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Purplebricks boss Michael Bruce explains challenge to AllAgents' reviews

One of the co-founders of Purplebricks, Michael Bruce, has explained why the agency challenged reviews of its services on AllAgents.

Speaking to the Australian Financial Review, Bruce says Purplebricks told AllAgents - which has over 300,000 reviews on its site - to investigate and remove any which were fake.

The article says that Bruce claims over 50 per cent of the reviews on AllAgents [presumably relating to Purplebricks] were found to be fake "or could not be justified."

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"It's not fair that people who have never used our service get to write a fake review" he says. 

In the same article he says that Trustpilot - another review website, and one which is frequently cited by Purplebricks for its overwhelmingly positive customer reviews of the agency - provided an appeals process for disputed reviews.

The AllAgents website, which is reported to have taken down some 70 reviews of Purplebricks in recent days, says all reviews should be fair and honest and only be for estate agents of which the reviewer has direct experience.

AllAgents has also issued a statement saying why its reviews of Purplebricks have been suspended for the time being. 

Purplebricks in Australia serves as a similar lightning rod for debate with the real estate industry as it does amongst all estate agents in the UK; Bruce was speaking to the Australian Financial Review from California, where the company has just launched its US service.

  • Colin Bain

    Cop out !!!

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    • J G
    • 19 September 2017 10:42 AM

    "It's not fair that people who have never used our service get to write a fake review" - But isnt that exactly what PB did within hours of going live in the US. What a load of garbage these brothers spurt out, all for the sake of the hollowed shared price, forget the customers. #watchdog

  • Welsh  Cynic

    Scandalous! we received a very weak explanation from Trust Pilot on the many criticisms of the number and the consistently high grade of Purple Bricks reviews, far higher than any other agent. Nobody consistently gets 5 stars, how ever good they are. Then AllAgents, one of the original estate agents review sites, gets bullied into removing genuine comments, because they don't suit Purple Bricks. How can they say they are fake, how would could you possibly know. AllAgents have been frightened into submission by a wealthy firm threatening expensive legal action, which they probably can't risk getting involved in. More investigation is needed.

  • Ian Smith

    So does that mean we can all write to All Agents and ask to remove reviews or we sue them? Take the Trip Adviser site they will not remove reviews at all !!!

    You must be able to write a review in confidence - ALL AGENTS SHAME ON YOU !!!

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    Whilst I agree this is a massive cop out, all agents are a difficult website to deal with. I found a review on there the other week absolutely tearing in to my agency. we looked through our records and the person has never rented through us. I have tried to contact all agents but never get a reply.

  • Simon Shinerock

    Sauce for the goose

  • Paul Singleton

    Estate agents are all on the same platform here. Purple Bricks were scoring a 32% fee accuracy, 17% of customers would recommend them and 36% were satisfied with the fee they paid. I'm sure many other agents are unhappy with certain reviews on the site but can't get them removed. This site clearly didn't go the way Purple Bricks wanted it to and they have used their muscle to get all their reviews removed. As time goes on people will get the measure of Purple Bricks and what their objectives are. Paid listers and not much else. Why on earth they are allowed to say on their advertising they are full agents just without the commission beggars belief, if I quoted a fee of £5,000 but said I won't do it as a percentage but as a fixed fee instead does that mean I haven't charged commission either? CONmisery!!!

  • Rob  Davies

    I'd hardly say All Agents are known for their accurate, fair and representative reviews, but then I also don't really trust TrustPilot. I take all reviews sites - even TripAdvisor - with a big pinch of salt.

    They're always ripe for exploitation, for fake reviews, and for suspiciously glowing or awful accounts. Not to be trusted, in my view.

  • Rob  Davies

    Also, Purplebricks are about as popular here as Boris Johnson will be at the government's next Cabinet meeting. I think some of the criticism is well over-the-top, but PB seem pretty happy to take on the agent everyone loves to hate mantra. I'm sure they see all publicity as good publicity. Then again, Ryanair used to be say something similar - and look at their current travails.

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    Why are they using Trustpilot and not Google?

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    I have written negative reviews on both sites for Purplebricks. As a genuine customer for PB for over a year I felt I should warn others about the risks involved with their service (as is the point of review sites). I can vouch that Allagents are extremely cautious in checking that their reviews are from genuine customers and I had to provide more than one piece of evidence that would be hard to fake. Trustpilot themselves did not ask for ANY evidence at all, it was only PB themselves who contacted me vis Trustpilot to verify I was a genuine customer (which would make sense, as I am sure they would like to remove as many negative reviews as possible). It would be VERY hard to write a fake review for PB on Allagents site.

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