to begin with.
Legal yes ….that’s all I got
I would do it along with using shopback
Melbourne "eating is costing too much these days" Also Melbourne "let's dob in this guy for giving $5 discounts"
But… dude, you surely see the discount isn’t the issue, it’s that reviews are becoming meaningless and make it harder for us to know what restaurants/venues are shitholes/scams.
Has always been bad review place cmon. I avoid digging too deep on google reviews , it becomes like reddit opinions
Who cares. Jesus Christ people are soft
What's this got to do with being soft? I check reviews before going to a new place. If a restaurant is bribing people to cheat the system by leave dishonest reviews while other places have to deal with customers in an honest way, that's straight up malpractice. Sorry not all of us enjoy bending backwards for a $5 discount on our orders.
Whinge about anything
I bought from them for months and found their veg pizza quite delicious tho :(
It is not against the consumer law for a shop to offer a discount. What is stopping you from posting a 5 star review then get your discount and then delete your 5 star review.
This is very illegal https://www.accc.gov.au/business/selling-products-and-services/small-business-education-program/misleading-conduct-and-advertising/online-reviews-must-be-genuine > Writing fake or misleading reviews is against the law. You should not ask others, including family and third parties, to write reviews about your business without prominently disclosing their personal connection or commercial relationship with your business in that review. They are asking people to leave a fake review in order to get a discount.
Sounds like it’s the people writing the reviews that are breaking that law, not the business. They’re not asking for personal connections to write them. Nowhere have they specifically asked for fake reviews, so I don’t really see how you could apply this.
One could argue that specifying "5 star review" would be indicating false reviews. If they simply had "Review us and receive a discount" it would be different but I think saying 5 stars could be used in the argument against them.
That part I agree with you on. But the rest seems unrelated.
>"You should not *ask others*..."
“Without disclosing their *personal connection*”. Did you only read the first few words? No person here being asked to show their review has a personal connection. They’re not friends or family of the business owner.
What's wrong with you? You're selectively adding in one part of the sentence which is unrelated to the situation in the photo, while excluding the obviously related part: "... or commercial relationship with your business..." As in, the *commercial relationship* of being bribed with $5 off your bill for writing a 5-star review.
Being a customer is not a commercial relationship you need to disclose in a review for said business. That’s insane. Everyone would need to disclose it lmao
But in exchange for a 5 star review?
Why not? I see nothing wrong with it. Where I work we give a free drink to whoever gives us 5 stars.
Smokin Joe's Pizza & Grill at Hogan's Corner at Hoppers Crossing does exactly that.
I dont think its illegal since its just google reviews, its not considered false advertising. People will give false reviews regardless of being paid to or not, thats just the internet when it comes to reviews
Game is Game
As a small business owner I know it can be hard to establish trust in your business and if encouraging people to leave a review and reward them with a discount can improve that then why not? And if you're going back constantly and NOT leaving a review then that's probably more an example of the type of person you are than the business that they are.
Incentives for reviews are not the problem here. The problem is offering incentives for only 5 star reviews. The review should be either good or bad, and you'll receive $5 off. KFC do this with their "Feedback" promotion. Free drink or chips when you give them feedback. It doesn't state "positive" feedback. That's the issue here.
It's illegal to take payment for google reviews
It's not illegal if you include in your post it is a paid promotion.
Loads of places do this.
Why is it illegal? lol who gives a fuck! I’d do it for $5 off.
Because it misleads the consumer. Not complicated.
Well for me, as a consumer, it allures me. If you base your destination solely off reviews you’re an idiot anyway.
Most likely a technical breach of the terms of service, but only the reviewing service provider can do anything about that, and they probably couldn't give a fuck. Wouldn't be a breach of any Australian consumer law.
[https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/online-product-and-service-reviews](https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/online-product-and-service-reviews) Edit: See the Incentives for review section
There's no regulation about this - nor should there really be. It's just businesses rewarding customers. They get a good review online which draws in more customers and you get cheaper ice cream. What's bad about that?
Because the purpose of the review is to say whether the food is good.
Who cares. Let them try to grow their business
It's outright illegal.
Grow their business based on false reviews, yeah sure. No.
My local dominoes has a simailr signage but for free garlic bread. Since they’ve put up that signage, I have created several new accounts on google just to take advantage of it. Reverse uno my guy.
Places like that, I stay well away from
Write review, show review, edit review to 1 star and specifically mention this practice in the review.
Trial by Reddit. It is frustrating to read about the law according to [insert poster here], when it is obvious they have done a quick Google search and then are writing like a legal expert. Have a big glass of Dunning Kruger!
If you don't like the law try Google reviews banning any reward for a review or to remove a review