Vendor Ratings

That means they don't pay to be on wedding wire (I'm a vendor so that's the only reason I know)

You'll see the same thing here on the forums. It's just the way people have configured their personal settings and has nothing to do with the validity of the review.

Vendors here contest the shit out of any bad review and usually win. I would take WW reviews with a grain of salt.

Where are you from?

First of all, the no-photo profiles are free vendors. The rest of us pay a shit ton to be here and the benefit is we get a photo.

As for the reviews? No, we don't usually win. That is not the way it works. And most of the pro people I know don't 'contest the shit out of them".

If we get a review we disagree with, we reserve the right to have WW ask for proof that the client actually used us. There are many anonymous and 'private user' accounts for reviews, and frankly, if the reviewer didn't post a date or a venue, then it's possible it's not even one of our real clients. The review is taken down until proof of contract and then put back up. That is the ONLY reason they will be taken down, no matter how much we whine about it.

WW Jo or someone, please clarify this because this comes up fairly regularly. I worked very hard for my reviews and it's important to know they are not suspect.

On the other hand, Yelp? I can go in and review myself 10 times. Those reviews are not vetted at all.

You can find details of Rating & Review Disputes in our Terms of Use (https://www.weddingwire.com/corp/legal/terms-of-use).

Rating and Review Disputes. If you undermine the integrity of our Rating and Review system in any way, your membership may be suspended or terminated. Each Vendor Member acknowledges that your Rating and Review ("feedback") consists of opinions left by other WeddingWire members and a machine calculated feedback score. You further acknowledge that WeddingWire does not make judgments on the veracity of opinions or statements.

Feedback Rules:

Members may only leave one feedback item per unique transaction, whether positive, neutral, or negative, for any other Vendor Member.

The Member leaving the review must have conducted business with the Vendor Member and be able to provide proof of that business.

By submitting feedback, you agree that feedback is subject to compliance audit by the WeddingWire Compliance Team at any time. Any feedback item investigated by the WeddingWire Compliance Team may be temporarily or permanently removed.

In order to protect the integrity of the Rating and Review system, WeddingWire will only consider removing a feedback item under the following scenarios:

1 - If feedback posted contains language that is profane, vulgar, discriminatory or contains adult material.

2 - If WeddingWire is provided with a binding ruling or settlement agreement from a valid and certified dispute resolution service, or is provided with a court order finding that the feedback is slanderous, libelous, defamatory or otherwise illegal or the court order requires removal.

3 - If feedback posted makes any reference to actions taken or purported to be taken by WeddingWire or any law enforcement organization

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7 - If required pursuant to the Copyright Policy in this Terms of Use.

I would also like the know how it really works because I've also heard a lot that bad reviews can be taken down.

I have found the reviews to be fairly accurate

There are tonnnnnns of users here who proved they had business with a vendor, left a review, and it was removed.

What's to stop a vendor from creating fake profiles and posting positive reviews for themselves? Just curious...

They do have a stop for that. If the reviewer IP matches any vendor IP, the review is flagged and you have to send in proof of contract.

Oooh, okay. Well that's good to know at least.

Good to know

Thanks for the help everyone! Melissa, I live in Durham and was looking at local vendors for hair and makeup.

I remember one, actually, not tonnnnnneeeeeeessssssss.

Melissa, if you're a vendor, you should have a vendor account.

With my vendors my profile pic is there, I did not do it anonymously, I wrote lenghty reviews bc I loved all my vendors to be honest

Yeah Lea! I don't really have a problem with the private user/anonymous choice....everyone has the right to their privacy as a reviewer. It just makes it a little harder for us to figure out who you are to either thank you or contact you for more specific feedback. I've actually disputed a couple of positive reviews, simply because I couldn't establish that they were actual clients of mine...

One other thing; there was a glitch with the stars on mobile devices; apparently they were registering in a not so accurate way (not wildly inaccurate, but still not exactly what the reviewers wanted...) So read the narratives and really look at what they say, both positive and negative.

You are best off reading reviews off of other sites; Google Reviews, yelp, BBB, facebook, etc. Google the crap out of your vendors.

It's ironic -- there are a fair number of threads on the pro forums started by vendors who feel they were unfairly reviewed; sometimes I agree with them, and sometimes I don't. The point is that they can do nothing to remove a negative review permanently (they can contest it and it will come down while WW waits for proof of contract/payment, and if that's legit, the review goes back up and stays up). A negative review really hits a vendor hard -- especially if they didn't see it coming.

I do remember one groom -- maybe it was Kyle (the guy with the peacock theme decor, which was beautiful). He wrote a negative review about the baker who made their cake. It was removed. He was upset -- justifiably so. He posted the pics of the cake, pointed out the errors in design, and we agreed with him. However, the review did not stand. I still don't know why...and I have to admit, that one still bothers me (a lot). All I can think of is that somebody else signed the contract with the baker, not Kyle. Other than that, I think it was wrong of WW to remove that review.

This is the 21st century. If a vendor wants to spend their time drumming up fake reviews (instead of business), all they need are different IP addresses and a friend willing to post from that address. If you see too many reviews from people who reviewed only one vendor, be aware -- many brides, if they're going to take the time to review their vendors -- will review them all, not just the wedding planner. If they have over 30 reviews, look at their photos. Does it look like they've done 30 weddings, or are you seeing different shots of four weddings? Read the reviews and look for similarities in writing styles. A vendor who is posting reviews from different IP addresses can only disguise their style so much. If you really pay attention, it's a dead giveaway.

I don't really have a problem with WW's review system, but we ask our brides to review us on The Knot (you don't want to get pushy with the review requests). That's where we advertise and that's where a majority of our contacts come from. The Knot has a system that's as good as WW.

The worst is Yelp! I was actually reviewed there and given one star -- by someone who lives in the south (I'm in NY). I have never worked with her and don't know her name. She was offended by a post I wrote on this forum about self-catering. She warned couples in my area not to deal with me as I was an elitist snob who looked down on "regular brides" who couldn't afford to cater their weddings but still wanted to share their day with a huge group of family and friends. She even quoted portions of my original post. I must have hit a nerve because she went on and on and on.

The point is, the Yelp sites are out there, and, as you can see, nobody is minding the store. The ridiculous review came down, but it was purely by accident that I even saw it (now I monitor Yelp). I have issues with WW -- quite a few, but I have to say, when it comes to the review section, I'm not sure what more they could do to monitor the authenticity of the reviews.