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Comment by poundofshrimp | Hacker News Reader

> If someone leaves a negative review of your business on TrustPilot, you can have it taken down

I don't think this is true. If this was true, then any sane business would pay the $400 and have a decent record on TP.

They don't exactly say 'you can have it taken down' though. And, believe it or not, some businesses take the view that they will not be held hostage in this way.

There are several big brand retailers in the UK who don't pay Trustpilot; you can tell by how many negative reviews they have manged to amass.

Another 'benefit ' of paying Trustpilot is that you can have gold stars underneath your search and ads listings. Google seem happy to to be part of the scam too.

Except not everyone wants to play the game.

The BBB pioneered this business model. Yelp perfected it. This is just another flavor for another market.

There 100% needs to be regulation around any kind of review site. If you can pay and change how the reviews look it is 100% corrupt and shouldn’t be allowed.

Also if you can leave a review for something that you have not consumed it is 100% corrupt and shouldn't be allowed. The fraudulent usage goes both ways and in the end the sites are only for the ignorant.

$400/month is not a trivial sum of money for a mom-and-pop shop. Plus if this becomes the norm, there will be other predatory sites jumping at the bite.

I'm not sure about that. A sane business would not give in to bullying tactics. Most small business owners I know have probably never heard of Trustpilot, and if they did, would probably consider any kind of fee for maintaining a decent record to be an obvious scam.

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