ConsumerAffairs

DON’T BE FOOLED BY PAY-​PER-​CLICK SCAMS
uses deceptive techniques to make you think they are doing a public service when in reality the aim of the site is to get you to click on their ads for the sole purpose of MAKING MONEY! Don’t believe it. They are not a government agency, they are not a non-​profit consumer watch dog group nor are they affiliated with any reputable consumer protection agency or organization. They have a deceptive name that lures you into thinking they are something they are not in order to SELL ADVERTISING. Moreover, the site creates biased and negative portrayals of companies that don’t pay for its service called ConsumerAffairs for Brands. For a fee, this service helps companies collect positive reviews through social media, targeted phone calls, emails and feedback cards. Those solicited reviews are then used as a basis for ConsumerAffairs.com’s rating of the company. A paying company also has access to ConsumerAffair’s dispute resolution process with consumers, which can also affect the company’s ratings.

This site provides a lot of consumers a voice where they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Without them, I’d still be stuck with a thousands-​of-​dollars hotel booking I couldn’t use due to a technical issue with the third party travel deal site (I picked the right dates, the next page showed the wrong dates after I entered my credit card info). After many frustrating phone calls and conversations with no one offering any recourse, regardless of my proof of already-​purchased flight dates, I posted on the consumeraffairs website. All of the sudden, the hotel was willing to amend their original position and cancel my booking.
And no I’m not some entitled customer who reneged on a deal. I was 100% willing to pay for a nonrefundable hotel booking on the dates I ORIGINALLY chosen. There are details that customer service or hospitality sometimes miss when dealing with thousands of customer complaints. Sometimes having them explained in a public setting helps.

describes itself as a consumer news and advocacy organization but one company’s challenge about what the site doesn’t disclose led to it being told by an advertising self-​regulatory board to cough up more information about its relationship with companies reviewed on its site.
In the online world of consumer reviews, consumer forums, and reputation management, a major issue is how a reader knows which site has the most objective information.
, a company that pursued the challenge against
with ERSP, an advertising self-​regulatory body, contended that the site creates biased and negative portrayals of companies that don’t pay for its service called ConsumerAffairs for Brands.
For a fee, this service helps companies collect positive reviews through social media, targeted phone calls, emails and feedback cards. Those solicited reviews are then used as a basis for ConsumerAffairs.com’s rating of the company. A paying company also has access to ConsumerAffair’s dispute resolution process with consumers, which can also affect the company’s ratings.
Unbeatablesale.com’s rating on
UnbeatableSale is rated one star out of five on ConsumerAffairs.com’s site, which lists 100 complaints against it. As a nonmember (referred to on the site as unaccredited, which means it didn’t pay ConsumerAffairs for the service) it said it can only respond privately to customers on an individual basis who filed negative reviews and thus readers can’t view its side of the story on the website.
UnbeatableSale said ConsumerAffairs should stop referring to itself as a consumer advocacy organization, fully disclose how its rating system operates including identifying the fees it charges, «level the playing field between clients and non-​clients» by identifying companies that pay for its service, and provide free of charge to nonmembers the same mechanisms to address existing reviews.
«The pages of paying or ‘accredited’ businesses should be labeled as what they really are: paid advertisements,» UnbeatableSale told ERSP.
countered that at that time it did clearly inform consumers of its relationship with accredited members companies in several different places on its website and explain its procedures in a white paper it provides to companies that request it. The site said it «is not a pay-​for-​ratings enterprise,» nor does it conduct any kind of «commercial blackmail.» What it does, it said, is to help companies overcome «feedback friction,» which it defines as helping satisfied customers overcome obstacles in giving positive company feedback. (A
review of the specific companies listed on ConsumerAffairs.com’s home page found that all the companies that were not paying members received negative ratings and only one out of 25 paying companies received less than three stars.)
Unbeatablesale.com’s rating on
ERSP, a division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, determined that ConsumerAffairs did not adequately disclose its paid affiliation with company members on its website and recommended it do it in a more clear and conspicuous manner.
A recent review of the site shows it is now disclosing a distinction in very small print at the top of a review page if a company is a paying member or not– and we do mean very small print. If a company does pay for its services, it also is disclosing that — in very small print.
ERSP also concluded that the website could still call itself a consumer news and advocacy organization. It still does, but here’s what it says on its homepage — in very small print you might miss.
Apparently, readers just need to know that it’s advocating for companies as well.