Jealous florist on the loose

CHR

CHR

Design matters
Nov 28, 2002
8,951
8,442
113
Anaheim
www.avantegardens.com
State / Prov
CA
Posted as a Google User review Misleading Reviews on our flower shop yesterday.

Misleading Five Star REviews‎‎
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By Misleading Reviews - Jun 8, 2010
Dont be mislead by the five star reviews on this florist.These reviews have been solicited to be placed on google, and insiderpages, yelp and others by this florist and other florists, in return for this florist posting a five star review for those florists. An excahnge of reviews of sorts. This florist, along with a group of other florists go to a chat site called flowerchat.com, and floristboard.com. They form an alliance and agree to send five star reviews in on each other, so that their placement on google will be at the top of this list.

Then they send in one star reviews on their competitors so they themselves can be first in the list of florists. These are not consumer reviews, but are an agreement to send a five star review in on each other. The consumer didn't send most of them so they are very misleading.

Of course this florist and others will say they wire flowers back and forth to each other and that their clients rave about what wonderful work each one does. However, ...‎ More »Dont be mislead by the five star reviews on this florist.These reviews have been solicited to be placed on google, and insiderpages, yelp and others by this florist and other florists, in return for this florist posting a five star review for those florists. An excahnge of reviews of sorts.

This florist, along with a group of other florists go to a chat site called flowerchat.com, and floristboard.com. They form an alliance and agree to send five star reviews in on each other, so that their placement on google will be at the top of this list.

Then they send in one star reviews on their competitors so they themselves can be first in the list of florists. These are not consumer reviews, but are an agreement to send a five star review in on each other.

The consumer didn't send most of them so they are very misleading. Of course this florist and others will say they wire flowers back and forth to each other and that their clients rave about what wonderful work each one does.

However, within the chat sites are communications which talk about how they will send reveiws in on each other to get better placement. To See how this works, ,

Go To the review by ADP for this florist from October 23, 2009 click on the reviewrs name ADP, . VOILA--Look at the reviews this peson has made for florists all over. Then click on some of those reviews and you will find the same people giving 5 stars reviews to other florists and misleading you that they are customers.

This florist, teaches this scheme on chatboards through her SEO program, telling other friends and florists how to get their listing to the top of the google charts. Very very misleading.
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This same person also took a whack at Ferrari's, Coleman's, Stem's, & Rose Garden today. It's clearly a florist behind the ugly words - and one who has only chosen to go after women owners at this point.

I'll be addressing this directly on my blog but I especially want to say that I have been outspoken about not doing quid pro quo reviews for a very long, long time - going back to the start of suggesting florists write reviews about outstanding shops. My motive has always been to help consumers find good local florists. Period.

I have always used my real name in reviews, declared myself as a florist and even link to my G profile so it's no secret scheme - which has now made me a target of this jealous, libelous idiot.

I also warned about user review exchanges - which are clear and plain to see if anyone bothers to look.

Be careful out there and watch out for this cowardly jerk.
 
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Reactions: roysecityfloristand gifts, Victoria, HydrangeaBleu and 3 others
Hard to believe that people have the kind of time this person has to search around on the internet and attack a business like this. Wish we could all go back to the time when the only reputation we had to look out for was the one we cultivated in our own customer base. Now you can be trashed by someone you don't know who could be anyone, anywhere in the world. Good for you that you have a well known nationwide reputation for excellent service!
 
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Not that I agree with what she posted at all, but I do agree with not reviewing other florists without listing your full credentials.

My uncle, who owns a shop, put 13 fake reviews on our google listing and did one bad review each for the competition.
I was so upset with him because if anyone ever looks into it, they will see each of the reviewers did a positive review for our shop and their shop.
Each of the negative reviews on the other shops are also a negative review of that shop and one of their competitors.
That type of thing makes me sick.
 
Goldie -

Don't be surprised if those shops retaliate with their own negative reviews of your business. Tell your uncle to delete his handiwork right away and ask your own customers - especially the ones that say nice things in person or via email - to write legit reviews you earned.

Your karma will love you for it. :)
 
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Linda - you are a smart cookie. Guest poster from FB with the same mis-spellings on a couple of occasions (I also see mis-spellings from a couple folks I know - and I KNOW they didn't make the Google posts.) Pretty sure it's a rogue webmaster/florist who has been banned from FC.
 
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Oh yeah. It's him. Even had the guts to 5 star his own store and 1 star much of his competition.

He included my name in an 'anonymous' review of another florist back in December. She had the audacity to beat his shop in the local SERPs cuz she does great design work and gives terrific customer service. I had written a glowing review of her shop based on first-hand experience and he had to 'retaliate'.

Cripes. We have enough issues dealing with phony florists. Undermining real shops who really do great work every day is just sick and twisted.
 
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Reactions: christi_dellarobbia, Toddxxx, anytimeflowers and 1 other person
Just another reason why this biz is taking it's toll on me....

Good Karma needs to show her face and soon!
 
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That was an easy one to guess.

Do you think your customers will take the time to read such a long post? I had trouble staying with it to the end.
 
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BOSS said:
Phlop always has been a piece of work.

Heh......
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I emailed that 'piece of work' and will let you know if he responds.

As I said to him, there is no cabal. Just florists recognizing the really good work of others. He's pissed I said nice things about Chez Bloom (another Minneapolis shop) cuz she really helped me out. She's a pro who made a really tough order happen beautifully - to the point my local customer came in with a thank-you note. He was in tears. He almost missed the funeral of a man who made a total difference in his life. (He told me 'this guy save me'.) Not only did Laura get the flower there in under 2 hours, the daughter of the deceased wrote our customer a heartfelt thank-you note and he brought it in for me to read.

THAT'S WHAT WE DO. Make a difference and let people know someone truly cares.

In Phlop's wacko mind, it couldn't be about exceptional service, it had to be about manipulating search engines. He's forgotten what it's really all about and just sees it as SE gaming. Sad.
 
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Carol Bice said:
That was an easy one to guess.

Do you think your customers will take the time to read such a long post? I had trouble staying with it to the end.
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I don't know who will read it, but it's just plain wrong and a slam on my character.

My only advice with SEO is helping other local flower shops for free so they can succeed at the local level. He's totally corrupted the help I have given without asking anything in return.
 
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CHR said:
I don't know who will read it, but it's just plain wrong and a slam on my character.

My only advice with SEO is helping other local flower shops for free so they can succeed at the local level. He's totally corrupted the help I have given without asking anything in return.
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As much as it sucks, can't you remove it?
I really don't know anything about how it works just that positive reviews get people in our door, so I'm grateful for them, If I had a bad one I wouldn't know what to do!
 
I dont think Laura will mind me saying but she has had a few very spiteful reviews and i can only assume that it is this guy.

What a hateful man, bad integrity is never good - and this WILL come back to bite him. I just hope it is sooner rather than later. Sorry that he is doing this to some VERY good florists. If i were you i would be telling all my tech savvy customers about him and asking if they would help you and your business by writing a truthful reivew of the services they have had. I would even go so far as doing an email blast - I would not hide this i would open it up and be loud about it. He will be expecting people to crawl under stones.

NIghtmare!!
 
I've posted my opinions on Phlop before and won't rehash now. Summary word for him: dirty.

Jennifer Laycock is covering online reviews in this month's webinar - it will be interesting to hear her take on this.

BTW: A bit of positiveness for you, Cathy - I got to hang out with Dev Basu and Shagun Vasta for a while yesterday (both Toronto-based SEOs and fellow contributors with CHR to David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors report), and both were impressed with your contributions and excited to hear about your business and such. Those "in the know" ... know.
 
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