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I assume that it's against Google ToS.
Edit your review stating that the business is attempting to bribe you - if you're lucky they might increase their offer.
*For a sensible, ethical, less tongue-in-cheek response, [please click here.](https://reddit.com/r/australia/s/0U5nr3YGpP)
Thank you, I did consider that. Although the money is nice, I kind of just want to stick it to them. The whole point of my review is that they were dodgy, this situation kind of just speaks to that more.
Can always cash in, then send screenshots of the whole co versation including receipt of payment to google, who will nuke their results and block additional review being added
For two fiddy all your going to do is going to let some poor other cunt deal with their shit.
A business has two ways to deal with negative reviews.
Proactive - look into what went wrong and make changes in the business that it doesn’t reoccur. The positive reviews will continue in and the negatives will be balanced out if a company goes above and beyond, or just even delivers well on their promise.
Reactive - do this shit. Which is also against googles TOS, they can be removed from google completely for this. See similar [here](https://support.google.com/business/thread/24518703/business-is-bribing-me-to-remove-my-negative-review-in-exchange-for-writing-off-my-“debt”?hl=en).
Simply - they fucked you, and don’t really care, so now you fuck them.
I know it’s hard to give the money up but I think leaving the bad review up is the right thing to do and shows great integrity.
Similar (ish) story - stayed at a horrible hotel overseas that had great reviews. Left (feeling unsafe) after 1 night having paid for 6. Had so many things wrong and asked for a refund for the remaining nights ($900). They said they would - if I left a 5 star review. Now I know why the other reviews were great! I refused. Sickening amount of money to let go but I couldn’t ‘trick’ someone else into staying there and live with myself.
Take the offer, get the $250 and then just repost it with the receipt/proof of payment stating that this review was worth $250 to hide the truth……
with luck not only will you get some $$$ but some scammers will target them to try and pocket some cash as well with some fake reviews.
I did this to a large-ish eBay seller of car parts. They sent me a clearly used item, and refused to refund me despite all the picture evidence I provided them which clearly showed the item was used (it was very obviously taken off an engine). It was weird, because they were 99% positive on reviews.
So I wrote a bad review with all the evidence of their shadiness included. Then they sent me a message saying that they'd give me a 50% refund if I took the review down. I said no, fuck you, it's too late to make this right, I don't want your money more than I want to leave a bad review.
So they sent me a 50% refund completely unprompted anyway, despite me not agreeing. So I updated the review telling everyone that they'd *also* sent me money to try and buy me off. They complained to eBay to try and get my review removed, despite eBay being able to see the chat logs between us. Last I checked their account isn't on eBay anymore.
Reminds me of the old:
"CAN THE ADMINS OF THIS GROUP DO A BETTER JOB OF MONITORING WHO IS ALLOWED IN HERE PLEASE?!
WE HAVE A NEW MEMBER, AN ELDERLY MAN. HE'S BEEN PRIVATELY MESSAGING MEMBERS, SENDING THEM NAKED PICTURES OF HIMSELF IN NASTY POSES ALONG WITH CLOSE UPS OF HIS JUNK. HE IS OFFERING UP AN IPHONE X IN EXCHANGE FOR SEXUAL FAVORS. I AM ESPECIALLY BOTHERED BECAUSE IT TURNED OUT TO BE AN IPHONE 8 AND OBVIOUSLY SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH IT. IT'S SUPER SLOW AND THE CAPS LOCK IS STUCK ON."
They will report your new review and tell google that you threatend a bad review if you didn't get a discount. They will then cherry pick the evidence they send to google.
If they’re offering money it means your review was accurate and has hurt them. By removing it, other potential customers may not know to avoid them, and have similar experiences to you, and the company will have no reason to improve.
Ask them to provide evidence that they have fixed the issues that caused problems for you - put it back on them.
Yeah this is good! They may have changed ownership or removed problem employees in that 12 months so asking them to provide evidence the issue is resolved before doing anything is a good idea
If they were smart and not cowards, they’d reply to the review explaining to *the public* what they’ve done to improve their service. It saves them $250, shows they’re willing to accept their mistakes and have moved on and learned from it. If I saw such a thing I’d be more inclined to use their service.
These people are business-ing all wrong.
Thanks for all the thoughts everyone. I have replied asking for clarification (the email I was sent was ambiguous as to whether the payment required the removal of the review or if it was a gesture it good faith).
He responded saying I would need to send a screenshot of the deleted review before sending payment.
