Trustpilot presents itself as a “free and open” review platform built on transparency and trust. However, in reality, its business model thrives on holding companies hostage, suppressing honest feedback, and violating its own policies and legal guidelines.
The Forced Participation Trap
Many businesses never choose to be on Trustpilot. Yet, as soon as a single user leaves a review – whether positive or negative – Trustpilot automatically creates a public profile for the company without consent. This allows anyone to post reviews, yet businesses have no control over the content displayed about them.
At first glance, this might seem like an ideal setup for a neutral and transparent platform. However, once a business is listed, Trustpilot begins aggressively pushing its paid services, often resorting to coercion when companies refuse to pay.
Extortion Disguised as a Service
Once businesses receive reviews on Trustpilot, they may want to acknowledge or display them on their own website. However, Trustpilot enforces strict rules preventing companies from using its branding or review scores unless they pay for a subscription. If businesses attempt to display Trustpilot’s logo or reference their rating without paying, they are threatened with penalties, including public “Consumer Alerts” designed to damage their credibility.
This blatant double standard is alarming. Trustpilot uses businesses’ names, logos, and reputations to populate its own platform without consent. Yet, if businesses attempt to direct customers to their Trustpilot page, they face penalties unless they pay for a premium plan.
Trustpilot Selectively Deletes Reviews
One of the most concerning aspects of Trustpilot’s operations is how it manipulates reviews to benefit its paying clients. Countless users have reported that Trustpilot frequently deletes negative reviews while leaving positive ones untouched. Many have documented instances where negative reviews, even when backed by evidence, are flagged and removed. Attempts to verify the authenticity of negative reviews are often ignored, met with unreasonable requests for personal information, or outright dismissed.
Meanwhile, businesses that pay Trustpilot for premium services enjoy a different experience. These companies often see their negative reviews disappear, while positive ones remain intact. This stark imbalance suggests that Trustpilot prioritizes its paying customers over honest consumer feedback.
Personal Experience
I personally encountered these shady practices when I left a negative review about a website on Trustpilot. Once submitted, my review was approved. The website owner then responded directly beneath it, saying:
“We’ve sent you a request for your account info – please get back to us when you can. Your satisfaction matters to us, and we’ll do our best to sort this out.”
Essentially, they were asking me to provide my account information – something I had no intention of sharing with them. The following day, I received an email from Trustpilot, threatening to remove my review unless I provided the requested information.
Trustpilot threatening to remove a bad review from one of their paying clients!
Here’s another client experience that we received:
I learned the hard way that Trustpilot isn’t the reliable review platform I thought it was. I urgently needed legal help for my wife’s visa situation and found a law firm that claimed to specialize in the area I needed. Their Trustpilot rating? A solid 4.0. Seemed like a safe bet.
What followed was a nightmare. The firm blatantly misled me, took my money under false pretenses, and provided no real help. But what really caught my attention was how they maintained such a good rating despite their unethical practices.
Then I saw it—the pattern. Every time a detailed negative review exposed their dishonesty, it vanished within days. In its place? A flood of suspiciously short, generic positive reviews. The firm even offered me a partial refund if I removed my negative review. And when people accused them of manipulating reviews, they replied with legal threats and defensive PR talk.
Watching this happen in real time made me realize how easily businesses can game Trustpilot. I lost money because I trusted their rating, but what’s worse is knowing others will fall into the same trap. If a company has to manipulate reviews to protect its image, that tells you everything you need to know.
Here’s another review:
Yes thats right
We had this at planet *****
Absolute mafia bully boy company,
A total scam
If you pay them then you automatically send a message to a customer asking for a review, given say 99% of orders are seamless you get a 99% rating
If you dont pay them , anyone can leave a review , so the 1% that had a problem will go out of the way to say how crap you are.
Then you get a phonecall from trustpilot pointing out your crap rating .
If you pay them their fee you can both remove bad reviews plus have the system that enables you to ask your 99% of happy customers to click a link to say how great you are .
Its a total disgrace
I was stubborn and said they were nothing short of extortionists and we had a bad trustpilot rating
After i sold planet ***** new management paid the ransom and trustpilot rating went to top of the industry
The performance was actually worse
Anyway profitable scam artists.
Sounds like a bit of a protection racket and have always been suspicious of their reviews. Wouldn’t be surprised if there is a clampdown which could obviously kill the business model.
The Pay-to-Play Model
For businesses that refuse to pay Trustpilot, the consequences can be severe. Many former Trustpilot subscribers have reported that after canceling their paid plan, they saw a sudden increase in negative reviews that Trustpilot left unchallenged. However, when they encouraged satisfied customers to leave reviews, Trustpilot claimed this was “illegal” unless they were on a paid plan.
This forces businesses into an unfair position: either pay Trustpilot’s exorbitant fees or watch their online reputation suffer due to unfiltered negative feedback. Paying customers, on the other hand, are given access to tools that manipulate their online image, including the selective removal of bad reviews and the ability to direct customers through “magic links” that bypass Trustpilot’s usual registration barriers.
Lack of Accountability
Trustpilot’s shady practices have not gone unnoticed. Many businesses and consumers have expressed frustration with how the company operates. Users who submit legitimate negative reviews often find them removed without explanation. Trustpilot claims this is done to “protect the integrity of the platform,” yet it refuses to disclose specific reasons for these removals.
Businesses that fall victim to Trustpilot’s manipulative tactics have little recourse. Unlike other platforms, Trustpilot does not allow companies to remove their profiles, meaning they are permanently subjected to Trustpilot’s influence unless they decide to pay up.
The Bigger Picture: A Broken Review System
Trustpilot is not the only platform engaging in these practices. Other review platforms, such as Glassdoor and Yelp, have been accused of similar pay-to-play models that prioritize revenue over honesty. While consumers rely on these sites for genuine reviews, the reality is that many of these platforms serve corporate interests rather than public trust.
Conclusion: Can Trustpilot Be Trusted?
Given the overwhelming evidence of manipulation, coercion, and deception, Trustpilot cannot be considered a reliable review platform. Its business model depends on forcing companies into paid subscriptions while simultaneously misleading consumers into believing they are reading unbiased reviews.
For consumers, this means that Trustpilot ratings should be taken with skepticism. For businesses, the best strategy may be to avoid engaging with Trustpilot altogether and focus on building a reputation through more transparent and ethical review channels.
Trustpilot’s practices highlight a larger issue in the online review industry: when money dictates which reviews stay and which get removed, the entire concept of consumer trust is compromised. Until Trustpilot reforms its business practices, it will remain a deeply flawed and untrustworthy platform.
