Google should completely shut down their Google Review platform. Why? Because Google have a completely useless and inadequate way of assessing and vetting the Authenticity of any given review submitted to their platform.
For Google to keep their review platform running in the state as it is only provides a disservice to the public (and to the businesses whom have no way of opting out) and wouldn’t be surprised Google as a Review platform could be found in direct violation of consumer protection laws in many jurisdictions if any consumer protection agency decides to investigate.
I have caught numerous businesses posting or buying Fake 5 star reviews. Similarly with Competing businesses buying 1 star negative reviews to throw shade on their competition. Any business I have caught out often turns around and say that “our staff and associates are customers as well!” in a frankly futile attempt to justify running reviews under false pretenses.
Google in their latest round of shitfuckery have unleashed some AI / Machine learning algorithm which is completely off the mark as to kill off legitimate reviews as well (by way of shadowbanning or hiding reviews) with no way to otherwise appeal or upload evidence (by way of invoices, receipts, communication or otherwise) to support the authenticity of a given consumer experience.
Same deal with reporting fake reviews. There’s no way to upload evidence of such and you are left to simply “flag” a review with no other action able to be taken which is completely and utterly useless.
Frankly, without any such way of uploading documentation or other evidence to support any of the above, Google attempts to fix their fake review problem on Google Reviews is completely and utterly foolish and futile as well as an adverse and shameful display of incompetence for a tech company.
I’m guessing this is a form of shrinkflation. I have noticed the quality of the old Kiwi staple, the Canterbury (CCC) Two tone (two colour) Harlequin rugby stubbies are nolonger what they were with them being made of comparatively thinner cotton material. I seem to either rip or wear right through at least 2-3 pairs of them every year. They’re no longer durable nor hardy anymore. Ordered a few more during the boxing day specials, but feel the cotton they’re using now is definitely a lot less durable versus the thicker more ruggered cotton drill material they used to be made of.
I’m thinking it may be time to graudally let that brand go. The quality probably figures as the Harlequin shorts have been at the same RRP $40 NZD mark for years, even with the recent bout of inflation that has taken hold.
Canterbury two colour harlequin shorts – Worn and ripped
Speaking of which as a side note / different track, same appears to go for a lot of bush, farming, rural, outdoor and hunting apparel these days. Remembered I previously had issues with gear from more respected and renowned outdoor brands falling to bits (both stitching and the material itself) for a period – That said, hopefully some of those brands have since improved the quality of their clothing with the noticeable price jumps recently but will see once I test my more recent “Fieldays” purchases out.
Update 15th March 2024:Since Dropped a note to the Commerce Commission regarding Noble Dental’s marketing,
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Personal opinion only as a once-off patient. Self referred to Noble Dental Remuera back in October 2021 for an initial consultation only as part of a wider search for a new dentist after the clinic I used to attend closed down. All Noble Dental personnel appeared to be reasonably friendly and professional throughout the consultation.
While I acknowledge my dental health certainly isn’t in the best state it could be, came away feeling they made it out to be in a pretty bad way overall along with them verbally suggesting that any treatment they undertake for me would be “a gamble”. Other dental clinics I attended (as part of a search for a new dentist to frequent) did make mention of gum issues, but framed it more as a cautionary observation in which to keep watch on as opposed to warranting utmost alarm. In fact, I believe Noble Dental provided the most dire prognosis out of the Dental Clinics I had consulted.
I acknowledge Noble dental are seemingly regarded highly as specialists in this area and they are perhaps more particular in any assessment they make. Though will admit was at least a little taken back by overhearing behind the partition that 5 teeth (despite being free of decay and tested as “vital” apart from one root canaled one) have poor prognoses and would likely end up needing extraction. This appeared contrary to the impression I got when I originally read Noble Dental’s website where they state “We use minimally invasive, advanced technology in gum treatments to save teeth even in advanced cases of gum disease.”
Asked for a copy of the clinical notes during the consultation to be sent to me directly (as I had self referred) to which Noble agreed to do, though did have to chase them up a number of times. These were eventually supplied to me after a month with to their credit a profuse apology for their delay.
As a side note, two other reviews coincidentally or otherwise were originally found linked to an individual offering “Public relations for local dentists” and who I firmly maintain feel should have made disclosures of this potential conflict of interest upfront in his reviews. Upon accepting the PR person’s offer to let me sight his invoices to support his claim that his dealings with Noble were genuinely and strictly 100% patient/dentist, the individual back pedals with a curious story declining to do so along with his reviews disappearing.
Paid $490 for the initial consultation and Full Mouth X-ray which appears to be inline with what other periodontists in Auckland charge. Quoted around $7,000 for treatment which includes quadrant cleaning and perioscopy which I have decided not to go ahead with.
