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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Terry commented
I agree with you totally Sheryl. This is the worst information site for apartment information...there is no accountability to what the resident posts. 9 times out of 10 it is a resident 1, cannot follow the lease agreement, 2, has not paid rent, 3, under eviction and they just want to write fake bad reviews..How anyone could believe what is written on this site is beyond me. I know if I had a legitimate problem I would give all my information so they could contact me to resolve the so called problem or bad reveiw!
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Sheryl commented
Are you kidding me? Do you realize how many people live in an apartment complex? At a 400 unit community there can be close to 2000 people living there. Do you really, really think that you are the ONLY people whos opinion matters? As a former property manager it just ticks me off when LEGIT people comment and they are attacked. As a former property manager I am ticked that I get slammed via this website for enforcing the LAW. I am a person with a family just like you....I had no interest in losing my job. READ COMMENTS with a grain of salt. Some people do have legit problems with bad management but other do not. Even with the same community two people with the same problem can view the situation totally different. Honestly....do you live and die by these comments? If a formerly bad property you lived at gets good reviews will it effect your life? What if there is a new staff....ever thought about that? Please people have some sense. Life is not black and white.
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living at Orsini commented
It is obvious that some reviews are fake. I just received an email from management that if we write a GOOD review, we will be entered in a 'lucky draw' to win half of one month's rent free. SEE EMAIL BELOW:
½ of One Month's Rent Free!!!
Do I have your attention? We are holding a drawing that everyone is able to enter! The prize for the lucky winner is ½ of One Month's Rent Free!
All you have to do to win is show your community pride. Post your favorite things about the Orsini at www.apartmentratings.com and e-mail it to me at XXXXX. That's it! -
Max commented
My apt had poor ratings then out of the blue there was two 5 star ratings. One of them included a promotional picture of the pool area. I think it's the same picture from the brochure in the office. Some of these manager posts are really easy to spot. Everybody I know here (Bayview Federal Way) thinks the management is horrible but the posts rave about how great they are. Such obvious BS!
FYI: A statement is only slander if it is not true. Any damage done to a reputation due to honest exposure is completely legal. -
Alexa commented
It is not only pathetic, but is is also misleading and fake advertisement.
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AMB commented
I completely agree. I can tell there are latent lies in my ex-complex reviews. They all say basically the same thing and give glowing reports, but if you actually lived there, you would know it wasn't true. I am not the only former resident to think this. They need to trace IP addresses.
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Anonymous commented
I came on here just to mention that. My apt. complex had an overall rating of about 25%, then out of the blue a new 5-star review started popping up at least once a week. One or two of them might have been genuine, but honestly, due to the frequency of them, the fact that every single one of these reviews talked about how great the staff was in the first sentence, and the fact that the overall rating has magically jumped from 25% or so to 60% over the course of the month... it's pretty glaringly obvious what's going on here. They've even taken to comment on other people's negative reviews, calling them liars. It's really, really pathetic and I wish there was something that could be done about it. But judging by the comments here, a lot of people have wished the same thing for a long time and, despite the popularity of this particular suggestion, the website doesn't have much interest in doing anything about it. It feels as though I'm putting in a maintenance request at my apartment...
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Shadowridge Park Sucks commented
Was it Shadowridge Park in Vista? The same exact thing has happened to me. These are obviously fake posts. No resident would ever give 5 stars to this place, EVER.
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barmarch commented
A rating system is just that - it is a voting system. There is no real way to tell who a rater is or what their motivation is. I post a positive review and then get slammed by profane attacks on myself and my integrity. The fact is, most people who have had a really bad experience are motivated to put in a review and then there are those who have a good experience, but don't need to recommend in a review. I say, let the rating stand as they are, reserving the responses for additional information and not for impuning the integrity of the posters.
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UnBiasedAptRatingsWillNeverHappen commented
Yet apartment managers/owners cant flag the BS disgruntled resident post on here all the time. This whole site is a farse!
