[Closed] Merlin not publishing negative product reviews?

I've never posted a review on Merlin, but if I don't see variable reviews I question the authenticity of the highly positive ones.

Why would they publish poor reviews of something they are trying to sell? If you are going to do that, use an independent platform.

Because they aggregate the reviews they do publish rather than all the reviews they receive. It's dishonest to claim or imply that your customers have rated a product 5 stars when the truth is they rated it 3. It is fraud by misrepresentation.

can you post your review here for posterity?

dealt with by a 3rd party

hmmm, really? like a verifiable 3rd part review site like Feefo or TrustPilot? In fact, are any of those immune to the vendor diddling the reviews that are published?

The reviews are lost to the ether as I don't have a copy.
Now that I look around the Merlin website at the reviews, I'm not seeing many reviews that are 3 star or less. Pretty disappointing if they are filtering them. Even CRC let you criticise an item if you're objective.

Rutland are the same - especially when you complain about Rutland's customer service.

After my well documented shambles when trying to buy a Pine Mountain from CRC I was asked to review my purchase 🤔
I started with This product doesn't exist then went on to sum up the whole sorry shambles . The next day I received an E Mail back stating it couldn't be published as it was too vague ?????

Please please Merlin shiester cycles - do not even get me STARTED!

Absolute shockers ime!

Odd. Merlin have always been good for me.
Even the customer service was spot on when I needed it.

Untoward and off would be the words to describe my experiences with them so I don’t bother giving them my time/money.

I have also had a recent bad customer service experience with Merlin. I won't use them again.

I've been using merlin for 20 years. never had a problem. they've warrantied everything I've asked.

The negative product review thing is clearly wrong and looking at the site again the lack of poor reviews is very odd

But this morning I have the shop 5 stars on trust pilot. They have always been great for me

It amazes me that people think that product reviews are there for any other reason than to drive sales.

Negative reviews may have an impact on the primary impact on the reason for the shop's existence.

Let me state that reason again: to sell shit.

This rule extends elsewhere in life.

That is all.

You can only compare reviews on the site to other reviews on the same site, e.g. a product with dozens of positive reviews vs. a product with one or two indifferent reviews.

Also look at the content of the good reviews to see what they're actually saying. I still find website reviews useful.

Also Merlin have been good with me for all my dealings with them, only one or two returns though.

Negative reviews may have an impact on the primary impact on the reason for the shop’s existence.

But if you exclude the negative ones, the reviews no longer serve any useful purpose to the customer.

Dishonesty is not a quality customers are looking for, and it can't be good for a shop to attain the reputation of a secondhand car salesman. If you want to be successful, sell decent products to your customers and give them good service.

I’ve submitted a couple of 2 star product reviews that haven’t made it onto the website,

Which products did you give poor reviews to?

Hmm, they're missing a trick really. If I'm considering something I look specifically at the 1 and 2 star reviews. There's 3 options:

1) A massive walking dildo has ridiculous expectations and has decided to vent about this product. Result - I buy the product and get a laugh at their expense.
2) Somebody has bought the product and doesn't like it because it doesn't do something they want it do do very well, but it might be good in other respects. I can decide whether to make that compromise.
3) Genuinely rubbish product. I don't buy it.

I guess there's some element of fraud if you remove low ratings, too, but it just strike me as good business to remove bad reviews.

I think the issue for retailers is that the buying public tends to just look at the average score the product is given. Often if you actually read the reviews the bad ones are by idiots who have bought completely the wrong thing for what they needed to do and somehow that's all the fault of the product.
I suppose if they feel they have the right to remove these they should also remove the 5 star reviews which basically say I haven't actually used the product yet but it's brilliant. Of course that might be lower on their priorities.

Which products did you give poor reviews to?

Missing point probably.

I've only ever had good experiences with them.
Bought all sorts over the years and they've warrantied a few bits without issue.
They even fought on my behalf with RockShox until they'd fix it.
They seem to be run by a good bunch based on their social media feeds.

I’ve only ever had good experiences with them.

Likewise - had one today.  New SRAM jockey wheels sent to the wrong address which was my fault, immediately refunded and another pair sent to the correct address.