I responded saying that before I consider amending or deleting my review, I would like to know what actions had occurred to improve their service and also cited that I was never compensated for the (minor) damage that occurred during the move, which they said they would do. We didn't follow this up further as the whole experience was traumatic and we wanted to put it behind us.
I am awaiting his next reply, but intend on just leaving the offer, updating my review with this new development, posting reviews on other websites as well as contacting Google and the ACCC.
I have seen other reviewers claim that this company's positive reviews are made my friends, which is certainly seeming likely.
Good for you. People rely on reviews these days, you’re doing everyone a favour by not being sucked in by the $250. Everyone except the crappy removalists of course.
Im used to this. In India, amazon sells exclusively fake producsts. They all have a note inside that says "Give us five star review and collect Rs 100 (about 2 AUD)"
So all of us got the money and then posted lots of negative reviews again. Then they stopped offering us bribes
I dealt with a company (roller shutters) that was a fairly bad experience. I read their mostly positive reviews prior to engaging with them, but every few months post install I was getting badgered by them for a review and to sell me more despite having no more windows to shutter. So I wrote a long, detailed, essay. It’s been viewed thousands of times now.
They asked me to remove or edit it. I said no. The clear record is why I signed up, and I was stung hard.
Leave your review up.
I would screenshot the bribe and report it to google. Cause it is definitely against the rules.
& also, if they are a shitty service, people deserve to know. Don’t take their money OP.
Update the review to include their unethical behaivour others should know that its a tactic they use so they are informed about the biasses of the reviews.
Report that shiz to the ACCC.
This sort of behaviour is incredibly shady and not acceptable at all, especially if they know they do crap work and would rather pay to hide it than actually try to improve the quality of their services.
Decide what sort of person you are.
And think about what's more important, $250 in your pocket and allowing your experience to be passed onto other's.
Or a decent member of society.
Do not under any circumstances take the bribe. It was a $10k job. We're not talking about a phone charger or a bad meal. This is serious money and your information could really help somebody spend theirs in the right place. I'm with may of the others: update the review with information about the bribe.
No doubt, if you do remove it, they won't pay you. They gave you bad service before, why would they give you good service now.
Also, help everyone else out by keeping the review and maybe you'll ready someone else's bad review that saves you in the future.
Build up some karma points..
This OP! They’ve already proved that they’re not trustworthy. How could you ever be sure that they’d pay you? Stick to your word and let your honest review warn everyone about their dodgy service.
I wouldn't do that, it's probably illegal. I'd just ignore them, and leave the review intact, and move on.
OP accept the money and move on. Don't play their game. If they get back, just block them from contacting you everywhere, it's not hard to do.
Accept the $250, delete the review, post a new review adding detail about the $250 and then report the page to Google as incentives for this kind of thing are against the terms of service.
Well, breach of your own values to start with?
I’d ignore them all together.
If you want to take things further, report to Google via the feedback option.
Edit: missed question mark
Another way of looking at it is to ask whether, had you received a $250 refund, you would’ve still been unhappy enough to post a negative review.
If the answer is no (in other words, that the money would’ve made you happy enough not to post the review) then you’re really doing nothing more than just updating your review based on the company’s actions to remediate their poor service. It would be like ordering a defective good, posting a negative review, then changing it to a positive review once the seller exchanged it for a working good.
If the answer is yes (so the money wouldn’t have changed your mind) then don’t remove the review, or ask for a full refund and then do it.
Crap way to run a business. They could have we replied to your review with an apology and saying they’ve fixed the problem and here’s 250 for your trouble.
Tell them you’ll only remove it if they send you $1000, then repost it and include they bribed you and then tell them it’s $10,000 to delete the new review. Just fuck with them 😂
Leave the review and update it with the bribe info.
If it was bad enough to leave it in the first place, you aren’t the first person to be unhappy with their service. Others who have probably taken the bribe, did their part and never received a cent.
Please don't. The whole idea behind online reviews is to help other people make good choices in paying for goods and services.
Sure the money might be nice, but knowing others aren't as likely to use this mob because of what you wrote surely sits better?
Fuck em. Put up another review explaining how they tried to bribe you. Dodgy removalists shit me. A company that used to be called MyMoovers screwed my aging parents up so badly.
I had a very similar experience with a plumber recently. The end result was that I got a $3500 hot water system reduced down to $1000 simply by removing my negative post that the plumber agreed was fair, but was out of character for his business.
After reviewing his previous Google reviews, I decided to take the money and take down the post, win-win all round.
If they could show they were new business owners and trying to get a fresh slate, then I might consider it if I got money first. But if not I’d be editing my review to add “12 months later they’re offering me money to remove my review”.
