provide a way to flag obviously fake feedback
I posted a review once for an apartment complex that was an absolute nightmare to live in, so I get emails every time a new review is posted. After months of mostly negative reviews, there are all of a sudden four positive reviews posted this week - five-star reviews without a single complaint! This seems EXTREMELY suspicious to me - pretty flagrant "ballot-stuffing" by the management - but there doesn't appear to be any way of flagging them as likely false. You can flag it as "removeable" but that's the closest you can get. A flag for "sock puppet" would be great.
This feature exists on the site. There is a “report” link next to each review and options are provided to categorize it.
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Anonymous commented
I agree with you. After 1 bad review, one apt got 21 positive reviews in 3 weeks- 6 posted today. Obviously fake.
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Anonymous commented
We can already Flag Review, and Flag Response (2012-12-11). How did you want it implemented?
Perhaps give more priority to the flag if the original poster flagged it?
Don't waste their time on this one. They need to fix the Recommended percent. I have to cut and paste all reviews into a spreadsheet to get the correct Recommended percent. But at least the Overall Rating is correct.
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Anonymous commented
If this idea was shared in 2009 and nothing has been done about it.... Really?
What good are you, Apartment Ratings?
Have you heard of Yelp? They have a system of "filtering" reviews.
Why don't you contact them and learn a little something. -
Anonymous commented
If there is anyone in charge of this site reading this, "beenthere1950" on Jefferson Park Apartments in Liberty, MO is FAKEEE!!! i just KNOW this is Lindsay, one of the managers that work there, and commenting on everyones bad reviews, INCLUDING MINE, and saying that we are all wrong and being ridiculous! I think they should get in trouble for writing a review and making an account on here when they knew they couldn't and it was one of the requirements on here to make a profile, and they knowingly clicked on "we are not any part of managment or ownership" or whatever it says. they know they are being a fraud. I know it's Lindsay or Rachael because beenthere1950 commented on my review saying, "Talk about liars, get your facts straight before you run your mouth !First the staff is great, they do a lot of extra things for tenants that they do not have to, it is your choice if you want to participate. Now did you give notice and leave the correct way or are you part of the problem and were asked to vacate and now you are pissed off and want revenge?? A huge drug bust, are you kidding me......not the way I heard it........ I will not pretend to know it all, but do know that anyone found with drugs or stuff pertaining to drugs is usually given a certain amount of time to vacate the property. The staff cannot monitor (and you would not want them to) everything you or your friends bring into your apartment, you would really resent that intrusion of privacy, the thing is that they react as soon as possible to any and every situation. Since the news cannot even get the facts before broadcasting and you know they are not retracting anything they said why would you believe them??? This is a good place, all places where a group of people come together will have some problems, it is human nature, you have the same thing in single family neighborhoods not all get along and the guy down the street is doing something illegal, but you do not know it, or has loud parties, does that make it a bad place to live? Come back to earth and think before you make accusations!"
it says my name in my email address, and i DID get "evicted" even though i just moved out. but how did they know that?!? because its one of the girls from the apartments!!!! take this person off please and do something about this fraudulent apartment management going on!!!! it IS ILLEGAL. -
craig carter commented
Quite frankly, if you can't tell that a one sentence review with 5 star ratings flood a apt. complex after multi paragraph negative reviews have rightly slammed them. You have been "reviewing" this problem for over a year with no action. I guess it's time to find another site to look for apartment reviews if you have no integrity to police your site from obvious ballot stuffers, or you must be getting some form of kick-back from these terrible apt complexes.
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Angie commented
Campus Suites Apartments, Student housing scam
My daughter rented a shared apartment in a 3-4 bedroom suite in 2011 for a year lease. Campus Suites is a student housing complex where the residents have a separate lease and share common areas with other residents. The room she rented was vacant for several months, and the current residents in the apartment were living there for over a year. The room came with a bed, dresser, and had a separate bathroom. My daughter is in her early 20s, honest, and trustworthy.
The room had a dresser and a bed, and the staff on hand, had her sign the lease and then check out the apartment by herself. Staff said they did not have the staff to go with her to check out the apartment with her.
The carpet was is terrible shape, dirty, and you'd think it would have been totally replaced.