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m commented
I'm just in awe that they do not log ip addresses and it cannot be flagged and then examined to see if there are multiple positive reviews from the same ip address. it would certainly be suspicious if there were, you think? the complex i live in recently got new management and obviously is putting up a new review every few days.
certainly there are ALWAYS more negative than positive reviews but when EVERY review rants on about the great management (who, honestly, are mediocre at aest) it get obvious it's someone trying to make their place look better. Then calling me out as someone who got evicted when, sadly, I stll live here unable to leave because it's so much damn money to get out of an apartment and onto somewhere else in a single income family.
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Great idea commented
This is the best idea! I live in Honey Hill apartments in San Antonio. The reviews on the site are completely false! I wrote a review stating how two of my neighbors cars had gotten stolen within a week and if management had reported this that maybe people would have been on a lookout.
Well, ironically now there's a response to my review stating that would only scare people and these are the nicest apartments ever....
Half of the reviews are obviously fake "A gem in the middle of Leon Valley" "Safest place ever" look it up and you won't be able to contain your laughter.
There needs to be a way to flag posts that are made by managers and employees. It is just wrong.
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NeverAgain62 commented
While it's true that people will have a good experience in apartments, there are some very obvious reviews that are simply boosting the complexes reviews.
Beachwalk of Novi,MI is one such complex and i have personally pointed it out on my own review of this complex in which i lived for 10 years. The owner of Beachwalk left a comment calling me a liar then two reviews popped up giving Beachwalk a 60% even though a large majority of reviews on Beachwalk are negative and complain about the exact same thing.
The title is usually the same "Great Place" and all of them give a 4-5 star ratingin the same areas. They are all extremely small reviews, they all praise the management, they all say the experience has been wonderful.
I think a positive review is fine, but glowing reviews that show up within days of a negative review is extremely suspicious. I know for a fact that Beachwalk staff keep a close watch of this site and the comments left on their complex, they have responded to my review and one review by cogshaw admits to working for Beachwalk.
There is no doubt in my mind that Beachwalk posts false reviews to boost their rating. This is a disgusting abuse of the system and should be corrected.
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Brayzen commented
it's hilarioius.. I've seen that too. A list a mile long of the same complaints, and then one over the top, rave reviewing enthusiast gets on there, and I actually thought it was a joke by someone who was being super sarcastic because that one glorified FAKE reviewer couldn't possibly think it'd be taken seriously. Apartment staff don't need high school diplomas. If they can be perky fake, and dupe people into signing a lease, they're in.
I know a stripper who dropped out in 8th grade, faked all her credentials and uses her sex appeal to get renters and then her female bonding abilities to work both genders.. It's hilarious. I'd name the company, but she's actually a decent human being, unlike the majority. -
Melanie C. Morgan commented
I have noticed and can tell when a property manager has posted something overly positive. It is pretty bad. Now I disagree with some of you who say that a lot of tenants do not write about good rental experiences. I have written about some of mine. The problem is that there are unfortunately, more bad rental experiences!
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zpregional commented
You should consider that while a bad experience will take virtually zero effort for someone to post something negative, very few people take the time to post a positive experience. Often, a manager will ask those residents who have lived happily at their communities to post their experience. This might happen at renewal time or at a resident party which would trigger sevral positive reviews in a short time. We work hard for those good reviews. You should not assume that they are all falsely posted.
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Cynthia commented
I agree there is slander on this web site and should be removed.
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Warren,all you have to do when signing up through a third party program or account is choose the option that says "Do not share (information) and continue". That way,while your name is visible on your account it will not be visible to anyone that goes to your account from here. Just click on my "name" and you will see what I am talking about. Take care.
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Sin6667 commented
There really needs to way to keep employees from posting false information in their defense. When you post it says "I certify that's I'm not an employee, yadda yadda yadda. Ever since I posted this review, I been getting outrages comments and it couldn't be more crystal clear that it's an employee. They've even been doing it in their past bad reviews. I even mentioned it to them on the phone when trying to take care of the situation and they responded with condescending answers. As if to say, "not like you can do anything about it."
http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/l/1Ogoo
It's plain to see what's going on there. Why aren't things done about this?
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Warren commented
Bryan's suggestion to force accountability is a very good one. However, it would be much less appealing for current residents to leave negative reviews, as there would be no anonymity with reviews linked to a 3rd-party profile.