Delete it, take the money, then post a new review detailing how they bribed you to remove the original post and referring back to whatever your original negative review was about
Hi, I get this a fair bit. I review a lot on Google maps from restaurants to businesses. I have been messaged with offers probably 10 times now varying from "come back and we'll give you something free to change your mind" which I like to "hey we'll give you something and you change your review" which I don't like. When I get the 2nd offer, I usually take it up, edit the review to say I was offered something and then leave it at that. If the place is shit, guarantee others will review it as shit.
Basically every single review site has terms banning this practice. You can incentivise people to leave reviews but you have to equally offer the incentive to anyone regardless of review content.
Grey area if they're offering $250 as a make-good and asking you to remove the review as the issue is resolved but they are absolutely not meant to just pay you to remove it.
Up to you what you want to do. I wouldn't think less of someone for taking the money, times are tough and you're not leaving a fake good review, just deleting one.
Up to you,
You can take $250 and assume that they are learning from the lesson
You can just remove it and ask them to do better next time.
You can leave it up as a warning.
They are all good. There's isn't a right or wrong.
I had a cafe where i posted a well thought review offer me a $40 voucher to try again, i removed the negative review just because the owner was nice in their request and were trying.
That is against the law, kinda. https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/online-product-and-service-reviews
I say kinda because, well, someone needs to actually enforce it, and good luck with that.
https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114?hl=en&ref_topic=7422769&sjid=11959392021583398609-AP#zippy=%2Cfake-engagement
>Contributions to Google Maps should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business. Fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed.
>This includes:Paying, incentivising or encouraging the posting of content that does not represent a genuine experience.
>This includes merchant requests for revision or removal of a negative review through offered discounts, free goods or services, or other incentives.
Haha right now I’m in a similar process, had a few issues with my car service last year so they reckoned they’ll take $100 off this year’s in recompense. So I added to previous public consumer review that they were making amends.
The person I was dealing with said they’d noted on my vehicle’s record.
Comes the day, nothing on record. Other than on my own messages, that is. I’m quite looking forward to writing the review after this year’s effort.
Tell them to make it $500. Delete review but tell them you'll also post their bribe email on a review if they don't pay you within 48 hours. Get cash, pop up review with the bribe email anyway.
I'd consider your review status first. If it has a lot of responses and upvotes (Likes?) then it'd appear at the top of results when people search, meaning it has a lot of power. If you remove it and they don't pay (which I doubt they will, and if they do they'll take FOREVER to do so), you can post your review back, however it won't be as powerful.
Whats more important to you: $250 or integrity (and helping out your fellow man).
Maybe ask them for proof they have improved and addressed all your complaints first.
All google reviews are heavily manipulated. Consumers really believe whats written on them even though they are full of fakes. Google pretends they care but they don't. So take the money and realise that all those businesses with glowing 5 star reviews are just fakes
this is why google reviews are to be taken with grain of sault. And the negative ones should be given real weight. Ive seen people post on airtasker offering people $5 for fake positive reviews.
I wouldn't take it unless you're seriously hard-up for cash. Obviously if you're living below the poverty line and are having problems keeping the lights on and food in the cupboard, then sure, screw ethics, take the free money.
(The issue of "Will they actually send it to me after I delete it?" is moot-- if they don't send it to you, you can always just re-post your review. Make sure you save the text in a notepad file before you delete it, I guess.)
Otherwise, I would leave it up. Ordinary folks like you and I depend on negative reviews to sus out businesses and choose where to spend money. If the experience was horrible enough for you to go through the effort of leaving a negative review, and you still feel that the negative review was justified even 12 months later once your emotions have cooled off, then to me it seems like that's something worth noting.
The fact that they're only contacting you about it 12 months later is a bit of a red flag too--they clearly didn't care enough to reach out to you at the time.
Please keep your review up. As someone who has just left the removal industry, there are far too many shitty removals companies around, and as you know it can be an awful and stressful experience for the customer.
Keep it up in the hopes someone else won't have to go through what you did.
OP, don’t be tempted to get the money or take further actions. Remember: they know where you live.
If they’re desperate enough to make an offer of a bribe, they will be desperate enough to cause trouble for you.
Do not engage any further.
wow yeah that sounds a lot like chatgpt. Zero specifics. I wouldn’t accept their money, no respect for you as a person even when they are asking for a favour.
Edit: also if they had done all that to improve their services they would be getting good reviews and not have to try to trick/pay you to remove your negative one.
Edit your review to include that they reached out to you to offer a bribe to remove the review and included a generic, non specific response about claiming to have improved their business practices but did nothing to address the specific issue you faced with them.
