Need for Car Dealer Rating Website

Ernest

Consumers who liked (or disliked) a restaurant or hotel they have visited can give feedback/ratings on websites like MenuPages.ie or Trip Advisor etc. Similarly there are websites where ratings of electricians, builders, plumbers etc can be posted so that others can get some guidance on the experiences of previouis users of the services of such traders.

Why is there not a similar website to allow consumers to give ratings of car dealers for second hand cars and/or for new cars or for car servicing including tyre fitting? That would be really helpful and might help curb some of the bad behaviour of "cowboys" in the motor trade.

Guy:Incognito

I'm always very wary of rating sites for retail businesses. They are very open to abuse (false bad reps from competitors isn't unknown I'd say) and as anyone that's worked in retail can attest, theres some amount of absolute whack jobs/serial moaners and other weirdos that you come across continuously in those jobs.

I much prefer the likes of boards where you can see if its just someone registering and straight away giving out about a business or where you can get to know the users to some small degree and can value their opinions somewhat.

dudara

Would you trust reviews on Menupages & Tripadvisor? I know that I don't. It's a system too open to abuse.

emeldc

I'd say 95% of the car problems that appear on this forum wouldn't happen at all had the buyer brought a qualified person with them to inspect the car in the first place. Simples :rolleyes:.

Ernest

dudara wrote: »

Would you trust reviews on Menupages & Tripadvisor? I know that I don't. It's a system too open to abuse.

Sites like these are not perfect but they do give consumers some idea of how other people found the service which is better than nothing at all, as is now the case with car dealers.
I tend to disregard the number of "stars" in ratings but do read the commentaries (good and bad) in deciding whether to try a new place.
With car dealers there is nothing to go on - especially second hand car dealers. An imperfect consumer comment site would be better than nothing at all which is what we have now.

coylemj

Ernest wrote: »

Sites like these are not perfect but they do give consumers some idea of how other people found the service which is better than nothing at all, as is now the case with car dealers.
I tend to disregard the number of "stars" in ratings but do read the commentaries (good and bad) in deciding whether to try a new place.

They are not 'better than nothing' because most of them are open to abuse and are abused, in different ways....

In the case of menupages, a restaurant can pay to become a premium member which entitles them to remove bad reviews. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what happens soon after a restaurant gets a bad review.

In the case of Tripadvisor, a huge number of reviews are clearly planted by the premises itself as the reviews are usually typed up by people with very little imagination. Major giveaways are (1) praise for unspecific service ('the staff couldn't do enough for us') and (2) wild generalizations about the food with little or no details ('the food was amazing') and in most cases they simply copy and paste stuff from the restaurant website.

Read the first few reviews in relation to this restaurant and tell me if you think they are genuine.....

http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Restaurant_Review-g186605-d4291737-Reviews-Punjabi_By_Nature-Dublin_County_Dublin.html

Hootanany

coylemj wrote: »

They are not 'better than nothing' because most of them are open to abuse and are abused, in different ways....

In the case of menupages, a restaurant can pay to become a premium member which entitles them to remove bad reviews. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what happens soon after a restaurant gets a bad review.

In the case of Tripadvisor, a huge number of reviews are clearly planted by the premises itself as the reviews are usually typed up by people with very little imagination. Major giveaways are (1) praise for unspecific service ('the staff couldn't do enough for us') and (2) wild generalizations about the food with little or no details ('the food was amazing') and in most cases they simply copy and paste stuff from the restaurant website.

Read the first few reviews in relation to this restaurant and tell me if you think they are genuine.....

http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Restaurant_Review-g186605-d4291737-Reviews-Punjabi_By_Nature-Dublin_County_Dublin.html

I ate there over Christmas and it was amazing would deco go back & thats the truth.

coylemj

Hootanany wrote: »

I ate there over Christmas and it was amazing would deco go back & thats the truth.

Agree that that is a good restaurant, I read the reviews because a friend of mine mentioned it to me in a positive light but clearly the management weren't happy with the number of recent reviews and encouraged some people to submit Tripadvisor posts which contain the classic elements of planted reviews.

