The latest company to decide to post fake reviews on HostJury is none other than Surpass Hosting, owned & operated by HostDime in Florida.
For the past few days I've been removing a large number of their reviews that seemed questionable. They were all being referred to the site via private messages on MySpace, we expected the worst. Sure enough, one of their employees slipped up on the latest one.
Oops. Surpass Hosting shouldn't post fraudulent reviews on sites, it makes us sad at HostJury. So much for ethics! There are far too many providers out there with a lack of ethics already, we don't need another one!
Here's a few screenshots of the many fake reviews that have been posted:
They're not the first, of course. Surpass Hosting joins the ranks of HiVelocity, IPowerWeb & countless other providers who have decided to take it upon themselves to post fake reviews on HostJury. Fraud isn't a joke and should be taken into account if you're considering an account with companies like these.
Please note that 'dimenoc' is the internal network for HostDime, the company that owns & operates Surpass Hosting. Corp.dimenoc.com is their internal network from which the fake reviews were posted.
Located in Orlando, Florida, Surpass Hosting, LLC is a member of the HostDime family of web hosting companies. Our combined efforts have allowed us to launch two data centers in Central Florida. Surpass services over 100,000 websites adding approximately 300 more per week. June of 2007 will mark our fifth year of providing exceptional hosting for personal sites to high traffic portals. We are a fast growing company and one that you will always be able to count on.
Thu, 30 August 2007, 11:26
"They may have better service due to being an employee, but they are still a customer and their opinion is valid."
Not really in fairness, it's just like when you have say for example a competition from Coke, the rules clearly say that employees can't enter - why? because they could interfere with the process. Okay, it's not exactly the same but it goes without saying that any employee of a host reviewing effectively themselves is a dumb thing to do. It's called common sense, it's something I look for in people I employ.
An employee of a host stating how a host's support is fantastic is so completely absurd, is it unfair the reviews were deleted or are they just upset because they got caught? You said yourself it's hard to figure out who is doing what. We have tricks for figuring out who a review is coming from, and yes it's possible for a host to pay their customers to review them - but we will usually figure that out too.
Just to underline I've read through the text of this post about 6 times now and I can't see anything that isn't true.
Thu, 30 August 2007, 06:46
David;
I've very disappointed at the lack of quality on this website. I understand the point of view and see how this could be an issue, but just a few RECENT reviews DOES NOT make it fair to judge a company!
You fail to realize that although an employee works for a salary, they can as well be a customer. They may have better service due to being an employee, but they are still a customer and their opinion is valid. It could be persuaded, but who is to say other companies don't pay random people to post misleading reviews?
To the point, policing reviews is a difficult job, and is near impossible. Many costimers of Surpass took their tim to post reviews that in turn help your website by aiding your visiotrs for information on a company. Now, with such an insignificant amount of evidence, you bash a company that has been around since 2002 for recent events!? If you were an employee of mine, you would be fired by now.
Your blog entry was far from professional view, sticking to a poor unnecessary perspective.
I am a customer of Surpass since 2004. I've had very positive experiences, even when minor bumps in the road (so to speak). I am not saying you should keep the reviews from the employees, but you were very disrespectful to those who posted numberous reviews about Surpass! Taking their time to help a company they love, and yet you just whipe it right off!
Until now, I have neutral relations with Host Jury, but I now feel that I will never associate myself to anything this site has to offer. If they allow people like you in their staff, I feel the company's quality reflects your actions. As such, this company is a disgrace to the remaining quality of the internet.
You should be ashamed. I feel for those that gave their time to help two companies, Surpass Hosting and Host Jury.
I know this won't be undone, but I feel my opinion should be left here, as your blog page is full of the same. Opinion and first impression evidence.
Good day,
Derek M.
Thu, 30 August 2007, 05:36
Robbie,
I don't directly influence any vote by 'selectively' removing reviews. I've removed 100% of the reviews for Surpass Hosting, including the two that were 'bad'.
We're attempting to provide an unbiased look at the scores & by removing 100% of the Surpass Hosting reviews which are potentially faked -- we're doing just that.
Case closed.
Thu, 30 August 2007, 04:14
Not sure why that posted twice, if you could erase that.
