Qype Reviews
I have just finished working for Qype – they still need to pay me but that’s a story for another day – and it has given me quite an insight into methods of flim-flamming consumers with ‘user submitted’ reviews.
The basic premise of sites such as Qype, Trip Advisor and Yelp is that consumers will honestly review their experiences and what these reviews lack in quality verbiage they make up for in integrity. The consumers may – or may not heed the reviews but that is not where the value of these reviews actually lies. I’d like to give you the stats on how many people are actually viewing the Brighton review websites but had best keep those facts to myself – what I can tell you is – according the metrics provided by analytical tools – search engines lead far more people directly to business’ websites than to review sites. So although a minuscule number of people may actually come to your business through a site such as Qype -review sites have a value extending way beyond the sites their own reach.
What I have also noticed is that the search engines seem to be increasing the weight that place on these reviews when it comes to placing a website in it’s search listings. If you were to google ‘Brighton Restaurants’ you would find the top slots on page one websites that – in terms of pure search engine optimisation – do not deserve to be there. For example right near the top is the Iydea Vegetarian Restaurant, their website is a three legged blind dog that needs to be put out of its misery and yet there it is, top of page one that’s the equivalent of the final at Crufts.
The only way they have gotten there is by garnering 53 reviews on these user submitted review sites. It would only take one day to write 53 reviews yet it would take many days of very expensive SEO to get onto the front page for such a competitive search term as ‘Brighton Restaurants’.
I would suggest that it is only a matter of time before somebody at Google Towers tweaks an algorithm and it will all change – but until then if you have a business in a sector that google chooses to list with the accompanying review count; then get reviewing – and don’t stop because it’s an arms race and your competitors will be doing it too.
Tags: qype
What's on your mind?
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March 9th 2011 | 1
Steve Moss says:
Sorry but you clearly have a limited understanding as to how the search engine algorithm works. There are many restaurants in Brighton with many more reviews than the one you mention, yet they come far lower down the list. It’s way more complex than you are making out to get such a good search result. Why don’t you make up a restaurant and then write 54 reviews for it and lets all see if your theory works….. Not!
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The Hussy says:
No, I get it – but could you explain how a PR0 site with only 7 google backlinks, 167 yahoo backlinks gets onto page one for a competitive term?
Plus a substantial number of the backlinks are actually from the review sites.
And I tried making up a restaurant on a review site but it got deleted …. although I might try again.
as an aside I just noticed one of the links propping that website up actually comes from The Hussy! Small world eh?
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Stewart says:
I have been offered a job at Qype, can you pm me so I may discuss it with you. It seems like good pay but I am after job security also. It’s a bit unknown to me and your comments about not being paid are a little worrying.
Many Thanks -
The Hussy says:
No probs Stewart – I’ll email you the details when I get a chance next week.
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Simon D says:
I don’t suppose you have any info relevant to potential advertisers do you? When I listed my business they were quite quick to phone me offering a ‘premium’ listing but the numbers they quoted didn’t really seem to make sense to me.
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polly says:
What’s the story? My friend had issues with them when he was advertising?
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Futon says:
Polly was right. What’s the story?
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becarefull says:
I just want to say to all Qype’s potential cients, that you should not be fooled of what they might tell you, you can achive through them as is completly bullshit. They just write a few reviews for your business, and bound you to a contract which belive me, it will be a waste of your money.
Let me tell you why:
I was one their client and I heave been deceited in what they have told me I would achive for my business. When I started Qype said that they have 5000 searches a month on the the specific keyword related to my business and I naively belived it. After a few months with my account running already, potential clients where ZERO, so I deceided to give them a call to see what happent, and at the other end of the line after a serios of questions, the guy told me after a check in their sistem that they had only 400 SEARCHES IN 3 MONTHS IN LONDON (my company activity area)on the specific keyword for my business . I was outraged to find out that, that meant less than than 130 searches a month. Anyone smart enough should see a huge gap which belive me it proves to be gigantic when you relate this matter to search engines. I will give as an example my business: the specific keyword important to my business, on which Qype said they have 5000 searches a month(and remenber that was a lie) on Google rise up on 70000 (SEVENTY THOUSANDS) A MONTH IN LONDON. Now you can estimate for yourself if Qype could realy be effective and help your business in any way.
