Originally started investigating review irregularities on the NRMA Roadside assistance’s listing on Productreview.com.au during COVID-19 lock down when I caught a marked change in the pattern of reviews appearing between casual visit of ProductReview.com.au on July 2019 and then on May 2020

What was also unusual was that the review volumes were accelerating just as the State of New South Wales (NSW) entered into a period of lock down where logically demand for Roadside assistance services would have also dropped.

While there was a lot of backwards and forward between myself and both NRMA Motoring and services and Product review reps. Neither party could sufficiently satisfy my concerns. Productreview claimed the NRMA were using their brand management platform as an explanation for the increased view volumes.

If so, it doesn’t explain why the review volumes from that point on stayed the same as NSW came out of lock down. Logically there should have been a marked rise in review volumes as more and more NSW motorists started driving again upon lifting of Lockdown restrictions.

Also, it doesn’t explain why all the reviews were appearing predominantly on Wednesday Afternoon to Thursday Morning and then falling largely silent for the rest of the week. Neither party came forward to explain why this was. However, an NRMA rep from an NRMA corporate IP Address was seen silently frequenting this site in the meantime while the question remained unanswered until I pointly asked him in one post to respond to my query on ProductReview private messaging.

It was also subsequently brought to my attention during the investigation that Productreview.com.au sell services to the Companies featured on their site. With that in mind, I can not understand how Productreview.com.au are allowed to call themselves “independent” as claimed on their trustcentre page.

Bring a bag of salt. I smell a strong whiff of fake reviews.