Have since settled into using another dental practice for regular routine treatment and ongoing monitoring of periodontal condition. That said, I wish to stress that this review is my personal opinion for the initial consultation only and does not in any way reflect or refer to the quality of Noble Dental’s treatments nor is this intended to throw shade on Noble or their expertise.
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In an apparent attempt to explain the link of some of their reviews to a Public Relations entity, Noble Dental (or may be their PR agent?) has replied with…
Had a suspicious cold call from someone purporting to be from the “Global Economic Forum” allegedly doing research for the aforementioned and was going to ask me 8 questions. Unfortunately, I could not verify the veracity of the organisation he purported to be representing. As far as I know, “Global Economic Forum” is not an organisation in it self so raised my guard. Please note the naming difference to “World Economic Forum”.
Recommend when you hear “Global Economic Forum” Do not proceed with the call, Hang up immediately.
They have been calling in as number 09 826 7214 (However, I warn that this very well could be spoofed)
Red flags noticed…
Repeating my name ad nauseum
Ran rough shod over trying to enquire and verify who he really was.
He was suspiciously and extremely insistent.
I asked him to send me an Email first about his company and I will circle back to it in my own time and the caller did not like that.
Would not tell me where he got my details from
An attempt to ‘Gas light’ me was made.
The caller hung up after I raised my voice after he tried to gas light me.
As an aside, I have decided to remove public access to my phone number entirely effective immediately due to scammers, mongrels and other degenerates. I originally did have it publicly accessible by way of publicized pass phrase purely for people to contact me in emergencies, however, I believe the people that matter most in my life already have my number anyway.
In the year 2022, Why on earth do New mid-range and better Laptops fitted with a 15.6 inch 1366×768 resolution screen still even exist?
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Something tongue in cheek… In the guise of certain people in New Zealand advocating banning 1080 poison by way of “BAN 1080” signage and scrawls particularly in parts of rural New Zealand, I propose a new movement for the more tech inclined among us: BAN 1080 768, Demand 1080 (minimum)… 😛
“768” being the vertical resolution on laptops screens I’m railing against (which is not tongue in cheek). The majority, if not all laptops with a screen size of 14 inches or larger should have at least a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080. No laptop with a screen 14 inches or larger on a medium spec (AMD Ryzen 5, Intel i5) or better laptop should ever be sold new with a mere 1366 x 768 resolution screen in the year 2022. Continue reading “BAN 1366×768 Screens 😛”→
Had a pretty poor experience with this particular business when they were previously operating as a Thrifty branded franchisee. While it is not likely I will ever return it is nevertheless genuinely hoped they have taken the opportunity of a rebrand to SIXT to improve their business practices.
Some of the things that disappointed me at the time include (but not limited to)…
Charging of fees that were clearly outside of the hire agreement. Failure to properly disclose, detail and describe certain admin fees in their written legal documentation.
Obstructive and confrontational attitude upon reaching out to ask about these charges, then trying to close the matter with “Thanks for your feedback on disclosure” while casting blame on their franchisor.
They very promptly changed their tone and refunded the fees the next day after I advised they were in clear breach of their obligations under Australian Consumer Law and will be moving forward with lodging a case with VCAT. However they stopped short of apologizing or otherwise admitting fault.
Vehicle while clean was in poor mechanical tune (compared to the same make/model hired from other business units operating under the same car hire brand). Anecdotes received from both customers and their own employees suggested they cut corners on servicing some of their fleet.
Being subjected to persistent up-selling upon picking up the vehicle. Not experienced to the same degree at any other location operating under the same brand. Then going ahead and adding on a breakdown add on anyway and concealing this in the walk-through of the agreement.
Upon returning home to New Zealand and writing about my experience on this blog, ended up with people identifying themselves as former employees writing in privately to affirm the issues as well as offer recriminations against management along with repeated mention of “Flaunting material possessions”.
While many of the issues that lead to my indignation have since been resolved, none of these in hindsight should have ever occurred in the first place.
It was (and remains to this day) my single most bizarre and unusual experience as a retail customer to any business either side of the Tasman.
Ultimate Ears (UE) Megaboom 3 is completely smoked in the sound quality department by it’s older cousin, UE Boombox (classic)
Sorry, I am going to have to say “I smell a rat” given the chasm of expectation created by all the rave reviews / buzz –versus- my own actual listening experience of the UE Megaboom 3 Bluetooth Speaker.
Bought this speaker based on the swathes of glowing reviews all over the Internet including being swept up by the claims in their marketing material where they specifically mention “Way more boom” and “Thundering Bass”.
