Watch out for Developers Filtering Negative Reviews

Hi everyone :)

Although I'm new here, I browse these forums from time to time and have found them very helpful, and now feel inclined to create my first thread to shed some more light on this subject.

When I recently posted a negative review in BlackBerry World for an app that I purchased, I found that my review was deleted after a few days, as well as another person's negative review written before mine. I did some searching and found other threads with people complaining that developers are filtering out negative reviews, and that while developers can't delete reviews at will, they can flag them for deletion and then someone at BlackBerry (I think) approves the request. I also read that they might delete reviews that mention bugs after they have been fixed, or if the reviewer never bothered to contact the developers first if it was a technical issue, but none of this applies to my review.

I can understand flagging reviews that are inappropriate and asking for them to be removed, but there is really no excuse for BB to approve just about every request from a developer asking to remove negative, yet appropriate reviews. My review was entirely objective and contained no offensive language, and I stand by my words on this and challenge both the developer and BB to argue otherwise.

This is not me complaining about a single incident, but rather a broken review system for an entire app store. It is very frustrating that we can't even trust BlackBerry's review system, let alone the dishonest developers who request the deletion of appropriate reviews just to keep their fake perfect record. So rather than read filtered reviews on BB World, we'll have to start looking around elsewhere or post threads asking for people's opinion on an app before spending our hard-earned money on them. If developers can't even be trusted to let their customers write honest reviews about their products that are not glowing with praise, then we shouldn't be supporting them in the first place.

As much as I feel that this developer should be exposed, I want to test the waters around here because this is my first post. However, I for one would like to know if an app developer is trustworthy or not before purchasing their apps.

What do you guys and gals think? :cool:

Others have mentioned the same thing in the past. Your experience affirms that nothing has been done to date though I do not know if BlackBerry actually approves developers removing negative reviews or that is solely the perogative of the developer. Maybe one of the latter can shed some light on this.

However, the question that comes to my mind is: did you contact (or at least try to contact) the developer regarding your experience using the app before posting your review? I ask because some developers indicate users doing so as the preferred option.

Originally Posted by KemKev

Your experience affirms that nothing has been done to date though I do not know if BlackBerry actually approves developers removing negative reviews or that is solely the perogative of the developer. Maybe one of the latter can shed some light on this.

If memory still serves me well, there were few developers who already explained that they cannot remove anything nor they can ask to remove anything. The only thing they can do is to ask for re-review of the comment by some BlackBerry team :)


@R3d13, what was the problem with the app you're referring to? It didn't work at all or some advertised features were not present?

Originally Posted by R3d13

What do you guys and gals think? :cool:

Never encountered such a behavior before – but I never check if my reviews stay ;)

As a developer I also did request removal of some reviews back in my PlayBook times but only because they included bad language or stuff like "this stupid developer doesn't even check for fake reviews" or sometimes bug reports after I had fixed them.
It's weird that the BB World team would remove/hide legit reviews :(

OP, can you PM me? It would be appreciated.

Channel for BlackBerry users in India

My impression is that today an application developer has full freedom of what reviews to approve/reject.

What I would like to have instead, is a notification to the user in the form of email that his/her review was put on hold for a specified reason (i.e. bad language, feature fixed, etc). And then let the reviewer to either reword and resubmit or ignore.

As of today, the reviews are very unreliable.
Many apps I tried annoy the user to give a review with constant popups right from the beginning without the chance to properly evaluate the app.

I've had a similar issue. I recently kickstarted with my yoga and found an awesome "looking" app on bbw. Bought it for 5 bucks and the app offered nothing. I contacted the developer twice, both times they dismissed my concern. I also noticed that they not only deleted my negative review, but it looks as though they're BUYING good ones. All the reviews on the app are 5 stars, with comments that look as though to be written by a computer. These apps are tricky cause they also put out an "update" every 2 weeks with nothing different. same size, no update info, nothing changed. They expect users to think it's an update so they download it and it up's their rank in the bbw charts so others can see it to buy it. I've searched for a way to contact blackberry and inform them of this one particular dev that does it OFTEN...but theres noone i can talk to in sight. It is cause of this that i say DO NOT BUY OR DOWNLOAD ANYTHING BY "SMARTAPS". Can't delete this comment can you guys? lol

