AllAgents has suspended the Purplebricks account on its site.
It has never before suspended an account.
allAgents said it had taken the unprecedented action after “repeated threats of legal action forcing the removal of negative reviews from our website”.
Allagents said it will continue to accept genuine customer reviews for Purplebricks although it will be unable to publish them, for the time being at least.
Martin McKenzie of allAgents told EYE that the 140 or so reviews of Purplebricks that have been removed in their entirety included about a dozen with five-star ratings.
He said that a further statement will be issued, pending legal advice.
The full statement on the allAgents website is here: https://www.allagents.co.uk/purplebricks/
Comments (47)
Not much of a review site if all you have to do is threaten legal action to get negative reviews removed.
They’ve given other Agents a formula and their site is now effectively worthless. They should cease charging and inform all advertisers.
What the ****, I take an afternoon off and come back home to this! brave descision by allAgents. This is a clear message that something just doesn’t add up with the relationship Purplebricks has with Trustpilot. Why would any firm be concerned with an independent review site that has just over 100 reviews against another so called independent review site (aka Trustpilot) that has over 25000 reviews ?? What is it that the public is not understanding hear? Time to report to watchdog and police investigation
https://www.productreview.com.au/p/purplebricks.html
In the interests of balance I thought I would see how PurpleBricks were reviewed on another Review Site.
Interesting reading.
Guess I’ll be using Catherine and Martina
and Robert L from Perth, Australia said…
Bad service. Hard to get hold of. Poor levels of advertising. Completely lost interest once they had signed me up. Had to open my own home. The rep lived 45 minutes away and hardly knew anything about my suburb! You get what you pay for a cheap and nasty service and average result. I’m sure I would have gotten higher price using a real agency for my home. Also, here’s something I’ve just noticed about the reviews here. Prior to a week ago, nearly all the reviews for Lego Bricks were negative! Then miraculously in the last 7 days they’ve gotten 7 positive reviews! The joke is some of these reviews are copied directly from the Trustpilot review site!. Shame on PurpleBricks
Something fishy going on… serious investigation required.
Slightly comical that the banner ad below the PB statement is for emoov. Oh, the irony…
This makes no sense. What kind of review site removes negative reviews as a consequence of being threatened with legal action?
Surely either the reviews are genuine in which case how could a legal case succeed…or the reviews are potentially fraudulent…either way it destroys All Agents’ credibility in my view.
This is not a defeat for Purplebricks, it is a victory.
Quite – but you cannot blame them – their lawyers would have quickly pointed out the cost of taking on PB and the likely outcome of AA being cross-examined in open court by a savvy QC.
Taking down this firm from AA is the wrong move for the agency community – the right move for the firm – the wrong move for the public who really want to know what they are like from a disgruntled clients perspective.
Agency is a profession where the back end of the role is the most important part – keeping deals together in times of stress.
This firm care not about that part of the review process and only seem to enjoy TP reviews about the listing process in the main.
TP reviews can be edited or not published at all if the subscriber so chooses.
I am sure the MD’s are really enjoying the amount of press they are getting on here today.
Eloquently put and bears repeating:
Agency is a profession where the back end of the role is the most important part – keeping deals together in times of stress.
Most on here will of earned pennies per hour and hundreds, occasionally thousands, on deals, we will also of done everything right and ended up with jack, thing is you don’t know when you start how it’s going to end, if my time and experience are spent exclusively on a deal worth 1k for a period while one where we earn 5k agreed at the same time sails through am I overcharging that 5k client?
My skills and experience are there if needed, both benefit but only one needs it, need me and I’m in there though, that’s what you pay us for and some completions still have me exhausted, I think one of the threads here that genuinely surprised me recently was an onliner ( think it was ewemove. apologies if not ) not at all perturbed that half their franchisees were without a property background, that’s scary
Hopefully the bubble on this scheme is going to pop soon!
I am pleased to see this move, PB need bringing to book!
But this does the very opposite.
Not if the CMA are watching – which they will be. Any independent reviews site will have a hard time sleeping tonight.
What is really interesting is the story on the other thread on PIE about review sites being regulated by the Competition and Markets Authority….so as to avoid ‘consumers’ being mislead.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/online-reviews-and-endorsements-information-for-businesses
So could taking and publishing en mass reviews from people about a service BEFORE that service has been provided (i.e completing a sale on their property) ever be regarded by the regulator as misleading consumers and therefore be in breach of Consumer Protection rules?
Purplebricks service contract finishes at the point of payment, i.e. when they have listed the property; hence that’s why they always ask for a reference then and not on completion, which might be less favourable.
That said, offering incentives to leave good reviews (which has been alleged by some posters on Twitter but not verified as bona fide customers) and, seemingly putting an uneven focus on challenging less favourable reviews than favourable, would be a breach of CMA rules if proven. As PeeBees 200 recent reviews check showed, from that sample, it seems apparent that there may be a disparity of focus.
