Jorn W.

I had a mildly negative impression of a steam cleaner and posted an honest review of my experience. (Essentially, the steam cleaner in question tried to get to pay extra for using detergent on the carpet. When I declined, he agreed to steam clean the carpets at the price we agreed and said he'd spray the carpets anyway. The carpets ended up clean, but overly wet which can cause damage in some cases.)

My review was rejected because I allegedly broke one of their guidelines, which they listed. I replied to support asking for clarification because as far as I could tell I didn't break any of them. In my reply, I listed all of the guidelines and explained why I had met them:

"Hi, could you give more specific reasons why my review was declined? It was
1/ based off a true experience. I have the receipt and I can scan it in and email it.
2/ isn't offensive
3/ is based on first hand experience
4/ doesn't contain swear words
5/ doesn't contain any identifiable information
6/ is written by a person who engaged the services of a business
7/ is solely based on specific experiences with the business
8/ is written in lucid English
9/ is not in contempt of a court
10/ does not make any claims of illegal activity or related to medical malpractice
11/ is entirely original

So... why was it redacted? Honestly, if that review was not approved, then it makes me doubt the authenticity the reviews on true local as being overly santisied"

They wrote back saying only that my review broke "one of the guidelines" and directed me to a link which listed them, without clarifying which guideline they thought I had broken.

They replied,

"Yes, we can appreciate that you highlighted the guidelines to determine which you had not met. Please read over them carefully. Your review has not met True Local guidelines and will not be published by the moderation team."

Which is, frankly, obnoxious and unhelpful. As it stands, I firmly believe the only reason they deleted my review was because it was negative which is why they were unable to give a more concrete response.

Accordingly, I think TrueLocal reviews are heavily biased to the point of being utterly unreliable and I urge others to also boycott their website.