Originally Posted by Enseterat

I've had a similar issue. I recently kickstarted with my yoga and found an awesome "looking" app on bbw. Bought it for 5 bucks and the app offered nothing. I contacted the developer twice, both times they dismissed my concern. I also noticed that they not only deleted my negative review, but it looks as though they're BUYING good ones. All the reviews on the app are 5 stars, with comments that look as though to be written by a computer. These apps are tricky cause they also put out an "update" every 2 weeks with nothing different. same size, no update info, nothing changed. They expect users to think it's an update so they download it and it up's their rank in the bbw charts so others can see it to buy it. I've searched for a way to contact blackberry and inform them of this one particular dev that does it OFTEN...but theres noone i can talk to in sight. It is cause of this that i say DO NOT BUY OR DOWNLOAD ANYTHING BY "SMARTAPS". Can't delete this comment can you guys? lol

this is why CrackBerry forums are such a valuable resource ;) you can always ask if someone already has certain app or ask for suggestions :)

P.S. first time I read the name of developer as SMARTAa*S :D

I've encountered the same. There were some threads previously where some developers mentioned they have full access to remove reviews.

I had a 3 star review for evolution browser and my review was just meh. Nothing negative about the app but nothing positive either. It was removed the next day. After that it completely destroyed the BlackBerry World credibility for me.

You need to question any app that has all 5 star reviews...

Posted via CB10

The devs of Enpass also appear to filter negative reviews.

SQN100-1 10.2.1.2141 | STA100-3 10.2.1.2141

Definitely happens, and a lot. Every negative review I have posted on BBW has mysteriously disappeared.

IMO the reviews on BBW are all bogus.

Hi all, sorry for the late response. I see that others have had the same thing happen to them, and it looks like developers can easily get away with having legitimate reviews removed which really lowers the quality and trustworthiness of BB World and its apps.

Originally Posted by KemKev

However, the question that comes to my mind is: did you contact (or at least try to contact) the developer regarding your experience using the app before posting your review? I ask because some developers indicate users doing so as the preferred option.

Yes, twice, with a few weeks in between, and a month without a response. Although my review was literally a review, not a bug report that needed to be sent out to the devs.

Originally Posted by bb10_fan

@R3d13, what was the problem with the app you're referring to? It didn't work at all or some advertised features were not present?

Only one line in my review mentioned a bug (a very serious one in fact, that breaks the product completely). The rest of my review is literally a review of the product itself. The bugs I found I emailed to the developer separately, with no response.

Originally Posted by loyalIND

OP, can you PM me? It would be appreciated.

Why? PM me instead.

Originally Posted by Mattnat2

I've encountered the same. There were some threads previously where some developers mentioned they have full access to remove reviews.

I had a 3 star review for evolution browser and my review was just meh. Nothing negative about the app but nothing positive either. It was removed the next day. After that it completely destroyed the BlackBerry World credibility for me.

You need to question any app that has all 5 star reviews...

Originally Posted by adamlau

The devs of Enpass also appear to filter negative reviews.

That's the app I reviewed, Evolution Browser, by SHAOSOFT . Out of their 250 perfect reviews, they've kept only a handful of 1-3 star reviews to drive away suspicion, but only enough to maintain their perfect 5 star rating. They are not to be trusted, and I certainly won't be buying anything from them anymore and won't recommend them to others. My review, along with several others that I saw earlier (all appropriate), got removed without notice.

Once you've posted a review on BB World, you can't post another even if yours was removed. BB's review system is completely broken and biased in the developer's favor. Really, is this their way of supporting app development for BlackBerry?! I hope not.

BTW, I just noticed an editorial over here where people are listing the top five things they want BlackBerry to improve, so we should consider including this issue in our lists, and maybe they'll start to listen. :)

Originally Posted by R3d13

Once you've posted a review on BB World, you can't post another even if yours was removed. BB's review system is completely broken and biased in the developer's favor. Really, is this their way of supporting app development for BlackBerry?! I hope not.

Hmm, I'm sure I've seen many times the same people leave several reviews for some apps. Maybe you can make one review-per-version?