Bizrate survey system "scam"

[Korey]

The only threads I found on this were back in 2007.

This is in regards to the INVC screen pop-up survey offer that bizrate employs.

I've had two customer complaints in as many weeks regarding the "scam" of selecting four free magazines only to then solicit credit card numbers. Of course neither customer has followed through but felt they were duped and then rightfully blamed our site. One of the customers I was able to adequately explain the purpose of using it to and the other I'm hoping to hear back from.

The primary reason I keep the bizrate system is because it's independent and the ratings appear under our prices on Google shopping, our primary source of customers.

Has anyone else encountered this issue and more importantly, found a workable solution?

Thanks!

Korey

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Bizrate survey system "scam"

Well, this seems like yet another sad end to a possibly useful tool. We are likely to see more and more of these in the future which is why I ALWAYS caution clients to be careful about who they "sleep" with. This can include everything from pixal tracking to payment options (still trying to find out how Amazon got ahold of an email account I only use for testing..to send me product offers.)

There are several comments about this practice here:
http://justin.everett-church.com/ind...-never-pretty/

[papi34]

Re: Bizrate survey system "scam"

Seems like a lot of etailers (big & small) use the Bizrate exit survey to obtain Google Seller Ratings. Can anyone comment on how their customers react to the so-called "$100 bonus" turning out to be 4 "free" magazine subscriptions (@ $2 each) with much higher automatic renewals after 12 months? Are masses of people getting blindsided by this offering, or do they recognize it for what it is? I know Bizrate needs to cover their costs for the free Customer Feedback & Ratings Platform somehow, but is it worth it in the end for Miva Stores to collect ratings this way?

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Bizrate survey system "scam"

I think we already have an idea of what customers will think from Kory's post. Some will see/know that the scan is part of BizRate, but some will blame your site. There are other avenues that google uses for aggregating reviews. Here's some from a post dated May/2013:

Epinions
PriceGrabber.com
PriceSpider.com
ResellerRatings.com
Review Centre
TRUSTPILOT
Viewpoints
Yahoo!

Not sure if any of these have a "plug in" like BizRate, but you should at least be able to manually include a link to a "review page" for your store.

[papi34]

Re: Bizrate survey system "scam"

When ResellerRatings went to their new pricing model and raised our monthly rate 800%, we switched over to ReviewCentre. However, it appears Google no longer includes ReviewCentre reviews amongst the Google Seller Ratings. We've had well over 40 reviews in the last 12 months on ReviewCentre and now they've all disappeared from Google's Seller Ratings. I don't know if this can be attributed to a glitch in Google's review harvesting software or a deliberate decision by management. Anyway, it's back to the drawing board. Maybe we will give the Bizrate survey a trial period and see how it goes. It's free and everyone else seems to use it.