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  1. User picture
    • TristanPerry on Fri 30 Oct 2009
    • 11:03:29 PM UTC

    Poor rating on my business rating, yet we only have happy customers?

    Hello all :-)
    I'm the owner and manager of Devoted Hosting (http://www.devotedhosting.com/), a shared and reseller hosting company. Although I'm not here to advertise ;-)

    Basically I was made aware (from a visitor to my website, who obviously knows we are a reputable company) that my website contained a massive warning from WOT, saying we're a bad site etc. One person had rated us at 0/100 (or there abouts) for all the categories. This now (currently) results in WOT telling people not to stay on my (business) website!

    However we have never received any complaints from any of our customers, and in-fact have only got happy customers (of course, to the best of our knowledge)

    I notice that absolutely no comment was left, hence it seems that this sole rating was simply from a rival or something.

    I thought that WOT had systems in place to prevent malicious ratings being given out? We have almost certainly lost business due to this?

    I'm not a WOT expert, hence I would greatly appreciate all of your input into why my website was ranked really badly (without any comment/proof being given), and why this has been allowed (especially since we're a business with ALL happy customers)?

    Kind Regards :-)

    Tristan Perry
    Devoted Hosting Manager
    tristanperry (at) devotedhosting (dot) com

    Web developer

Comments:

  2. User picture
    • Sami on Fri 30 Oct 2009
    • 11:36:49 PM UTC

    Re: Poor rating

    Has your site been compromised recently? The reputation is computed only from ratings and leaving a comment on the scorecard is optional for users.
  3. User picture
    • TristanPerry on Sat 31 Oct 2009
    • 12:16:08 AM UTC

    Re: Poor rating

    Hello,
    Nope, we've not been compromised or anything like that. Have had 100% uptime on all servers in October (http://www.hyperspin.com/publicreport/62819/33168), and certainly haven't been compromised.

    Things have been running smoothly, and a quick Google search won't reveal any negative complaints or anything.

    Kind Regards,
    Tristan Perry
    Devoted Hosting Manager
  4. User picture
    • demonluo on Sat 31 Oct 2009
    • 12:42:09 AM UTC

    ask ur happy customer to

    ask ur happy customer to rate it green then...
  5. User picture
    • TristanPerry on Sat 31 Oct 2009
    • 10:00:22 AM UTC

    Why should we need to?

    Why should we need to? I'm happy to do that, but we shouldn't really have to defend ourselves because a rival and WOT are losing us business over an unsubstantiated claim?
    • User picture
      • Sami on Sat 31 Oct 2009
      • 10:53:06 AM UTC

      Re: Why should we need to?

      Because the reputation is based on user ratings and if your happy customers were to share their experiences, it would probably improve your site's reputation and increase confidence among potential new customers. Why wouldn't you want people to tell how happy they are with your service? Also, it's very unlikely that the users who rated your site poorly are your competitors. It's more likely that your site was implicated in a security incident.
      • User picture
        • TristanPerry on Sat 31 Oct 2009
        • 11:23:01 AM UTC

        Re: Why should we need to?

        Our happy customers have posted reviews elsewhere. My point is that this add-on has probably lost us business due to a silly rating left by someone who has never used our services.

        Again, there's been *zero* security incidents. As the link shown, our servers have all had 100% uptime this month, and we always get above 99.9% uptime. We've never received a complaint. Please feel free to verify this yourself.

        Why wouldn't it be a competitor? Can you point to where it says ratings are predicated upon security incidents?
        • User picture
          • Sami on Sat 31 Oct 2009
          • 11:39:45 AM UTC

          Re: Why should we need to?

          Where can I find the reviews then? Uptime doesn't measure security. It's possible that a compromised site was using your services and someone thought you were involved, but I wouldn't know since the users who rated your site didn't leave comments explaining their ratings. I'm just saying that this is far more likely than the poor ratings being from your competitors. Of course, the reputation doesn't measure only security, it tells you how much users trust your site.
          • User picture
            • TristanPerry on Sat 31 Oct 2009
            • 12:18:53 PM UTC

            Reviews

            Hi there,
            I fully understand that good uptime doesn't equate to good security. I'm just pointing out that we have very high uptime, and have never had a complaint (or security issue). Thus I can't see why we received 1/100, without any comment backing it up.

            A couple of reviews:

            http://www.namepros.com/web-hosting-discussion/592...

            http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?... (scroll down)

            http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?... (in middle of post; from same person)

            http://www.webhostingstuff.com/review/DevotedHosti... (see first review; same person)

            So again, I ask can you please explain why someone left us 1/100 on all categories, without any comments? :-)

            A massive warning telling people not to visit our (business) website was without warrant and cost us sales, surely you can see that? Again, we are a quality company and have never received a complaint nor had any security issues (therefore that can't be the reason why we received 1/100 from someone). Hence why I was surprised and disappointed that WOT was losing us business with a nasty-sounding warning?

            Kind Regards,
            Tristan Perry
            Devoted Hosting Manager
            • User picture
              • Sami on Sat 31 Oct 2009
              • 12:40:24 PM UTC

              Re: Reviews

              You already did the right thing by requesting more reviews for your site, but if you believe the reputation can affect your business, it would be only logical to encourage your existing customers to rate your site too, as they obviously have the most experience about your services. Of course, there's no way to know why the users who rated your site poorly didn't find your site trustworthy unless they step up and explain themselves.
  6. User picture
    • BobJam (not verified) on Sat 31 Oct 2009
    • 10:37:09 PM UTC

    Someone?

    You keep saying "someone", implying that one person swung your rating into red . . . or "competitor", again implying that it was one person that did this. Unless that "person" had a very high reliability level (and even then that would be unlikely), one person would not be able to make your site show red. It takes more than just one rating to swing you one way or the other.

    (BTW, I see that your site is into the green, so I assume you were referring to a time that it was red . . . though that would just have been a day ago, so a lot of people, or a few people with high reliability levels, must've rated your site in the past day).