Logitech Ultimate Ears questionable marketing claims for their Megaboom 3 product. I suspect if these claims were ever challenged in a legal setting, Logitech could be found in breach of the Fair Trading Act.
Got it back home and compared it to my old UE Boombox (from 2012/2013), and was sorely underwhelmed with the UE Megaboom 3’s sound quality, in particular, the UE Megaboom 3’s bass response compared to my old UE Boombox. Continue reading “Logitech UE Megaboom 3 – Don’t recommend”→
(A satirical) franchisee manual of a fictitious car rental network called “Dandy Shifty Car and Truck Rentals” regarding their formula for success on bamboozling, ripping off, and angering customers.
While this is intended to be satire. May also be useful as a general guide with which to watch out for when dealing with any rental car business as a customer, particularly at a location that may be franchised out to an independent licensee to one of the big brands such as Avis, Budget, Thrifty, Dollar, Hertz, Europcar, Enterprise.
Pre-requisites:
Operate from a jurisdiction with very lax enforcement of Consumer Protection Laws and regulations (e.g Australia) knowing that authorities have next to no resources for market surveillance and are very unlikely to come after your business on their own accord.
Take your customers as fools, especially international customers assuming they have not got the means to come back at you once they leave the country to go back home to their country of origin.
Steps to take:
Advertise your cars at absurdly low daily base rates (which if rented out alone at the advertised rate would be a net financial loss) in order to entice customers, and get them through your door ready to hit them with a barrage of up selling.
At the time of pick up, get your employees to use fear of significant financial loss by rattling off an up selling script of eye watering expensive (financial) protection options should things go awry on their lovely journey. This is a low margin business and viability of your business depends on selling add ons and other ancillary revenues. Threaten to reprimand your employees if they don’t up sell at least one add on per hire at the counter.
If the customer declines all the add ons, silently sneak on roadside service as this tends to be lowest priced add on. The subsequent agreement walk through gives the customer a sense that your business is upfront and honest as well as softening them up enough offering a chance for your employees to sneak on extra add ons by drawing the customer’s attention away from the add on they never asked for, through your employee deliberately skipping over it with their pen pointing, particularly if a large block of text is involved.
Conveniently forget to hand a copy of the signed agreement to the customer in order to hide the above. Once the customer drive off the lot, it is far less likely they’ll bother coming back to ask for the agreement, and subsequently won’t discover the extra add on(s) until long after the hire has concluded and after they’ve returned home.
If the customer has an accident, bonus points. Get one of your buddies in a panel repair shop to provide a hugely inflated quote and then stick on your own additional blanket administration fee on top of other administration fees. Chances are the customer will just hand the invoice directly to their insurer to deal with it without scrutinizing it themselves.
If they inquire politely about the unexpected charge(s) on top, start acting high and mighty, belittle them and be deliberately obtuse by saying “It’s in the agreement that YOU signed and agreed to” without actually pointing out where.
When they come back and say “these don’t appear to be properly detailed nor documented any where.”, simply respond by thanking them for providing their feedback on disclosure and skirt around actually answering their question.
When the customer advises they will now open a case with the small claims tribunal in your jurisdiction (to be held via teleconference mediation). Then offer a refund via a friendly worded email stating “as a gesture of good will” but what ever you say, AVOID apologising or admitting fault or wrongdoing. Admitting fault here could open up your business to a wave of like claims against your business from similarly affected customers.
Your star rating on Google and FB reviews flagging? Get your own employees to post multiple 5 star positive reviews for the rental car locations your business owns in order to try and flood out and counter the negative genuine reviews from actual customers that document irregularities they may have experienced with you.
When challenged by a customer whom recognises many of the staff names against the 5 star reviews, try and justify your failure to disclose your conflict of interest by saying “but the staff are customers too!” (but further fail to disclose they get their vehicle hires free as a perk)
The customer may try to school you on your own country’s consumer laws. Employ delay and placating tactics by fobbing them off saying you’ve referred the matter to your “compliance department” (which may or may not even exist) who are investigating and looking into the matter and lace the E-mail with as much corporate buzzword laden bullshit as possible about how you take corporate responsibility and ethics seriously.
If and when the customer advises they have now referred the matter (including screen-shots of all your fake reviews) to Consumer Regulators in your jurisdiction to obtain their comment on the matter… Drop all the previously provided (flimsy) excuses and delete as many fake reviews in haste as quickly as you can (irrevocably confirming your misdeeds) and completely decimating what little credibility your business had left in the customer’s eyes.