Obviously after I found out they have deceited me I wanted to close my account with them, but it was to late. They bla, bla, bla me and mentioned that I still do have 3 months remaining on the contract and I can’t close my account until the end of six months.
I said ok I will loose some money for another 3 months, to realise later of what this guys from qype are capable of.
One month before the end of those six months I called them to have my account with them canceled and they told me the only way to do that is by sending them a written notice and as soon as they received will be processed and an confirmatin mail of canceling will be sent to me. After 3 weeks of waiting an e-mail from Qype, I call them again to see if they received my letter and why I have not received an e-mail. To my surprise they received my letter 13 day before, and didn’t bothered to send me a confirmatian untill I CALLD THEM. I couldn’t be more inraged to find out another surprise! Because my letter arrived just with 5 days later then the 30 days period(WHICH REALY SEEMS A LOT OF TIME FOR SOME SIMPLE PRESS OF BUTTONS IN THEIR SYSTEM) of canceling an account I will be charged for another month( the seventh ). I WAS SO FURIOUS I COULD NOT EXPRESS IT IN WORDS. IF SOME OF THESE GUY FROM QYPE WOULD BEEN FACE TO FACE WITH ME I DON’T KNOW WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE TO THEM.For those smart people who are reading this review don’t be fooled, Qype is making money from ripping you off by no means.
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Sam Peps says:
I suspect that they weren’t being dishonest – it’s just that Qype have effectively been killed by the last google updates http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2011/04/12/googles-panda-update-rolls-out-to-uk/ for some evidence.
They will continue to work for their regular users but they are DEAD as an advertising tool now
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Polly says:
It is interesting how the new media are trying to find a niche for advertisers – I suspect that it is all just settling down until both the customers and businesses have figured out the best way to use all of the available information.
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Emilie Clep says:
I don’t know how it is to work for them, however as a “premium” (lol) customer I must say their services are appalling!!!!!! Rare replies to e-mails, people hanging up on you on the phone…. Never saw anything quite like it, and they tell YOU how to run YOUR business…. what a joke, for £45 a month trust me, so not worth it!!! The worst customers services ever seen…
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Eliane says:
Qype have royally screwed many companies over, telling them one thing and doing another,not being able to contact your “account manager” for over a month, signing into yearly contracts with no 14 day cancellation period that you are told you are intitled to before signing the contract. Free listing by all means go ahead but I strongly suggest that any company that does not need the hassle or does not have the time to keep chasing a company that really does not care about customer services. You suck Qype!!!
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Eliane says:
Just to add, i have just read what Becareful said and that is exactly how it went for us guys, we met and signed up to Qype in a small starbucks inside of Sainsburys, Steve Coyle our Account Manager starting telling us how brilliant the services are for the price. telling us how he has been working for Qype for years and many people were so happy with the outcome from joining Qype, but he was to optimistic, to confident and far to pushy, i could smell a bad egg but as my partner wanted to start investing into marketing our recently launched company i took the risk. I mean how bad does it sound, 175 pounds a month for a year and you are guaranteed 2,000 leads or you do not pay a penny, you can cancel at any time, you will have an account manager to speak to 24/7 (bearing in mind he seemed overly keen on to help us expand and be known in a good light. But all this was complete B*lls**t, we couldnt get hold of him so we started to panic emailing them our cancellation conformation witch did not get replyed to. so we gave up with trying to call Steve Coyle and hounded the main offices, and they are even more hopeless, saying they do not know where their employee has been for a month as we had no contact, honestly save yourself the hassle of having to write reviews on the internet as this is the only outcome we may have, and that is for you guys to spread the word!!
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Ian says:
Well it looks as though I may have been caught out as well. I had made a free qype adver, no problem if people used my service I pointed them to that so they could leave a review.