My own recent negative experience of Tripadvisor was when I attended a family funeral a couple of months ago in a provincial town. We stayed in a local hotel that had glowing reviews in Tripadvisor and to be fair, the accommodation end of the business was excellent. However according to the reviews of the hotel, the restaurant was virtually to die for and the staff (some of them referred to by name) were the most attentive to be found anywhere in the region.

When I walked into the 'restaurant' to check it out, I found myself standing in the bar looking at a few people eating pretty ordinary food at regular bar tables and there was nobody on reception nor anyone serving at that particular moment in the bar. The reviews of the place insofar as they related to the food on offer were clearly OTT and completely false.

Bepolite

emeldc wrote: »

I'd say 95% of the car problems that appear on this forum wouldn't happen at all had the buyer brought a qualified person with them to inspect the car in the first place. Simples :rolleyes:.

Didn't get a Thank you from me as I hate that emoticon :pac: but +1.

Also people always go on about how Ireland is so nepotistic and you can't get anything done unless you know thew right person etc. Sometimed this is the best way to do things, get a recommendation from a friend. We don't need a website for everything, the occasion bit of personal contact is good for you!

A policy that has served me well in the past is never buy from the cheapest vendor and a recommendation is worth 10-20%, so if it's 15% dearer and someone has one etc. that's the one I go for.

In relation to cars I don't pretend to be an expert, but some research with the petrol heads over in the Motors forum will give you some idea whether a particular make/model is a good buy or not.

Ernest

emeldc wrote: »

I'd say 95% of the car problems that appear on this forum wouldn't happen at all had the buyer brought a qualified person with them to inspect the car in the first place. Simples :rolleyes:.

No! Not "Simples" at all. This forum is NOT about car problems. It is about the need for a website that would give consumers' comments about their experiences with particular car dealers - especially second hand car dealers - in much the same way that sites like Trip Advisor and MenuPages give reviews and comments about the services of restaurants and hotels etc and in a similar way to how sites like Tradesmen.ie and Accredited Tradesmen.ie give consumers' experiences of particular tradesment (builders, carpenters, electricians, painters etc).

keithclancy

coylemj wrote: »

They are not 'better than nothing' because most of them are open to abuse and are abused, in different ways....

In the case of menupages, a restaurant can pay to become a premium member which entitles them to remove bad reviews. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what happens soon after a restaurant gets a bad review.

In the case of Tripadvisor, a huge number of reviews are clearly planted by the premises itself as the reviews are usually typed up by people with very little imagination. Major giveaways are (1) praise for unspecific service ('the staff couldn't do enough for us') and (2) wild generalizations about the food with little or no details ('the food was amazing') and in most cases they simply copy and paste stuff from the restaurant website.

Read the first few reviews in relation to this restaurant and tell me if you think they are genuine.....

http://www.tripadvisor.ie/Restaurant_Review-g186605-d4291737-Reviews-Punjabi_By_Nature-Dublin_County_Dublin.html

Here in the Netherlands they do it for everything and it is better than nothing.

GPs, Garages, Workmen, Companies and so on.

D3PO

gosh I wonder how anybody managed to survive purchasing anything before the internet. Dark Dark times back then [/sarcasm]

gugleguy

Does'nt everybody know that Hyundai are the cars taking the Irish Market by storm according to the esteemed RTE Radio 1. Don't tell anyone that YOU are not taken in by Hyundai's hypnotic mesmerising flair. :rolleyes:

keithclancy

D3PO wrote: »

gosh I wonder how anybody managed to survive purchasing anything before the internet. Dark Dark times back then [/sarcasm]

Well the difference is now since personal mobility has majorly increased people moving all over the place to live/work. (Due to cheap flights, personal wealth has majorly increased (Household may have up to 3 or 4 cars sitting outside)

Before the Internet the roads were crap, there was no motorway to Dublin (for example) and you were paying a small fortune to fly to the UK never mind anywhere else.

My family moved to the UK and it was extremely apparent that you paid more as a non local, since you didn't know anyone or where the best places were to get goods.

When companies pay for a secondment contract there will usually be a component of your relocation/commuting package that will include a payment for non local knowledge.

The Internet just levels the playing field, now you can easily compare everything online.

D3PO

I think you missed my point but anyway doesn't matter.