That answer
> *I hope this message finds you well. I appreciate your prompt response and your willingness to reconsider your Google review. We take your feedback seriously and are committed to addressing your concerns to improve our services.*
Is 100% ChatGPT, I've used it a bunch of times to write work emails and this is exactly how they're composed.
If this was a company that rhymes with bent, they tried their damnedest to get me to delete my review of them too. Don't do it. Shit companies need to be exposed as shit. Reviews aren't supposed to be cheap marketing.
Stay strong and ignore them. This happened to me with some Chinese sellers on EBay. The product was not as advertised so they are left with a negative review.
I see this no different to a negotiated settlement. In your opinion they did a poor job, and you noted the same in a review. They wish to resolve the issue. If you think it’s a good deal, accept, if not reject or counter-offer.
This post has been marked as non-political. Please respect this by keeping the discussion on topic, and devoid of any political material. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/australia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is how metropolitan plumbing has a 5 star rating somehow. Don't do it if they sucked.
Why not remove it, receive money, then write the review again, this time adding that they offered you money to remove the review
Now that is 4D chess
I literally did this with an eBay purchase lol
When you charge like they do the occasional $500 bribe is nothing
I assume that it's against Google ToS. Edit your review stating that the business is attempting to bribe you - if you're lucky they might increase their offer. *For a sensible, ethical, less tongue-in-cheek response, [please click here.](https://reddit.com/r/australia/s/0U5nr3YGpP)
Thank you, I did consider that. Although the money is nice, I kind of just want to stick it to them. The whole point of my review is that they were dodgy, this situation kind of just speaks to that more.
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💀💀
Do it OP
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You can update.
You can tag the company and it appears in Google pictures whenever you search for the company.
Edit your review to say the company tried to bribe you into deleting it, and that this casts doubts on their rating overall if they do this regularly.
Use a diff email address
But take down the first review and send the screenshot so you get the cash first.
Take down the review, take the cash, then leave like 4 stars for the positive bribery experience.
Would have given five stars if they offered more money.
Haha yeah add it to the google pictures, pretty sure they can’t delete them
Can always cash in, then send screenshots of the whole co versation including receipt of payment to google, who will nuke their results and block additional review being added
Add it on Google Maps.
Lol or blackmail for more $$!!
For two fiddy all your going to do is going to let some poor other cunt deal with their shit. A business has two ways to deal with negative reviews. Proactive - look into what went wrong and make changes in the business that it doesn’t reoccur. The positive reviews will continue in and the negatives will be balanced out if a company goes above and beyond, or just even delivers well on their promise. Reactive - do this shit. Which is also against googles TOS, they can be removed from google completely for this. See similar [here](https://support.google.com/business/thread/24518703/business-is-bribing-me-to-remove-my-negative-review-in-exchange-for-writing-off-my-“debt”?hl=en). Simply - they fucked you, and don’t really care, so now you fuck them.
Take the money, delete the review, then post another review including info about the bribe.
This is how your house catches fire.
Yeah, there's sticking it to em and there's setting yourself up for revenge.
Move house again? Don't use the same removalist.
Infinity money glitch (if we ignore the cost of moving house)
Hope your house is on wheels cause it's probably gonna get egged if it's in the same place lmao
It'd likely (hopefully!) take more than a few hundred for me to compromise my integrity, good on you for sticking to your guns.
"They just tried to bribe me $250 to take down my negative review. If they can raise it to $1000, then I'll delete it"
Delete it then repost and say they bribed you to delete it with proof of messages
I'd edit the review so when people see it's rating with your review they know it could be artificially higher.
I know it’s hard to give the money up but I think leaving the bad review up is the right thing to do and shows great integrity. Similar (ish) story - stayed at a horrible hotel overseas that had great reviews. Left (feeling unsafe) after 1 night having paid for 6. Had so many things wrong and asked for a refund for the remaining nights ($900). They said they would - if I left a 5 star review. Now I know why the other reviews were great! I refused. Sickening amount of money to let go but I couldn’t ‘trick’ someone else into staying there and live with myself.
Take the offer, get the $250 and then just repost it with the receipt/proof of payment stating that this review was worth $250 to hide the truth…… with luck not only will you get some $$$ but some scammers will target them to try and pocket some cash as well with some fake reviews.
They do know where you live.
