Purplebricks boss Michael Bruce explains challenge to AllAgents' reviews

Cop out !!!

"It's not fair that people who have never used our service get to write a fake review" - But isnt that exactly what PB did within hours of going live in the US. What a load of garbage these brothers spurt out, all for the sake of the hollowed shared price, forget the customers. #watchdog

Scandalous! we received a very weak explanation from Trust Pilot on the many criticisms of the number and the consistently high grade of Purple Bricks reviews, far higher than any other agent. Nobody consistently gets 5 stars, how ever good they are. Then AllAgents, one of the original estate agents review sites, gets bullied into removing genuine comments, because they don't suit Purple Bricks. How can they say they are fake, how would could you possibly know. AllAgents have been frightened into submission by a wealthy firm threatening expensive legal action, which they probably can't risk getting involved in. More investigation is needed.

So does that mean we can all write to All Agents and ask to remove reviews or we sue them? Take the Trip Adviser site they will not remove reviews at all !!!

You must be able to write a review in confidence - ALL AGENTS SHAME ON YOU !!!

Whilst I agree this is a massive cop out, all agents are a difficult website to deal with. I found a review on there the other week absolutely tearing in to my agency. we looked through our records and the person has never rented through us. I have tried to contact all agents but never get a reply.

Sauce for the goose

Estate agents are all on the same platform here. Purple Bricks were scoring a 32% fee accuracy, 17% of customers would recommend them and 36% were satisfied with the fee they paid. I'm sure many other agents are unhappy with certain reviews on the site but can't get them removed. This site clearly didn't go the way Purple Bricks wanted it to and they have used their muscle to get all their reviews removed. As time goes on people will get the measure of Purple Bricks and what their objectives are. Paid listers and not much else. Why on earth they are allowed to say on their advertising they are full agents just without the commission beggars belief, if I quoted a fee of £5,000 but said I won't do it as a percentage but as a fixed fee instead does that mean I haven't charged commission either? CONmisery!!!

I'd hardly say All Agents are known for their accurate, fair and representative reviews, but then I also don't really trust TrustPilot. I take all reviews sites - even TripAdvisor - with a big pinch of salt.

They're always ripe for exploitation, for fake reviews, and for suspiciously glowing or awful accounts. Not to be trusted, in my view.

Also, Purplebricks are about as popular here as Boris Johnson will be at the government's next Cabinet meeting. I think some of the criticism is well over-the-top, but PB seem pretty happy to take on the agent everyone loves to hate mantra. I'm sure they see all publicity as good publicity. Then again, Ryanair used to be say something similar - and look at their current travails.

Why are they using Trustpilot and not Google?

I have written negative reviews on both sites for Purplebricks. As a genuine customer for PB for over a year I felt I should warn others about the risks involved with their service (as is the point of review sites). I can vouch that Allagents are extremely cautious in checking that their reviews are from genuine customers and I had to provide more than one piece of evidence that would be hard to fake. Trustpilot themselves did not ask for ANY evidence at all, it was only PB themselves who contacted me vis Trustpilot to verify I was a genuine customer (which would make sense, as I am sure they would like to remove as many negative reviews as possible). It would be VERY hard to write a fake review for PB on Allagents site.