Trip Advisor Fake reviews

[alimac]

I recently had the unfortunate experience of diving with Ocean Explorers in St. Maarten

Before I travelled I read the hype on Trip Advisor and gave it a go. The dive sites were ok but my overall experience very poor.
Upon my return to the dive shop (Ocean Explorers St. Maarten) after the dives we were asked to review the dive shop on Trip Advisor. When I say asked, it was more "Begged" to review them. I was not interested so to ensure I was going to give them a 5 star review I was offered a FREE T-shirt !!
Great I thought and took them up on the offer.

I posted the review and was honest about my poor experience. When I checked later to see if my review was posted I noticed a strange looking review was posted. It stated how amazing the experience was and how cool the shark dive was? I flagged this to Trip Advisor due to it's content and it was treated as a Fake review.

It turned out the owners of Ocean Explorers or someone affiliated with the business posted it. Trip Advisor can see where the IP address comes from amongst other stuff.
A Trip Advisor member of staff emailed me personally and thanked me for noticing the Fake Review.
It was at this point I made Trip Advisor aware of the incentives and them begging to review but so far no action has been taken against Ocean Explorers.

I want to know if anyone else has experienced anything like this through Trip Advisor or any other review site as people should be aware of Trip Advisor.

 

[Testudo]

Are you alleging the OE somehow altered your submission or rather that a fake review was submitted by Ocean Explorers after yours was posted to counter/offset your negative review?

As for the inaction on the part of Trip Advisor, unfortunately TA generates a portion of their revenue from the business listings featured on their site. Do not know if this is the case for Ocean Explorers SXM, but business can purchase additional features and richer content for their free listings.