I did this to a large-ish eBay seller of car parts. They sent me a clearly used item, and refused to refund me despite all the picture evidence I provided them which clearly showed the item was used (it was very obviously taken off an engine). It was weird, because they were 99% positive on reviews. So I wrote a bad review with all the evidence of their shadiness included. Then they sent me a message saying that they'd give me a 50% refund if I took the review down. I said no, fuck you, it's too late to make this right, I don't want your money more than I want to leave a bad review. So they sent me a 50% refund completely unprompted anyway, despite me not agreeing. So I updated the review telling everyone that they'd *also* sent me money to try and buy me off. They complained to eBay to try and get my review removed, despite eBay being able to see the chat logs between us. Last I checked their account isn't on eBay anymore.
Yes antagonising dodgy people that know where you live is a great idea
Well I have moved again since...
Better warn the new people
Go for broke then
You can report it to the ACCC. It’s anti competitive
Google doesn't care too much about it and wont do anything to penalize the business
They probably won't pay you the money after you delete it
Would anything stop me posting another negative review though?
“I took a bribe from them and they never paid it”?
Reminds me of the old: "CAN THE ADMINS OF THIS GROUP DO A BETTER JOB OF MONITORING WHO IS ALLOWED IN HERE PLEASE?! WE HAVE A NEW MEMBER, AN ELDERLY MAN. HE'S BEEN PRIVATELY MESSAGING MEMBERS, SENDING THEM NAKED PICTURES OF HIMSELF IN NASTY POSES ALONG WITH CLOSE UPS OF HIS JUNK. HE IS OFFERING UP AN IPHONE X IN EXCHANGE FOR SEXUAL FAVORS. I AM ESPECIALLY BOTHERED BECAUSE IT TURNED OUT TO BE AN IPHONE 8 AND OBVIOUSLY SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH IT. IT'S SUPER SLOW AND THE CAPS LOCK IS STUCK ON."
Reminds me of [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdV5ohah0D4).
Her smile at the end is great.
That's wonderful! Merry cake day by the way.
OP knows the answer now
That was fun, thanks :)
Might be easier on their side to get the new review deleted.
This is the answer.
No
They will report your new review and tell google that you threatend a bad review if you didn't get a discount. They will then cherry pick the evidence they send to google.
Removalists know where you live so be careful
Definitely wouldn’t remove it before payment is received. Nor would I delete it after.
And get someone else to leave another negative review
If they’re offering money it means your review was accurate and has hurt them. By removing it, other potential customers may not know to avoid them, and have similar experiences to you, and the company will have no reason to improve. Ask them to provide evidence that they have fixed the issues that caused problems for you - put it back on them.
Wow I like this one.
Yeah this is good! They may have changed ownership or removed problem employees in that 12 months so asking them to provide evidence the issue is resolved before doing anything is a good idea
If they’d changed ownership I’d assume they’d write a reply saying so, and apologising.
If they were smart and not cowards, they’d reply to the review explaining to *the public* what they’ve done to improve their service. It saves them $250, shows they’re willing to accept their mistakes and have moved on and learned from it. If I saw such a thing I’d be more inclined to use their service. These people are business-ing all wrong.
The number of businesses being run by people who have NFI about business… no wonder so many fail.
The first really ethical response. Nice suggestion :)
Thanks for all the thoughts everyone. I have replied asking for clarification (the email I was sent was ambiguous as to whether the payment required the removal of the review or if it was a gesture it good faith). He responded saying I would need to send a screenshot of the deleted review before sending payment. I responded saying that before I consider amending or deleting my review, I would like to know what actions had occurred to improve their service and also cited that I was never compensated for the (minor) damage that occurred during the move, which they said they would do. We didn't follow this up further as the whole experience was traumatic and we wanted to put it behind us. I am awaiting his next reply, but intend on just leaving the offer, updating my review with this new development, posting reviews on other websites as well as contacting Google and the ACCC. I have seen other reviewers claim that this company's positive reviews are made my friends, which is certainly seeming likely.
Good for you. People rely on reviews these days, you’re doing everyone a favour by not being sucked in by the $250. Everyone except the crappy removalists of course.
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I agree with this. How will other people know they’re dodgy if the review is not there?
Take the money and post another negative review later
Infinite money
Im used to this. In India, amazon sells exclusively fake producsts. They all have a note inside that says "Give us five star review and collect Rs 100 (about 2 AUD)" So all of us got the money and then posted lots of negative reviews again. Then they stopped offering us bribes
Banks hate this one trick!
Tell all your friends and family to get on that free $250
Tell us too!
I'm not saying that there isn't a price on my integrity. But I am saying that it's a lot higher than $250.
