I <3 Teas said

Sabotage!

Is it just me (it may be, but I like to think not) that some people come to steepster and intentionally downgrade teas and tea companies. I often wonder if some on here are being paid by other companies to rate poorly other companies. I mean there are some teas that have all high ratings but one will be low then upon investigating (I’m a sleuth) that same person will rate every tea from that company poorly and ONLY that company. Yet will rate another companies ALL high and only high. Even if one is reviewed extremely bad by everyone else. I know some people just don’t like some companies but it get’s sort of obvious after a while. I was actually asked once by a retail company to be paid to write bad reviews on a rival retail store! SABOTAGE!

oh I’ll be starting a blog soon I’ll give you all the link.

51 Replies
WtFGoD said

ill bring the rope!

but if this is really happening thats quite unfortunate as this is a resource for so many.(although i doubt anyone buys teas based on the xx/100 number rating, they probably check the reviews as-well) if any cases of this can be proved i think ip-bans are justified. not the biggest deal though

mrmopar said

i will tie the knot.

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I remember coming across a user that gave themselves a screen name very similar to the name of the company they were slandering. It seems that the user has been banned now, but I was absolutely shocked to see the person doing it!

Donna A said

I think I know who you’re talking about. Glad the user was banned. I gave them a piece of my mind because they had no evidence for the accusations they were making. Anyway, I would never pay attention to one negative review on a tea amidst other positives.

JC said

Hmmm, I want to know the company name. Any chance to know by PM?

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Uniquity said

While things like that have happened, typically an individual who is here to boost or lower ratings will focus on only that company. It can be an issue, which is why the Steepster rating system works the way it does. One person can’t really do a lot of damage to a tea on their own.

On the other hand, I know that if I looked at all of my ratings, I might come off that way as well because there are some companies I really enjoy and consistently rate highly, and others that I don’t enjoy and consistently rate low. It doesn’t mean I’m out to ruin their numbers, I just think it’s only fair to records the good, the bad AND the ugly. : )

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that’s a pretty crappy thing to do, if that’s what is happening. even to just have a hate-on for a specific company, and not to do it for money, it’s not nice. if you know you consistently don’t like a certain company’s tea, then just stop drinking it. life is too short to drink crappy tea.

Zeks said

>>> life is too short to drink crappy tea.

Stealing this for my signature :)

:D yay!

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Dustin said

Hmmmm… so how much do they pay? ;P

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Definitely share your blog when it’s up and running!

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This is an old subject really, something we’ve been talking about on and off for a few years. It happens. When you see it happening, you should report it to Jason and let him know. I know of one company in particular that has done this and it disgusts me.

Claire said

Ugh…I hope I’m not giving them my business.

I won’t call them out in public because I don’t want to start up the drama that seems to have died down now. It was quite a dramatic thing for a while. If you really must know the name, you can PM me and I’ll tell you.

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I think its pretty sad to do that and have noticed it once before on here. I can guarantee that we have never done anything like that and never will. I’ve even asked all of my friends to refrain from reviewing our teas since I consider them to be biased. I stand by our teas and am very proud of them and think the quality will speak for itself. While I have done reviews on here (only of our products, I would never review another company’s products), it is under our company name (for transparency) and no ratings are given to any teas.

And that’s how it should be done, so thank you for being respectful and honest! It’s a brilliant quality in a company, and I know I’m a lot more inclined to do business with a company when they act professional and respectful such as this. :) I tip my hat to you!

And that’s just the way it should be done, in my opinion. I don’t mind when a company reviews their teas, because, really, it keeps them active on the site and I like it when tea companies are active here, it makes it a true community of not only consumers of tea but also the vendors. It makes for a complete network. However, I don’t think a vendor should rate their tea, and I’m glad that you do not.

Thanks ShayneBear! :)

LiberTEAS-I agree. I like doing the reviews occasionally because I can add little bits of extra info about the tea that I don’t add to our website or just share some life stuff.

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Donna A said

Everything I have seen from Butiki has been very professional.

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I was actually asked once by a retail company to be paid to write bad reviews on a rival retail store!

Wait, was this a tea company?! NAME THE COMPANY! I would sure like to know which companies are doing this.

Ditto, man.

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