The common areas were in terrible shape, couch was broken, kitchen was a mess, and I understand why this room was vacant.My daughter needed a place, took the room, and said the room was ok on her acceptance sheet that she received from the office. The office told her to return the acceptance sheet immediately so she could start moving in. My daughter moved in, I came up the following week to bring him some items, look at the poor condition of the apartment and went to the office and mentioned the worn carpets, broken sofa, and the poor condition of the apartment to the staff. The staff just yes me, and and did not make any effort to look into my comments.
My daughter stayed at the apartment for one year as in the lease. Paid all her monthly rent on time, no late payments. I went up with her to get his stuff and return the keys at the end of her lease. We asked the staff to look at the apartment when we moved her out. They said they were too busy and would look at it in a few days. I mentioned again the poor condition of the apartment when my daughter moved out and they had no comment. We returned the keys and we left. We thought that this was the last we would hear from campus suites.
Six weeks after my son returned the key to Campus Suites, they sent my daughter a damage assessment for over $450 for replacement of carpeting, replacement of sofa, and other damages and cleaning fees. My daughter and I called the apartment managers Jessica Graves and Krstal Coleman, 765-276-7700, said they do not inspect the apartments before tenants move in, Campus Suites does not have the staffing to do that, and it is the responsibility of the tenant. Staff did not explain the importance of the form and did not explain the ramifications to my daughter. Most of the staff at college suites were college students living at college suites and working part time.
Jessica Graves the Campus Suites manager said that the took a 9 minute video of the apartment and
said the carpet was totally damaged, toilet seat broken, couch broken, and charged my daughter close to $500 in damages. If not paid, a collection would be made, and their attorney would file charges against her. My daughter paid the damages, it would cost us more money for an attorney to fight it in small claims court.It is amazing that they could not check out the apartment with her before she moved in. They would not check out the apartment with me and her when we checked out. Also they would not respond to my comments about the apartment during his lease that the apartment was in poor shape, carpet dirty and worn. I would be curious how many other young adults are charged damages at Campus Suites and are charged $400-500.
My daughter took the apartment on good faith, Campus Suites knew the condition of the apartment. There was no pre-inspection by campus suites. They told my son with a big smile just sign the paper to accept the apartment, and we will only give you the keys to the apartment once you sign the form. After the apartment was vacated and key returned, campus suites campus suites two months later sent my daughter a damages bill for over 450 dollars. Campus Suites said they took a 9 minutes video of the apartment and sent my daughter a bill for damages. Campus suites stated that damages were not paid in 30 days they would file damages against her in court.
In retrospect, my daughter should of taken a 20 minutes video and photos of the apartment prior to signing a lease. Yes she is young, trustworthy, and vulnerably to being taken advantage of.
Campus Suites should be very proud of their management practices...... I am sure they generate funds with this practice at the end of their leases.
I am writing this.... so maybe someone reads this..... and does not get taken advantage of by Campus Suites. Renter beware...... take pictures of the apartment and video before you move in.......
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youknow commented
Obviously, there are also those residents who don't get their way who post bogus reviews as retaliation. It goes both ways. There are definite flaws in this site.
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Chris commented
Couldn't there still be a process in which posts could be flagged and if it reaches a certain threshold of flags have a customer service rep review the reviews so to speak? I don't think it would be out of the question to delete reviews that very blatantly come from the same source. It is common practice for sites such as Amazon, Linda, etc. to remove feedback that is clearly coming from an untrusted source.
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Anonymous commented
One of those apartments are Lloyd Apartments in Alexandria VA
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Tyler Hanson commented
This would kill me.
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Kathleen Clohessy commented
I cannot believe the back and forth bickering going on here. The suggestion is a good one, why would any legitimate apartment manager object to it?
I just posted recently that the management at the truly awful place where I live is paying people $25.00 for each positive review they post their own names and email addresses. So anyone who claims that managers and landlords are the only ones being abused by this website have their heads in the sand. Sure, there are disgruntled tenants who say bad things about good apartment complexes, but the average rating includes both perspectives. It is not exactly difficult to figure out that a complex with 70% positive reviews is probably a pretty good place to live, and one with 30% probably is not. BUT, when management is paying tenants $25.00 apiece for positive, signed reviews those numbers can become very skewed very quickly and THAT's a lot more damaging than one bad review by an angry tenant.