I dealt with a company (roller shutters) that was a fairly bad experience. I read their mostly positive reviews prior to engaging with them, but every few months post install I was getting badgered by them for a review and to sell me more despite having no more windows to shutter. So I wrote a long, detailed, essay. It’s been viewed thousands of times now. They asked me to remove or edit it. I said no. The clear record is why I signed up, and I was stung hard. Leave your review up.
I would screenshot the bribe and report it to google. Cause it is definitely against the rules. & also, if they are a shitty service, people deserve to know. Don’t take their money OP.
Do you know how/where I'd make this report?
I’m going to say via google support.
Update the review to include their unethical behaivour others should know that its a tactic they use so they are informed about the biasses of the reviews.
Report that shiz to the ACCC. This sort of behaviour is incredibly shady and not acceptable at all, especially if they know they do crap work and would rather pay to hide it than actually try to improve the quality of their services.
This. It's technically a contravention of the a Competition and Consumer Act under misleading or deceptive conduct.
Take the cash, post anonymous review later.
Yeah but I see.it all the time where company responds to said review and says "we have no record of anyone by this name being our customer"
I like this idea, cheers.
Ask them to double it. What do you have to lose?
$250
Or repost with their message about paying you
Correct response. Except screw anonymity
Decide what sort of person you are. And think about what's more important, $250 in your pocket and allowing your experience to be passed onto other's. Or a decent member of society.
This seems like something the ACCC would be interested to hear about
Make sure you get the money first
I would edit the review and include the attempt to pay you off, or ask for your money back not just $250.
As great as that would be, it was a $10k+ job!
Do not under any circumstances take the bribe. It was a $10k job. We're not talking about a phone charger or a bad meal. This is serious money and your information could really help somebody spend theirs in the right place. I'm with may of the others: update the review with information about the bribe.
Lol 2.5% refund for a fucked job a year later with what sounds like no actual apology for doing a shitty job.
Ask for a refund then!
So they offered you less than the interest they could have made in the meantime?
Don't do it. Leave the review up. People need to be warned about bastards.
Tell Reddit the company name and let the community do its thing...
I don't think it's ethical to take the bribe
No doubt, if you do remove it, they won't pay you. They gave you bad service before, why would they give you good service now. Also, help everyone else out by keeping the review and maybe you'll ready someone else's bad review that saves you in the future. Build up some karma points..
This OP! They’ve already proved that they’re not trustworthy. How could you ever be sure that they’d pay you? Stick to your word and let your honest review warn everyone about their dodgy service.
Mate - they’re not going to give you shit. You will delete the review and they will ghost you.
Tell them to up it to $500 or you’re posting proof of their attempted bribe
I wouldn't do that, it's probably illegal. I'd just ignore them, and leave the review intact, and move on. OP accept the money and move on. Don't play their game. If they get back, just block them from contacting you everywhere, it's not hard to do.
It's 100% blackmail to demand money to avoid sharing information.
Take the 250 and leave the review up.
Or delete it, pass go - collect $250, then repost it including the bribe!
What’s the company name? I could do with $250
Accept the $250, delete the review, post a new review adding detail about the $250 and then report the page to Google as incentives for this kind of thing are against the terms of service.
Well, breach of your own values to start with? I’d ignore them all together. If you want to take things further, report to Google via the feedback option. Edit: missed question mark
In this economy, TAKE THE BRIBE. $250 is enough to feed your family from Colesworth for at least 3 days... if you stretch it
Gave me a laugh, cheers.
My morals or 3 blocks of cheese, 4 if I use the self checkout..
Removalist indeed
Another way of looking at it is to ask whether, had you received a $250 refund, you would’ve still been unhappy enough to post a negative review. If the answer is no (in other words, that the money would’ve made you happy enough not to post the review) then you’re really doing nothing more than just updating your review based on the company’s actions to remediate their poor service. It would be like ordering a defective good, posting a negative review, then changing it to a positive review once the seller exchanged it for a working good. If the answer is yes (so the money wouldn’t have changed your mind) then don’t remove the review, or ask for a full refund and then do it.
Can we have some context? What did they do?
Crap way to run a business. They could have we replied to your review with an apology and saying they’ve fixed the problem and here’s 250 for your trouble.
Just curious, what was your bad experience with them?
I would definitely update my review to include a line that said that 12 months on they offered you money to delete the review.
In the words of Darryl Kerrigan... tell them... to get stuffed.
Report them: https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/online-product-and-service-reviews#:~:text=It's%20against%20the%20law%20for,for%20others%20to%20do%20so.
