Reviews of vendors - are they trustworthy

This is something we've questioned before, and WW claims that as long as you can prove you really did business with them, the review stays. I find it very interesting that you say you sent that in, but WW has your review listed as unverified.

Well, WW? What's the story?

I don't trust them, I looked up a vendor that I was considering and the lowest review was like 4.5 stars of 5. The reviews felt "staged." I tried looking at reviews on other sites (yahoo, yelp, etc) and the reviews were more realistic, but there were exact copies of those "good" reviews in there too. It seemed that someone that worked there was flooding the reviews with false good ones.

No business has no bad reviews. So if you don't see any, I would take it with a grain of salt. Also, if you read them and they all have similar language and such, they might all be written by the same person.

We've had lots of brides who have written bad reviews report that their review was pulled. I can only think of one that reported back that their bad review was restored. So yeah, I don't trust WW reviews.

As a vendor I can tell you that the vendor boards contain many threads about just the opposite, where couples falsify information. We are very concerned that the truth is put up online and that bad vendors be weeded out as just that - bad vendors. Those of us who make the greatest effort to make sure our couples are very happy, get lumped in with irresponsible vendors who don't maintain the same standard. As for no vendor having a bad review, I do not agree. I do business the Disney way, going above and beyond to make sure my couples have a great time with me AND are completely satisfied. That's why my reviews here and on theknot.com (which is even more spiky about removing a review) are all five stars.

Unfortunately it is a reality that there are vendors out there who write fake reviews in order to bring down a competing business. It's nefarious and unfortunate, but it happens. Thus, the review process, and the long time it takes. Contact support@weddingwire for an update.

DC Wedding...I'm sorry you had a bad experience with your coordinator & with WW. I think the irritation with the review process goes both ways. Just like Michael mentioned, there is frustration on the vendor side as well. WW does check the IP address that the reviews come from, so we can't create a "fake" review for ourselves. And non of us has the time to run around town looking for different computers to write a fake review from. There are some truly great vendors on WW...thus the great reviews. Personally, I've never told my brides what to write...I don't think any of us does...would you let any of your vendors tell you what to write? I think reviews can start to sound the same because the experience from customer to customer is the same (hopefully all great) or a bride just gets a type of writer's block & looks to see what others wrote, & writes something similar...again, because her experience was similar.

And not all bad reviews get pulled.

As far as the reviews on different websites sounding the same, the bride probably wrote one review and then copied & pasted it wherever she could.

I have many more reviews and testimonials than what brides have posted here on WW, so I include some of them on my WW storefront. My couples don't find me here on WW, so don't want to have to register on WW after their wedding in order to review me.

Hi @DCWedding - How frustrating

Let me take a look at this ...

Ok @DCWedding --

So unfortunately, it looks like we never did receive the proof you're referencing. We do have an email from you stating your intention to send it, but then never received a follow-up.

You are more than welcome to submit your contract/contractual evidence to us (you can send it directly to me at cfields@weddingwire.com and I'll make sure it gets over to our Dispute team), and we'd be happy to re-open the case!

Thanks for your cooperation!

I stopped asking my brides for reviews because of many of the comments made above. As mentioned, the "process" goes both ways, and I agree with vendors who've had problems from other vendors. I once had a bad review from a brides mother who wanted an "Oldie" song that the bride specifically asked me not to play... but MOM prevailed and was irritated with me... not her daughter. Fair???

The "review" process should be a "tool" for you brides to start the process of looking at vendors. Don't rely on it by itself, but, look at the vendors web site. Search Google for that vendor name and business name. Check YouTube, PhotoBucket or Vimeo for pictures or videos. Check for that vendor on FB, to see how they present themselves. Ask for references, and check with venues. Do your homework!

I didn't depend on WW reviews alone. For example with wedding planners. In my area one particular planner has rave reviews but when you check the BBB they have a major complaint and the company's response to that complaint was rude and snotty.

I compared reviews on wedding wire to other review sights, blogs from other vendors such as officiants, and FB. FB was great for seeing who works with whom.

The WW review process has been an issue for a while, and it it doesn't appear WW is doing anything to change it- at least on our end.

I think @Carrie and @Tyrone Blue make a great point! It's important to take a look at multiple sources of information/reviews when you're considering a vendor.

@Meghan - We have actually tried to make the dispute process MUCH more clear and straightforward, to the benefit of both our pros and our brides! The exact process is available in our Support Center (which is temporarily down at the moment, but I'll be sure to post back with the link!)

And you can see the EXACT reasoning why a review might be removed from WeddingWire in our Terms of Use here: https://www.weddingwire.com/shared/TermsOfUse (#13 - 16).

By making the whole process more transparent, we hope both brides and vendors alike will understand the flow of investigation better. We know how important reviews are to both parties, and are committed to providing a neutral platform for this exchange of experience!

Yay! Our support site is back up and running

Here's the link I promised:

https://support.weddingwire.com/questions/875/Ratings+and+review+dispute+process

This details the exact process a disputed review goes though.

@DCWedding - I emailed you as well!

Thanks for your comments! Just an update that Christina followed up with me directly and I've reforwarded my emails which apparently got lost somewhere along the way. I completely agree with the need for a review dispute process - you can't just let anyone post anything - and feel more confident now if it was really just an oversight on their part rather than a deliberate filtering out of anything that wasn't perfect.

As for not depending on weddingwire alone for feedback, I agree, but we planned our DC wedding entirely from India, so unfortunately didn't have too many other resources at our disposal!

I was actually wondering the same thing, it seems like everyone has all these rave reviews and none are tepid and few are bad. People are people, so even an amazing vendor is going to have a difficult customer once in a while that won't be satisfied. So it is definitely odd.

I believe it has to do with being a paid or free vendor

My vendor disputed my review and I never received any email from WW asking for information. I replied to the "notification" email with my contract. Still nothing from them.

I provided all my contracts and they still were not put back up either

I was blackmailed by one of my vendors for a review on ww, and when I told them, they said they couldn't do anything.

The same thing happened with our review.

I have learned not to trust the accuracy of these review sites, including WeddingWire, especially all the raving 5 star reviews and zero negative reviews.

My "negative" but accurate review was flagged by the vendor and then removed from this site, even though I provided evidence. If the vendors are paying a subscription and you post a 1 star negative review, WeddingWire will side with the vendor, even though they say they are non-biased.

WeddingWire cares more about getting the money from their vendors than having accurate reviews. Same with the Knot and Yelp, if the vendors are using their paid services. That's why 99% of the vendors here seem to have 5 star reviews, because all of the 1 star reviews are flagged and removed. This is nothing but a business, rather than providing accurate reviews.