Personally, I think any apartment complex that is caught buying votes or falsifying information should have their name taken out of the ratings altogether and be flagged on the site as a "Lying Landlord!"
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Anonymous commented
You People Have To Find Something Better To Do Then Blame The Management, When I first Moved Here, there was Something wrong with the Garbage and Management Got it Taken Care of. After the Garbage Cans Were Empty, did Anyone of You Come Out And Pick Up any Trash. Well I did it didn't Bother Me to give Lawerence and Melissa a Helping Hand. I didn't see anyone help out, Didn't it bother You To see trash all around the Can. And if it Did then You should have Went out and Pick up the trash around it, I like living here and if I can help Out I will. Those who are willing to do Something Like that help out around, should be the ones Complaining. You People Need to have Some Patience
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Anonymous commented
I Have Been Living Here for about a Month and Before I Moved in, I did My Homework on this Complex and The Management and Maintenance People are do the Best Job That They Can. I have A Friend Thats Been Living here for 15 years and They have Never Had a Complaint about Managemen. He even Says that They take Care Of every Problem Real Quick, and I have had the Same Results as My Friend Had. Melissa Is Doing the Best Job She Can and If You were to Go to another Complex, They Have an Assisant working with Them and it Take about Two weeks to get Something Done. Melissa and Her Team here at Shannon Park are Doing a Great Job, I wouldn't Change a Thing with Them!!! And Melissa Will Do Everything To Make Your Living Better, If My Friend Didn't Give It a Good Recommendation then I wouldn't Be Living Here. And If You have a Question and She Doesn't Have an Answer she Calls The Owner and Gets For You That Day or The Next Day . Thanks For All the Hard Work Melissa and Lawerence, Keep Up the Great Job, And Have a Nice Day !!!!
RCG.
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Anonymous commented
Yes this is true,I caught the manager of the complex red handed falsely writting good reviews to bring up their rateings which in this apartment complex should be a zero rateing.Its amazing but must be a quailifacation of these positions that you wear a false face?
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Anonymous commented
As the previous commenter stated, I, too, wrote a negative review (Re: Whispering Palms Apts), that suspiciously was followed by several (5?) positive comments by the property managers. Can't be coincidence. Every comment preceding these found this property & it's mgmt. ALL HAD NEGATIVE COMMENTS, not surprising as these ARE SLUMLORDS. The reviews that followed singing praise about the complex & its new mgmt. are FALSE. It flies in the face of all prior negative reviews--clearly written by the property manager. To allow such comments is to render this site ineffective. People use this site as a research tool--to find out from OTHER TENANTS, past or present, the TRUTH about a property they may possibly relocate to. To allow & permit blatant, false, fictitious comments written by Apt. Managers renders this site unreliable and misrepresents the facts upon which prospective tennants base, to varying degrees, their choice of residence. Please keep this site from becoming yet another tool for Slumlords to lie, & misrepresent the actual facts. A series of comments touting this complex as a " fabulous" & "great" place to live and how wonderful the managers are, posted after a negative review ( NOTE: I had forwarded the comments to the current mgrs. to show mgmt. that I was not the only person complaining about their Co. & property. It was immediately after this that the series of praising comments were posted.
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thinkb4youmove commented
I AGREE! I am having the same issue!
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Shadowridge Park Sucks commented
You can always tell a fake 'renter' review by apartment management - they talk about how great the staff is, or even mention themselves by name! When you live in a good place, you rarely interact with the staff. This site is losing relevancy and credibility because of all the false management posts. Do a simple IP check or validation, or fade away....
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Manup commented
Why, when I wrote a bad reveiw, my IP address got flagged and I can't write more reveiws? What's up with that?
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mark di commented
Sawgrass Cove is putting up their own reviews right now! I am sure of it. There hasn't been hardly any reviews, but now 5 in the same day, all raves! You do the math.
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mureta commented
Whispertree Apartments is an OBVIOUS example of this, usually within the hour of a bad review there is a positive review or two to keep them up high.