However no-one did, I rang a couple of customers, and they couldn’t be bothered to ‘join’ to leave a review. I left it at that, then Qype got in touch, offering the world on a plate to me, just as they did with a lot here. My question to them, and my only real issue, was the signing up to leave a review. I was told if I have a widget on my site customers can click direct and leave a review without having to join. CRAP you still have to join, for the last 3 days now I have been asking why I was told the complete opposite. As of yet I have not received a reply. This company are crap!! -
Ian says:
Well a follow up to my last review. Qype are ignoring me. They don’t reply to my phone calls, or emails. How can these people run a business like this and get away with it? If I ran my business like it I would have no customers. Anybody have any advice on what to do next? I feel like going to their Crawley branch and kicking off, but then who would be at fault?
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David says:
Well im glad I didn’t sign up for qype, I struggled to get of the phone to a pushy sales person on friday after I registered for there free ad. She was full of how good it would be for my business and that it would see huge benefits in terms of sales and hits as soon as I sign up. I believe that if she was in the same room as me she would have ripped my credit card out of my hand and swiped it.
I asked for a 1 month free trial, if its as good as she said it is there wouldn’t be a business out there that wouldn’t sign up…they would not need to use such hard selling techniques.
Having said that I nearly fell for it, I hope they never get another customer. -
Ian says:
Here is the latest update on this situation. There ios none. As of yet I have had no phone call or an email to confirm to me that my account is closed, and that no more monies will be taken from my account.
Seriously people DO NOT get involved with these people, they are a shambles.
David believe me when I say you had a lucky escape.
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Samo Haryan says:
Search engines are doing their best to serve us with good search results, they even hire people to manually look through the websites that tend to be the first results, so we should do our best too, in order to have good websites and good presence on the web.
Samo Haryan´s last blog ..Record Online Radio
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steve says:
@Ian – just seen your comments above after googling to find info about qype – have just taken out a qype package a month ago and basically on advice from consumer direct, will be writing to them formally to advise of breach of contract – as per Ians comments above the big clincher for me was that customers could leave a review on the qype business listing page without the need to log in and create an account – naturally this would be a positive advantage over google listings as most people cant be bothered to leave the review after discovering they have to faff about logging in or creating a google account if they dont already have one – the sales rep was quite adamant about this and i did go into it but unfortunately not to the point of getting the sales rep to demonstrate it!
needless to say if they had told me that to leave the review you would have to login or create a qype account then i would have never have agreed to enter into the contract
a very significant difference and in my opinion a serious misrepresentation of the facts
as for the seo – my own site is coming up well enough under its own natural aspiration and all the seo measures weve taken ourselves – and guess what … not a qype reference to be seen in the first two pages of google search listings
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Ian says:
Well this is the latest installment.
I spoke to someone at Qype head office, she asked me to send ALL emails both sent and recieved. Which I did. I was told that there would be a meeting on monday to look at my case and they would ring Monday. They have just rung me, Wednesday. Anyway the lady, VJ, was very appologetic but said there is nothing they can do, as I had clicked the link say ing it was for 6 months. I again explained that it was what I was told to do by Lisa Gale, and to ignore the 6 months bit as it was only 3 month contract, but they needed the link clicked to activate. I asked about the promises I had been told, ie about the no login in for customers to leave reviews. I was told this could not happen. Not what I was told. So the bottom line is I still have to pay for something that is of no use to me.
The best of it all is, the Crawley office has now been closed and the sales reps gone. Why? I can only imaging because of all the complaints they have had about their underhand tactics.
Steve, could you let me know how you get on, or indeed if anyone else here feels they have been treated unfairly let me know.If we all stick together and get something in mass surely they can’t ignore it. I just feel so angry by the whole thing, in this day and age it is hard enough working to earn a crust without a shodddy company like this taking my hard earned.
