Agency defends Trustpilot online reviews as "transparent and honest"

Chancellors says it has over 10,000 reviews on Trustpilot, making it the most reviewed High Street agency on the platform. 

In a statement and blog to mark what Chancellors calls “a milestone”, it says Trustpilot is “one of the best reviews platforms because it’s completely transparent and honest” and insists “businesses are not able to regulate reviews, therefore all the positive (and negative) reviews are visible for all to see.”

In the past Trustpilot has been on the receiving end of criticism and scepticism from many High Street agents because of the high number of favourable reviews of Purplebricks. 

However, Chancellors insists its success on the platform is genuine with 86 per cent of its reviews winning five star ratings, and its overall ‘TrsutScore’ on Trustpilot being 9.6 out of 10.  

The agency says its success is down to hard work - it made over four million proactive calls in 2018 to sellers, landlords, buyers and tenants, while it says “many of our reviews commend our award-winning branches for being helpful with finding clients their dream property and going the extra mile.”

It adds that it also receives substantial numbers of five star reviews across Google and Facebook as well as Trustpilot.

Earlier this month Trustpilot revealed that it would make it easier for the public to see whether companies have tried to stop complaints being published.

Trustpilot is used by Purplebricks and several other estate agencies and has been the subject of substantial criticism by some agents and industry figures who allege some companies suppress complaints made on the platform.

The site says it will in future reveal how many reviews each client company has flagged for investigation over the previous year.

When a review is flagged for investigation it is hidden from public users of the site - and can therefore inadvertently contribute towards what some regard as a misleading perception of the company under review. 

Trustpilot will also disclose the numbers of posts which were posted again after the investigation, as well as how many were deleted.