Reviews on Sirelo

Sirelo’s View on Reviews

When planning to trust your belongings with a removal company, you’ll want to trust that you’re making the right choice. This is why choosing a removal company can be so difficult without a trustworthy reputation to rely on. The best judge of reputation? Genuine reviews from other customers.

Until 2016, the vast majority of removal companies didn’t have online reviews, and you could only determine the service quality after the fact. Without independent reviews to rely upon, the whole process becomes a gamble. As a consequence, we decided it was time for a change.

Both the Customer and the Mover Can Tell Their Story

By writing a review, the customer shares their experience with the firm. Naturally, this experience is from the customer’s own perspective, but we aim for both parties to be able to share their story. We provide the removal company with the opportunity to post a public response, which allows them to share their own perspective.

Are All Reviews on Sirelo Genuine?

As an independent review platform, we cannot guarantee that every review is genuine. In our moderation efforts, we apply a two-step quality assurance check to all review submissions to ensure to the greatest degree possible that all reviews are authentic. Though rare, fakes slip through and genuine submissions are declined.

Automatic Metadata Check

The process of checking reviews begins with an automatic check on metadata. Through this check, patterns are spotted in order to distinguish the authentic reviews from the fake ones. Due to this first check, approximately 20 to 25% of all reviews submitted via Sirelo are rejected.

The Content of the Review

In the second step of the review inspection, the team inspects content of the review to assess if it meets the policy requirements. The team moderates for offensive language, discrimination and person-identifying data. In addition, the name and e-mail address of the customer are checked. If there is any doubt about the authenticity of the review, we send a verification email requesting additional proof of the move. In addition:

• We don’t accept reviews that we know or suspect aren’t written from an honest experience. This means that removal companies cannot publish reviews for themselves or for each other.
• A review stating that it was written by staff or a supplier of the removal company won’t be accepted.
• We only publish reviews that are likely to have been written by the consumer in their own time, on their own device, and of their own free will.

Additional Verification

In the case where there is a question over the authenticity, an email is sent to the customer asking them to confirm the review (and thus the experience). In this email we ask for a supporting document (e.g.: quote or an invoice). We do this to prevent fake reviews from being published to the best of our abilities.

If there’s no response to this email and verification isn’t forthcoming, the review will be rejected. The author of the review is always informed about this.

Calculating Review Scores

Review scores on Sirelo are displayed on a scale of 1 to 10.

Once a published review appears on a company’s profile, their review score is recalculated to include this new review. In addition to the star rating, this calculation is made based on three factors:

• Age – Newer reviews are weighted more than older reviews. Recent experience is more relevant than distant experience, as service can improve and decline over time.
• Trustworthiness – The more proof we receive to verify a review, the more weight a review is given in the overall score. Even though we manually inspect all incoming reviews, those with guaranteed authenticity are given greater influence.
• Bayesian Average – This statistical technique helps balance the review score. By adding 5 3.5-star reviews to the calculation, a review score is not only comprised of a company’s first few reviews. The more reviews a company has, the less influence this correction has on their score.

Why do we do this?

The reason is simple: Fairness and accuracy. Let us explain further by way of an example:

If Company A receives a single 5-star review and Company B receives fifty 5-star reviews, their review scores would be the same if we merely took the average of all reviews.

We do not think this is fair to Company B and does not accurately reflect the service quality of Company A. Therefore, it would be misleading if they appeared next to each other in a ranked list.

By giving review scores different weights based on different circumstances, the review score more accurately reflects the quality of the moving company’s service.

The Total Score of All Reviews

The total score you find at the top of a removal company’s profile isn’t simply a sum of all the reviews the company has received. To ensure we offer a representative picture of this company, reviews count in full for the first 2 years. After this, the value gradually decreases and after 5 years, a review no longer counts in the total score. We do this because a company can change a lot over the years. By weighting the more recent reviews, the total score gives you a better idea of the current quality of the removal company.

Additionally, our system assigns each review a reliability score based on several points. Reviews with a higher reliability score (for example, when verified by a document) are weighted more heavily in the average.

Writing a Review on Sirelo: What We Ask from the Writer

When someone writes a review for a removal company on Sirelo, we ask them to:

• Always remain polite and respectful. Even when the experience may have been less than positive, please share the experience in a respectful manner;
• Avoid privacy violations. When names of employees of the removal company are mentioned, we’re forced to remove them;
• Put statements in context. This is desirable for both the reader and the removal company receiving the review.

A Review on Sirelo: What We Promise

We can promise readers, writers, and removal companies the following:

• We guarantee privacy and anonymity.
• We apply independent policy without bias.
• We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to discrimination.
• We strive to publish reviews within 1 business day.
• Reviews are only removed at the request of the writer.

Do you want to remove your review? Then send an email with your request to reviews@sirelo.org.

Reporting Reviews

Do you see a review on Sirelo that, in your opinion, doesn’t meet our above standards? Please report this review by clicking on the flag at the top corner of the review.