[Paul Stenning]

No review system is perfect, as we know from reviews on eBay, Amazon and Facebook etc.

With Trustpilot anyone can leave a review, so there will be companies asking staff and friends to leave fake 5-star reviews and disgruntled customers or competitors asking friends to leave fake 1-star reviews.

The best they can do to deal with this, if it is highlighted to them and maybe as random spot checks too, is ask for proof that they are reviews of genuine transactions. Their position is probably to remove reviews if they cannot verify they are genuine. There are also other criteria for what is an acceptable review, such as avoiding abusive language or promoting competitors. They are not going to get involved in the details of any disputes.

There is a system whereby merchants (like me) can send customer order details to Trustpilot (such as by bcc'ing the order confirmation emails to a specific address) so they can send invitations to review a few days later. These would be confirmed reviews of genuine transactions. However I am not using that because I do not want to share my customers' data any further than is necessary for processing their orders.

For me as a merchant the basic Trustpilot review package is free. For some of my other clients it does help with order numbers, not vastly but certainly enough to be worthwhile. It also helps a bit with Google search rankings.

Obviously customers can look at the reviews or completely ignore them as they wish, and leaving reviews is completely optional too. If you don't like or trust Trustpilot then feel free to ignore it. I normally look for reviews of companies I am ordering from for the first time, but it is just one of several factors in my decision.