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steve says:
i am just submitting an email and letter to them explaining their breach of contract as they had misrepresented an important feature of their website and requestinging they cancel my contract forthwith
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steve says:
the whole meail thing just looks like a bit of a time waste tbh – they should have their own copies surely?
i have no dispute wiht any emails they sent to me or i to them, the crux of my complaint is tha their product was deliberately mis-sold and misrepresented by their sales rep
will keep you posted – if they fail to cancel the contract at my request then i will take them to small claims court as there were three of us in the office when the sales rep explained the review system so its not as if the sales rep can claim that it was their word against mine and nobody else witnessed it
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Annoymous says:
Hi All, let’s introduce my self as a ex employee of the Qype office based in Crawley. your comments about the office closing is correct! There have been so many complaints it’s unreal. The boss one Mr Mick Daniels was a complete slave driver and could not keep his staff longer than a few weeks because of the way they were treated, it’s very sad because the reps selling the product have been misled and told to sell it one way with lots of false promises and dragged over the coals for not selling enough hence why most walked out at least with a bit of pride. The people in charge of the shoddy business is Mick Daniels and the big cheese based in London in Kym O’hara, forget the joke that is customer service or the call centre they are being misled just as much as the business’s involved. I know it not what evey one wants to hear but there is nothing that can be done. As soon as your 6 months is up CANCELL and never use them again! Believe you me after working for the for only a few weeks I relised as a sales person I could not lie and sell lies to innocent business that are struggling enough at the moment, I know for a fact all the reps felt the same but until they found another job they had to continue… Again we were all employeed under false pretences. If any of you have any questions please respond and I will answer.
All the best for the future and when your contract expires!
Many Thanks
Anonymous
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Ian says:
Steve
If you are ok with this, could I get involved with you? To be honest I have tried to rally a lot of ‘misled’ customers together that have complained about Qype. My thoughts are one person on their own is not the force of many.
I was told that as it was all email and verbal and as the office is now closed there is no proof of what was promised.
They do have copies of all the emails that have been sent to you from the office you dealt with as they pulled some up when I was talking to them.Anonymous, so how would you feel about standing up in court and telling people about this ‘company’?
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Kefa says:
Just quickly want to share my experience with qype.
Firstly – their customer service is absolute unsatisfactory !
Secondly – I was asked to sign up for a premium account and promised that this does magic. Well, ok, can’t blame anyone for this as that’s what sales people do and I wasn’t expecting too much anyway. But qype is really poor and since there is a company called google offering google places + reviews, qype is absolutely out of date !
The thing that annoys me is that I was told by the sales person that if a minimum of 1,000 people doesn’t click through to my website a year I am entitled to a full refund. That was the reason why I signed up. The other day I read the terms and conditions and it stats the following:
4.10
Money back guarantee (only for Premium Partner registered by telephone). Qype Ltd guarantees
the number of five hundred (500) Guaranteed Potential Customers (GPC) for their Premium
Partner product over the term of 12 months, failure to reach the Guaranteed Potential Customers
purchased over the term of the contract will lead to a full refund. This means that your Business
will be seen a minimum of 500 timesWell, that means – min of 500 people see your ad, no money back !
The sales rep also said qype is looking for a partner and posts only 2 (TWO) premier listings in my area. That was a complete lie. Once I signed up there were around 20 listings in my area. This is a disgusting way of doing business!!
Great, I called up customer service and I was told *indirectly* that I am lying.
In summary – I wasted lots of money. Don’t ever make the same mistake and waste your money on this pointless website. Let qype go bust, they don’t deserve any better.
Kefa
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steve says:
dont know about court yet not reached that stage but they should certainly be exposed to something like bbc watchdog
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Ian says:
Well despite all the conversations with the ‘happy’ people at Qype, they have chosen to ignore everything I have said. Today they have taken another payment from me despite not having one customer put up a review or even someone else coming from them. It beggers belief that this company can seem to do what it wants with no come backs whatsoever. I have been in touch with Watchdog, but it would seem they are not interested. I just give up.
Anyone want to advertise with me, I’ll promise you the world, take your money and give nothing in return??
Ian
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Jon says:
I am taking Qype to court in mid January for the return of my payments as they didn’t fulfil their guarantee. I think it is time to have their business practices and unfair terms and conditions tested in court. I would like to use some of your experiences with this company for my case if possible. Please post if you agree and I will give contact details.