Anyway- By democracy, I meant, the spirit of your website is simply that people gather information about a hosting company based on a multitude of reviews, and make a decision, generally by the popular vote. By being a "Dictator" I don't mean you excersize your understandable right to moderate. I mean you directly influence the vote by selectively removing reviews, which gives your users no less biased review than the fraudulent reviews you removed. In less words: it's hypocritical. If your moderation was an attempt at keeping the true meaning of this site alive, you missed the true meaning of the site. Why don't you cut out the "jury" part and instead call the site: hostjudge.com
Thu, 30 August 2007, 01:12
David,
You don't want any other Surpass reviews on this site? Then please permanently delete us from the directory and delete this blog post. Your post makes it seem like we spend our days scheming and cheating. "Surpass Hosting recently decided to post fraudulent, fake reviews on Hostjury. Be very careful if you're considering this host." Being defamed like this is not fair and we don't deserve it. And not allowing any other reviews plus this certainly isn't fair either.
I wouldn't be posting here again but I didn't know you have been deleting new reviews for us.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 21:01
Says at the bottom "we reserve the right to remove any review or host for any reason". No it's certainly not a democracy.
That said we do try to keep things sane but one of the reasons for Hostjury's existence is that other sites let (and not just let - actively seek for payment) shill reviews.
Once the trust has been broken it will take time for it to be restored. Surpass aren't the first and certainly wont be the last to have reviews posted by employees, and we've probably even missed some BUT when it happens they will be removed, and if it's clear-cut like in this case there's a good chance it will get mentioned.
It's definitely no democracy though. The hope is that people share their opinions of their host so other people can find a good host. Surpass may or not be good but in this instance their has been that breakdown in trust, and also usually hosts don't have clients coming and complaining like that, it's hard to judge but the implication is often closer ties than has been acknowledged by either party.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 21:13
Robbie,
This site is no more a democracy than any other that is on the internet. No one here was 'voted' into power.
It is very much a dictatorship. No different than any other site, there's members & there are moderators. In this case I think it's best if any future Surpass Hosting reviews are posted elsewhere to avoid potential conflict.
It would be best for both us & Surpass Hosting.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 20:13
You deleted my review off surpass's page. Now it's very biased in the opposite direction! Good job! I'm a customer of surpass, you can check my website. Are you afriad that I might be staff too? Maybe we're all staff! MY GOD THE WHOLE WORLD IS SURPASS STAFF. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.
Erasing good comments is as good as leaving fraudulent comments. Good job dude, you're the king of double standards. The only way to rectify this problem is to allow people to continue posting their true views on it. If you want to post your review into the description of the site and erase other people's, then it's personal. And even worse- it makes you the dictator over the false-democracy that the site is supposed to stand for. People's voice?
Wed, 29 August 2007, 17:47
Robbie,
I'd agree with you in respect to my own 'bias', having spent the entire morning removing tainted reviews (& new ones being added, Michael's being added several hours after the blog post went online!) I may have jumped the gun a tad and opened with some nasty lines.
In the end, I'm certainly no journalist -- I'm just reporting about what's happened here on the site. While it may have seemed 'harsh' to include Surpass in with the likes of IPowerWeb & HiVelocity, both caught posting fake reviews as well -- at the time the only information I could go on was what was posted.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 17:05
I'm a customer of surpass and I just wanted to say that this was clearly a misunderstanding, but it still makes sense to remove potentially tainted reviews..
But wouldn't it make sense - since the removal was to maintain a fair and balanced view on things - to not state your opinion on whether this was an attempted fraud or just a few overly excited employees thinking they were helping out? I mean- you are of course concerned with your site's reputation and credibility, so I would attempt to be as objective as possible with my points, if you catch my drift. Instead of assuming the worst.
It's one thing if nobody from the company contacted you, but Kayla here clearly contacted you with an explination. Host jury's fair and balanced credibility certainly would be more believable if you had an objective tone, or at least presented both sides of the story in the story and not just in the comments.
P.S. My review of surpass: Good host, Not without downtime and occasional weird happenings. But this is not uncommon for all hosts- the difference is surpass's support, which is very fast and very friendly.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 04:00
David,
Thank you, so much.
Sincerely,
Kayla
Wed, 29 August 2007, 04:03
Kayla,
I'll most likely make a few modifications to the blog post by morning. Although the 'jist' of the message won't change -- e.g. your employees & co-workers posted fake reviews about a company they work for -- you did at least respond which is more than most companies would have done.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 03:49
David,
I respect and understand your decision for HostJury visitors. I accept that you have removed all of the reviews from the past months even though this situation happened in only the last 24 hours. You do have to protect the visitors here in each way possible. But I don't understand how you can bash us so badly in the blog post. Nathalie and Michael used their real names, didn't try to hide their location, and didn't understand what they were doing was a bad thing. To call the entire company liars on the full entry (http://hostjury.com/blog) is extremely harsh.