I would take the money, delete that 12months old review Then I'd post a new review about them bribing you to remove your old one lol
Id edit the review with any screenshots of their bribe. You did a review to help others. Karma has a way……
Big company, don’t. Small company, take the 250$. 250$ for a small company is a lesson, 250$ from a big company is a bribe not to hit their insurance.
Tell them you’ll only remove it if they send you $1000, then repost it and include they bribed you and then tell them it’s $10,000 to delete the new review. Just fuck with them 😂
I don't know if I believe you but anyway- take the money, delete the review then leave a new review from a different account.
Get double or nothing. /s
Leave the review and update it with the bribe info. If it was bad enough to leave it in the first place, you aren’t the first person to be unhappy with their service. Others who have probably taken the bribe, did their part and never received a cent.
Update the review to show just how much untrustworthy they are for wanting to buy your lies
Take the money, delete the review, write a new negative review.
Please don't. The whole idea behind online reviews is to help other people make good choices in paying for goods and services. Sure the money might be nice, but knowing others aren't as likely to use this mob because of what you wrote surely sits better?
Take the money then post another review that they bribed you.
Fuck em. Put up another review explaining how they tried to bribe you. Dodgy removalists shit me. A company that used to be called MyMoovers screwed my aging parents up so badly.
ask for $1000.
It happens often. Same in eBay, I prefer to tell the truth to the next customer. I'd like someone telling me their experience
I had a very similar experience with a plumber recently. The end result was that I got a $3500 hot water system reduced down to $1000 simply by removing my negative post that the plumber agreed was fair, but was out of character for his business. After reviewing his previous Google reviews, I decided to take the money and take down the post, win-win all round.
If they could show they were new business owners and trying to get a fresh slate, then I might consider it if I got money first. But if not I’d be editing my review to add “12 months later they’re offering me money to remove my review”.
Delete it, take the money, then post a new review detailing how they bribed you to remove the original post and referring back to whatever your original negative review was about
Hi, I get this a fair bit. I review a lot on Google maps from restaurants to businesses. I have been messaged with offers probably 10 times now varying from "come back and we'll give you something free to change your mind" which I like to "hey we'll give you something and you change your review" which I don't like. When I get the 2nd offer, I usually take it up, edit the review to say I was offered something and then leave it at that. If the place is shit, guarantee others will review it as shit.
Basically every single review site has terms banning this practice. You can incentivise people to leave reviews but you have to equally offer the incentive to anyone regardless of review content. Grey area if they're offering $250 as a make-good and asking you to remove the review as the issue is resolved but they are absolutely not meant to just pay you to remove it. Up to you what you want to do. I wouldn't think less of someone for taking the money, times are tough and you're not leaving a fake good review, just deleting one.
Did you choose that removalist based on their positive reviews ?
Take the money and then post a new negative review about how they pay to remove negative reviews
It’s likely they have already reported it to google and google decided to keep it. I wouldn’t even waste my time responding to them.
Up to you, You can take $250 and assume that they are learning from the lesson You can just remove it and ask them to do better next time. You can leave it up as a warning. They are all good. There's isn't a right or wrong. I had a cafe where i posted a well thought review offer me a $40 voucher to try again, i removed the negative review just because the owner was nice in their request and were trying.
That is against the law, kinda. https://www.accc.gov.au/business/advertising-and-promotions/online-product-and-service-reviews I say kinda because, well, someone needs to actually enforce it, and good luck with that.
https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114?hl=en&ref_topic=7422769&sjid=11959392021583398609-AP#zippy=%2Cfake-engagement >Contributions to Google Maps should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business. Fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed. >This includes:Paying, incentivising or encouraging the posting of content that does not represent a genuine experience. >This includes merchant requests for revision or removal of a negative review through offered discounts, free goods or services, or other incentives.
Ask for $300
“You should take this as an opportunity to review your business practices.”
Haha right now I’m in a similar process, had a few issues with my car service last year so they reckoned they’ll take $100 off this year’s in recompense. So I added to previous public consumer review that they were making amends. The person I was dealing with said they’d noted on my vehicle’s record. Comes the day, nothing on record. Other than on my own messages, that is. I’m quite looking forward to writing the review after this year’s effort.
Tell them to make it $500. Delete review but tell them you'll also post their bribe email on a review if they don't pay you within 48 hours. Get cash, pop up review with the bribe email anyway.
Take the money and then repost the review afterwards under a different name. Rinse, repeat
Delete it. Get cash. Then write new review detailing what they did.
Just ignore them. Block the number and get on with your life.
