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Agencies & People

AllAgents asks reviewers to prove their posts are not ‘fake’

Anyone posting comments about agents must now prove they have been customers BEFORE posting.

Nigel Lewis

Glasgow-based reviews website allAgents has taken the “unprecedented step” of asking people posting on its site to prove they are genuine customers of an agent before their comments can go live.

The site, which has been involved in a prolonged battle with Purplebricks over claims by the agent that some negative posts on allAgents are ‘fake’, says it has made the move “due to previous threats of legal action” by Purplebricks.

“They are not fake, they are genuine customer concerns,” a statement released by allAgents over the weekend says.

AllAgents claims it is now the only review site in the UK to ask customers for proof of this kind prior to posts going live.

The announcement is the culmination of nearly six months of wrangling between the two firms after Purplebricks asked the site to take down the ‘fake’ negative reviews. The website declined to do so.

In December talks between it and Purplebricks broke down after allAgents’ Director of Business Development said the hybrid agent’s “business ethics are not in line with our own”.

one-star reviews

Of the 11 reviews posted on the reviews website since the New Year, all bar one award Purplebricks one star out of five with comments ranging from “appalling” to “abysmal” about both the company’s lettings and sales operations.

“Unlike some reviews sites we are an open platform, which means agents cannot control which customers are invited to post reviews,” the allAgents statement says.

“Our reviews are entirely independent of any commercial arrangement we have with agents, and we have no commercial arrangement with Purplebricks.”

Last month allAgents revealed that Purplebricks was the ‘worst rated one-star agency’ on its site.

Read more about the Purplebricks vs allAgents battle.

February 5, 2018

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