I'd like to move on from this now, I only wish it could be in better terms on both sides. What happened has happened, but after we've talked, I feel the blog post itself could be updated for a third, last time. I thank you for approving all of my comments and also taking the time to respond. I have no hard feelings against HostJury, all I have left is disappointment in the entire situation that I have to deal with now over here.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 02:11
Kayla,
I do more than appreciate your opinion & input. It doesn't change the fact about what happened though: No different than I'm sure in the instance of IPowerWeb's fake reviews -- it wasn't the CEO behind the keyboard at the time.
It still doesn't change the fact that there were several employees postin fake reviews on our sites, happily 'recommending' their own service, it just doesn't fly here.
I appreciate your honesty & the fact that you've even responded.
However the reviews previously posted have been put into question & I'm unable to leave them up, just in case there was any bias at all.
I can't chance having my own visitors misled.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 02:10
If anyone else at HostJury could give a second opinion, I would really appreciate it. I'd also be happy to talk to you on the phone about this.
I have tried my best to explain that what has happened was not a management or "Surpass Hosting" decision as this blog post makes it out to be. Then again, anything that our staff does reflects in turn on the company itself. Because of that, I apologize on behalf of any of our staff members who made a wrong decision last night/this morning. I had no idea that any of this was going to happen and I have been completely honest with you. And that is all that I can do.
Thank you,
Kayla Fleming
Vice President
SurpassHosting.com, LLC
Wed, 29 August 2007, 02:11
Kayla,
I think it's best if we remove all reviews entirely, bad & good.
There's really no telling what was potentially faked & legitimate at this point.
Best of luck in the future with your business though.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 02:29
I am sorry for the delay, I just got off the phone with Michael. He apologized for what happened, he stated that he just wanted to give dedication to the company and didn't mean anything malicious by it. All of our employees are very loyal, dedicated people. MySpace made this idea a little too comfortable I guess and the results haven't been what I imagined at all. We are probably one of the only hosts with a MySpace account (this situation could explain why...) we were just trying a new idea with the best intentions in mind. I didn't think to not approve staff friend requests, the intention of our MySpace account was never even to send bulletins. I didn't think any staff members would read the bulletin. When I sent it, our customers were in mind. This entire situation has came as, and still is, a shock. I am the Vice President of this company and have been for 5 years. We do not do anything purposely like this, we are not a small company and have had experience with review sites since the very beginning. This is the point I am trying to genuinely make here.
In the end, anyone can take this how they'd like, I only think it would be reasonable to leave our reviews up that are from real customers, instead of removing them all in haste.
Wed, 29 August 2007, 00:33
Kayla,
I'm curious, while your points are certainly valid (although none of them change what has happened) is there a specific reason why a second employee posted (Michael Khan) under a false name -- from your internal network?
Wed, 29 August 2007, 00:07
Hi,
We recently opened a MySpace account (http://myspace.com/surpasshosting) to better connect with our customers. Last night I was looking through our Mint stats and noticed quite a few hits from HostJury so I figured I would send out a reminder. We sent out a quick bulletin (not private messages) asking if anyone would mind taking a moment to post a review for us. This is something we do occasionally, a few times a year, for random review sites. This is a screenshot:
http://surmunity.com/images/host-jury-reviews.jpg
I asked if they could post a comment back to let us know if they did so that we could thank them. No one replied today so I didn't even think anyone read the bulletin. (But apparently they really were taking the time since you saw a lot come in.) I come over to the site tonight and see all of our reviews gone and our name removed out of the Best Hosts list.
We do have some employees on our MySpace. I only think one staff member did this and again, they did not mean to be misleading. This employee in question actually does have a hosting account with us and pays for it. Many of our employees do. In a way this review makes sense for her, but I understand how it looks on the other side. Plus the addition of our MySpace account was recommended by some of our employees - they only meant the best for it.
We have been in business since 2002 (one of the oldest hosts probably being reviewed on this very site) and have no interest in posting false reviews. We have never done that. If anyone is posting via proxies, it certainly isn't us either.
I understand the frustration you felt at first, but I ask you to reconsider the situation. I can be reached at kayla@surpasshosting.com. I always publicly reply to anything posted about Surpass online and ask that you please reply to me, either here or by email, to let me know your thoughts.
Tue, 28 August 2007, 17:19
Streaky,
Well, the worst part is they had posted about 6 reviews from proxied IP addresses prior to this one.
This morning they got a tad bit hasty & of course, nailed.
No, it certainly isn't someone I would let anyone near my business. Especially not for developers or anyone with any 'important' data -- who knows what lengths they would go to in order to make money...
They've obviously already lost their ethics.