AllAgents allows Purplebricks reviews again, ending 18-month spat

The long-running stand off between website AllAgents and Purplebricks appears to be over, with the online agency being ‘readmitted’ by the review service.

In September 2017 AllAgents suspended reviews of Purplebricks from its site after a series of tit-for-tat exchanges over the validity of the reviews. Purplebricks had sent legal letters to the review site over a number of disputed statements about the agency’s performance. The review site also claimed Purplebricks to be the "worst reviewed" agency of 2017.

Each side blamed the other for inflaming the situation in an acrimonious war of words.

Now AllAgents has issued a statement saying it “is lifting its restrictions on Purplebricks reviewers and allowing them to post reviews without the need to provide documented evidence.”

The review service’s Martin McKenzie says: “In addition to new reviews, we went back in retrospect to all reviewers and demanded proof that they were genuine customers. This was a very time-consuming process; however, we are glad that we did so it reaffirmed our position that the majority of the negative reviews disputed were genuine and thus halted the progressing with legal action.” 

However, he says he can no longer continue such a time-consuming checking process and adds: “We hope that as 18 months has now passed, Purplebricks will have matured enough to allow us to continue to moderate their reviews without fear of litigation and report or use our 'right to reply' feature on each review just like every other listed agent.”