allAgents pours cold water on Purplebricks' reviews link with Feefo

allAgents, the specialist review website which has had a bitter dispute with Purplebricks, has poured cold water on the hybrid agency’s link up with respected review service Feefo.

On Friday morning we reported that Purplebricks had announced that from early in 2018 it would be using Feefo in addition to Trustpilot as a carrier of customer reviews.

Michael Bruce, chief executive of Purplebricks, said at the time that “partnering with Feefo demonstrates our commitment to growing customer trust and it is another step towards greater transparency in estate agency. Customers and brands alike trust Feefo because they know Feefo reviews are the real deal.”

However over the weekend allAgents says it remains to be convinced that the reviews Feefo publishes will be a fair reflection of Purplebricks’ customers’ views.

“We think the more review sites that carry reviews from Purplebricks’ customers, the better. However, Feefo is a closed system which means that Purplebricks will be managing which customers review their service and which ones don’t. Our fear is that Purplebricks won’t be asking customers who’ve been given a poor service by the company to write reviews” according to allAgents’ Martin McKenzie.

“The persistent rumours concerning the validity of the reviews on Trustpilot damages the reputation of the whole reviews industry. Purplebricks tried to bully us into taking genuine negative reviews off our site. We stand behind the validity of these reviews. Let’s hope Feefo doesn’t become another casualty of Purplebricks’ seemingly insatiable desire to eradicate negative reviews,” McKenzie added.

Purplebricks has some 31,000 reviews on Trustpilot, almost all of which are overwhelmingly positive, and extensively quotes this body of opinion in marketing, public relations and even ifs reports to shareholders and the City.

allAgents, which removed 71 reviews of Purplebricks following legal letters from the agency questioning their accuracy and sources, failed in a bid to raise a £50,000 fighting fund from elsewhere in the industry to use as a reserve in case the agency escalated its legal action.