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Ian says:
With you 100%
Let me know what you need and it is yours
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steve says:
sounds good – i have checked and it appears they have no longer been taking payments from the card details which we supplied them when we signed up – are they going under?
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Alex says:
I encountered Qype after my boss discovered an unfavorable review on their website. Qype don’t give the opportunity for business owners to respond to reviews on their website, which is what my boss would do on the rare occasion of a bad review, and so he contacted the company to see if there was a way to respond. Qype effectively told him that they would take the review down if he signed up to a year’s subscription to their website, which he did.
He was contacted shortly afterward by a ‘customer service’ representative and told that his current subscription was wrong for him and they sold him an alternative subscription. Apparently he could easily cancel the old subscription by logging onto the website, pressing ‘cancel’ and the money would automatically be refunded onto the credit card.
But it seems life isn’t this simple at Qype and despite contacting them daily, they are refusing to refund the first subscription back onto the credit card. The first person I dealt with muttered something about it being a website problem and promised to call me back, which he didn’t. I called them again and they asked me to email confirmation of the cancellation, promising to call me back. They didn’t. After calling them around eight times, I’m currently being told that this is a ‘technical issue’ that they are ‘honestly aware of’ and somehow involves their own employees from Germany not getting back to their colleagues in the London office.
It’s easy to spot when you’re being disregarded and lied to and Qype are a shocking company to deal with in this respect. I do wonder if the agents themselves are aware of how transparent they are. Companies like this are great at perfecting a sales pitch but completely neglect their customers once money has been exchanged or a contract has tied into. What’s more frustrating, provoking a sense of outrage, is the element of dishonesty they have introduced into the proceedings. Perhaps it’s not deliberate on the part of individual agents – no one takes a job intending to lie or promote a product that doesn’t appear to be backed up with substance – but there is clearly a culture of dishonesty and trickery filtering down through the organisation.
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Matt says:
Well, this makes for interesting reading, along with the many other scathing reviews I’ve found around the internet for Qype themselves. I received the call about ‘premium listings’ today, and had a 30 minute conversation with one of their reps who sang the praises of their website and personally ‘guaranteed’ me a minimum 10% conversion rate of customer clicks on Qype to actual paying customers. He dazzled me with numbers, and after twice asking him about the specifics of their Money Back Guarantee, was twice given a very vague answer that didn’t leave me feeling very confident.
What worries me is that he’ll be calling me back tomorrow to get my answer, and I haven’t found a single good review about their services to businesses. I thought it all sounded a bit too good to be true, but I was razzle-dazzled by his excellent sales pitch and friendly manner.
So, people, have any of you had anything like a positive experience with Qype?
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steve says:
four months gone by since we subscribed to the premium package
not one single phone enquiry generated from a qype search (plenty however from my own naturally aspirated-seo-friendly website)im puzzled that bbc watchdog arent interested?- guess it doesnt make for as ‘interesting’ viewing as rogue tradesmen
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steve says:
and while we’re on the subject another one to avoid at all costs is APPLEGATE – they are the reason we decided to give QYPE a try to see if they were any better – at the time i did not think anywhere could be worse than applegate ! isnt hindsight wonderful :-/
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Laura says:
Hi, my name’s Laura at Viet Nails. I run a small nail salon in Kettering, Northants.
I have experienced a deluge of false and malicious reviews on QYPE ever since I declined their sales pitch of a PREMIUM listing which I did not need as I have my own website.
I run a small and honest business and personally see to it that all my customers are happy and if they are not I rectify the problem there and then. So I know for a fact that any bad reviews are in fact false!
Also I have my suspicions that some of the are false reviews are from my rather unscrupulous competitors who are trying to pull dirty tricks!
I would not put it past them to post a false review on the site because I refused to pay them £50 a month to advertise with them!
They are a scandalous company and I have since asked them to close my listing down.
From a decent, honest and hardworking business owner –
Laura Mac at Viet Nails, Kettering