But do the reviews state they refer to the ‘listing of the property’ and not ‘the selling of it’….or are ‘consumers’ led to believe they refer to selling….after all they have already been informed in marketing and advertising ‘Everything you’d expect except the commission’ and they’re ‘just like real agents’ …..wouldn’t a reasonable person expect part of that service to be to sell their property?
The CMA rules clearly state that a customer must be able to leave a review at a time of their own choosing.
When you go into all agents, it asked you to ‘Find an agent by name’ and gives the examples of e.g. Purplebricks and Countrywide. I wonder if they are being paid for this ‘advertising’?
The ‘Most Helpful Reviews’ top 10 makes interesting reading!
So we all threaten legal action against allagents to get what we want? Weak move to just roll over – this has to have damaged their reputation and credibility as a “review site”.
“It has never before suspended an account.”
AllAgents absolutely has suspended accounts before. The Reapit review page was removed without explanation and our enquiries with AllAgents as to why were answered with an offer to reinstate the page if we were to provide AllAgents with access to clients’ feeds – something we would never do without clients consent.
So basically their statement is factually incorrect!
I must say i had major suspicions of their motives and agenda, the only real reason agents use them is for a vanity trophy win to put on their desks. How many consumers choose an agent because of viewing their site??
“How many consumers choose an agent because of viewing their site??”
Ask PB that question about TP – you might be surprised at their answer.
Why do you think it forms such a central part of their marketing – and their Stock Market information?
PeeBee are you really trying to compare Trustpilot with 2.3 million viewers with huge brand recognition and Allagents a tiny niche review site by agents for agents?
Trustpilot is a great tool for PB but Allagents is nothing more than a vanity project for agents to win a glass trophy.
https://www.semrush.com/uk/info/trustpilot.com
2.3 million – against Google? Someone’s having a laugh. seriously – the only reviews any business should be concerned with are those on Google.
“PeeBee are you really trying to compare Trustpilot with 2.3 million viewers with huge brand recognition and Allagents a tiny niche review site by agents for agents?”
Nope – I’m pointing out the obvious that you are trying to steer attention from – that companies see certain review sites as a marketing tool.
Are you saying you disagree with that?
Because Trustpilot don’t. They have a section of their site dedicated to ‘selling’ it to companies.
Spot on PeeBee. If this can happen to allAgents it can happen to Trustpilot too – they must be very worried. Just look at a business like Hargreaves Lansdown with 50% one and two star reviews on TP – and a bank balance to make PB green with envy – who is next?
“The Reapit review page was removed without explanation…”
They must’ve reinstated it without explanation as well, then:
https://www.allagents.co.uk/supplier/reapit/
It’s a miracle !!
Who reviews the review sites…
The Competition & Markets authority.
I know… It’s almost like they were sat watching the comments
No doubt this story will bring robust comments. Please do not overstep the mark in what you write.
Moi?!
Mr Salmon
Please tell us two things:
1. Where is “the mark” you refer to?
2. Where will it be tomorrow?
‘cos none of us know the answers.
With pleasure.
See: http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/posting-etiquette-on-eye-a-gentle-reminder/
Shorthand answer: We will remove the tiny minority of comments which could be legally problematic, both for EYE and, importantly, the poster.
This means taking down those which contain personal insults; and in particular those which make accusations of fraud, misrepresentation and/or lying.
“Shorthand answer: We will remove the tiny minority of comments which could be legally problematic, both for EYE and, importantly, the poster.”
But as we all know, ‘legally problematic’ covers not only the ‘black and white’ areas but also encompasses 25 gazillion shades of grey that certain companies with enough investors’ money to pay for 25 gazillion C&D letters.
Basically – the rules are there are no rules. If you get a clear shot and take it, the goalposts can – and will – move.
And any shot you took last week will be affected by the position of next week’s goalposts.
Cannot help but feel this is a win for PurpleBricks.
Only review site they are now on is Trustpilot – And they seem to have an unhealthy relationship with them.
Just put their name in to Twitter…
Only site? – reviews.io, reviews.co.uk, productreview.com, asksusan.org – oh, and Google ‘Purplebricks/location’?
Sorry, any site people are likely to find them.
As I said: Google
Beginning of the end I hope.
Really strong move from AllAgents, well done to them.
The legal threats go to show… PB KNOW that what they do is wrong. If they offered a good service and got reviews based on that service, they would have no qualms with the odd negative review.
To PurpleBricks, I say this:
Guys… if you’re going to offer s**t, expect s**t reviews. If you’re allowed to be s**t to your customers, your customers are allowed to be s**t to you. Treat them with no respect, and get no respect in return.
The sheer ego needed for them to feel they’re above getting bad reviews from disgruntled customers sums up this business in a nutshell. Good riddance to them and I hope everyone starts learning that these con artists have nothing to offer except slime and misery.
Sorry for the rant… but this news really made my day!
Everyone else… keep smiling. The good guys will win this one.
A ‘strong move’ would be to leave the reviews up.
Purple bricks provides a great service.
very easy to use and saves people thousands of pounds in high street agency fees which are extortionate. The online service is second to none.
It’s no wonder people don’t trust agents…. transparent as mud.