Friday, August 17, 2018

Fooled by fake HVAC reviews? Don't let this happen again

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So let's face the facts and the facts are hereunder;

- Most people do not have adequate information about HVAC and they have to blindly rely on HVAC services
- People search for the services and end up choosing the ones that are most affordable and have a good reputation
- To know of the reputation of a service, the trend these days is to look for reviews online. Homeowners think the more 5-stars a company has, the better it is.

Do you, as a homeowner, endorse what has just been said? Great! Now the amazing part begins. Homeowners are right to assume that the companies with better ratings are better but how many of them know that a lot of the online reviews are nothing but fake and paid reviews? Which means, a company ranking so low in actual, in terms of the efficacy of services would be ranked so high online just because it's paying for fake reviews. As a result, you would end up choosing a wrong service and none of your smartness to check for reviews will be of any use.

So what to do? How to make sure of a service's quality and the authenticity of the reviews you read? Here are some genuinely smart ways;


- Avoid paid review websites

Websites that offer paid advertisements would be giving some favours to those that pay them. So, avoid checking such sites for reviews that charge for listing. Stick to authentic websites only that have strict standards and that scrutinise a review before making it public. For example, Better Business Bureau and HomeStars.

- Hey detective! Check the dates

So let's become Sherlock Holmes for some time. Check the review dates. The reviews that are a few and are posted one after the other indicate that there's something wrong. If a company that has been listed for 4 years had reviews right after it got listed and never after that, the reviews must be its own posted (high chances).

- Read the reviews carefully

You know when it's exaggerated flattery and exaggerate appreciation. Reading reviews carefully can also tell you of their authenticity. The fake reviews will have a typical format. A lot of appreciation, mentioning that everything was super good and that the service will be taken again. An advertisement kind of language could easily be spotted. The same pattern can be seen repeated in multiple reviews. The writing style would be the same as well. So what's left? You know it's fake!

- Google the fake review

And here comes another way. Simple yet useful. Copy the review text that you are suspicious about. Put it in the google search bar and press enter. Does the same review appear in results, posted on other websites as well? Caught red-handed! The review is a fake review posted by a paid reviewer. But here, a double condemnation should be made for the reviewer. Not only that he did a wrong thing but also that he did not do the wrong thing properly. Copied the review, loser!

So, did you find these tips useful? Hopefully, you'd now be able to spot fake reviews easily.