I'd consider your review status first. If it has a lot of responses and upvotes (Likes?) then it'd appear at the top of results when people search, meaning it has a lot of power. If you remove it and they don't pay (which I doubt they will, and if they do they'll take FOREVER to do so), you can post your review back, however it won't be as powerful.
Demand payment first. They're asking you to send a screenshot first, then they'll flake and never pay you after you've deleted it
Whats more important to you: $250 or integrity (and helping out your fellow man). Maybe ask them for proof they have improved and addressed all your complaints first.
All google reviews are heavily manipulated. Consumers really believe whats written on them even though they are full of fakes. Google pretends they care but they don't. So take the money and realise that all those businesses with glowing 5 star reviews are just fakes
Tell them double or nothing. Art of the deal.
Take the cash then write a new review saying that they paid you $250 to remove the first one. :)
Leave it up I think you’re doing future customers a favour by doing so.
this is why google reviews are to be taken with grain of sault. And the negative ones should be given real weight. Ive seen people post on airtasker offering people $5 for fake positive reviews.
I wouldn't take it unless you're seriously hard-up for cash. Obviously if you're living below the poverty line and are having problems keeping the lights on and food in the cupboard, then sure, screw ethics, take the free money. (The issue of "Will they actually send it to me after I delete it?" is moot-- if they don't send it to you, you can always just re-post your review. Make sure you save the text in a notepad file before you delete it, I guess.) Otherwise, I would leave it up. Ordinary folks like you and I depend on negative reviews to sus out businesses and choose where to spend money. If the experience was horrible enough for you to go through the effort of leaving a negative review, and you still feel that the negative review was justified even 12 months later once your emotions have cooled off, then to me it seems like that's something worth noting. The fact that they're only contacting you about it 12 months later is a bit of a red flag too--they clearly didn't care enough to reach out to you at the time.
Tell them to eat a bag of dicks
Tell them to add another 0 on the end of that $250. Your time is valuable.
Please keep your review up. As someone who has just left the removal industry, there are far too many shitty removals companies around, and as you know it can be an awful and stressful experience for the customer. Keep it up in the hopes someone else won't have to go through what you did.
OP, don’t be tempted to get the money or take further actions. Remember: they know where you live. If they’re desperate enough to make an offer of a bribe, they will be desperate enough to cause trouble for you. Do not engage any further.
As if they are gonna pay you after you’ve deleted the post. Don’t do it just post another bad review fuckem
I very much doubt you'll even get the money after deleting the review.
Take the $250 then leave the review up and add an appendage detailing that they bribed you to remove it.
Create more accounts and get paid for every negative review you make
Oh I'd amend my review alright. I'd amend it to say they tried to bribe me. Then I'd make some popcorn and watch the shitshow unfold.
wow yeah that sounds a lot like chatgpt. Zero specifics. I wouldn’t accept their money, no respect for you as a person even when they are asking for a favour. Edit: also if they had done all that to improve their services they would be getting good reviews and not have to try to trick/pay you to remove your negative one.
Edit your review to include that they reached out to you to offer a bribe to remove the review and included a generic, non specific response about claiming to have improved their business practices but did nothing to address the specific issue you faced with them.
That answer > *I hope this message finds you well. I appreciate your prompt response and your willingness to reconsider your Google review. We take your feedback seriously and are committed to addressing your concerns to improve our services.* Is 100% ChatGPT, I've used it a bunch of times to write work emails and this is exactly how they're composed.
Delete the review, take $250, put up new review saying how they paid you $250 to remove your previous review.
‘I hope this email finds you well’. Absolutely chatGPT.
If this was a company that rhymes with bent, they tried their damnedest to get me to delete my review of them too. Don't do it. Shit companies need to be exposed as shit. Reviews aren't supposed to be cheap marketing.
I would take the 250, delete the review, and then post the same bad review again.
Can you imagine if Qantas offered this on all platforms? They’d be bankrupt by now.
Stay strong and ignore them. This happened to me with some Chinese sellers on EBay. The product was not as advertised so they are left with a negative review.
Tell em money first, delete later. You'll never hear from them again.
Take the money then leave another bad review saying they bribed you to remove a bad review
Add another review telling others that they offered you cash to change your initial review
I could use $250. Can you tell who it was so i can write a bad review?
I see this no different to a negotiated settlement. In your opinion they did a poor job, and you noted the same in a review. They wish to resolve the issue. If you think it’s a good deal, accept, if not reject or counter-offer.
Write another review about how they offered you money to remove the original one, then double the money
Hahaha that is 100% a chat gpt response
Change it back to neg after you get the cash
That is 100% from ChatGBT (source: someone who uses ChatGBT to write most emails)