Success Criteria:
Sufficiently Paint your own business as a Mickey Mouse operation run by total clowns at the helm. 🤡🤡🤡
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Based around an actual hiring experience together with other experiences and anecdotes from both car hire customers along with actual (former and current) car hire company industry staff.
Update 7th December 2021: NRMA’s master license for Thrifty expired earlier this year and they have now changed their branding over to be SIXT Australia which includes Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd’s network of outlets throughout Suburban Victoria.
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In short, less than upfront (“shady”) behaviour from rental car companies does exist. This is in spite of people, particularly on various online travel forums who are often quick to come to the defence of car hire companies through pointing out that the hirer raising a complaint is the one in the wrong and who simply didn’t read and understand the agreement and/or contracts. From personal experience, this is certainly not always the case.
Ending up deciding to send Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd Originally trading as Thrifty Car and Truck Rental Victoria (since changed over to be SIXT Car Rental Victoria as of 2021) a fairly stern and direct Email over the weekend firmly stating that due to their lack of disclosure, they are not entitled to retain the 3.5% Administration fee that they had applied to my account (over the top of the damage/repair charge from a small roo jumping into the side of the vehicle) back in 2018 and if they did not refund that portion of the administrative fee by the “close of business 5pm AEDT, Friday 19th March 2021”, I would be instituting further recovery proceedings under Victorian State and Australian Consumer Law in order to have the amount in question returned back to me. To recap, in 2018… Continue reading “Hidden (Undisclosed) Fees in Hire car company agreements – Not a myth unfortunately”→
In my mind, the Loan to Value ratios (LVR) for investment properties should have never been reduced by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand from 35% to 20% and I struggle to understand why it has.
Will probably now join the investing hordes in this Property pile up owing to a decade of a dearth of any real investment opportunities. There’s only one or two areas in the South Island of NZ which I feel still presents value, every other area in NZ has gone full euphoric FOMO. May be the continuous money pump will never turn off (or won’t turn off for the foreseeable future) and the pull back of global asset bubbles may not eventuate in any significant sustained scary way. No one knows.
Seems to be also a lot easier today to get pre-approved for a loan in New Zealand than it was say a few years ago, the banks appear to be willingly to lend more (In my view, a jaw dropping and gobsmackingly lot more) and going through the process earlier this week does perhaps make it easier to understand why the Housing Market bubble refuses to burst and instead continues to inflate.
Again, the only risk factors to the asset markets on the radar is food security (which appears to have receded recently) and Civil Unrest which appears to be subjectively growing around the world, but still appears to be relatively benign (not raucous enough to enact any real change). Seems with all other threats the Central banks seem to be able to just add a few zeros at the end of the Global Money supply and “she’ll be right”. But who the flip knows…?
Be aware that NRMA Insurance and NRMA Motoring and services (“The NRMA”) are NOT the same company and have been separate entities since 2000 despite the two companies sharing the same brand. Yes, indeed this is confusing as anything whereby even Australians to this day do not even realise the distinction.
I occasionally observe NRMA clients complain about an acrimonious experience on either the insurance or roadside assistance side, mentioned they’ve been members for years or decades, and then state they will now move both their insurance policies and roadside assistance to another provider as retribution.
NRMA Insurance and more recently, NRMA Motorserve (now rebranded simply to “Motorserve”) are actually owned by Insurance Australia Group (IAG).
“The NRMA” (Motoring and Services) have largely evolved in my mind to be more of a travel and tourism company. Their traditional roadside assistance services appear to be increasingly supplied by another, separate company called ClubAssist whose personnel (staff and contractors) are supplied with NRMA branded Vehicles and Uniforms while actually being employed by Club-Assist.
Update: 15 July 2020 – Rewritten to correct some of my own views and information.
I concede this is more of an unquantified feeling at this stage and this post will likely be added to or otherwise edited…
While Australia has both Consumer and Retail investor Protection regulatory frameworks in place, the supervision and enforcement of I feel of is rather weak and probably weaker than anyone, even Australians actually realise. This extends to their financial sector as well In terms of retail investments and retail banking. Continue reading “Australian Consumer Protections + Regulatory frameworks”→
This blog post originally documented in detail some personal concerns I had regarding the validity of ProductReview.com.au’s claims, in particular it’s claim of “independence” made via their trust centre if they also happen to supply paid services to the businesses being reviewed on their site.
The matter originated from coming across what I feel were some fairly sizeable anomalies in terms of a significant surge of suspect 5 star reviews (that were too large to simply casually ignore) on a listing during what was intended to be a casual visit to the site.
Will look to refer this to the ACCC and NSW Fair Trading in due course purely to get their opinion on the arrangement. Right now with the COVID-19 situation worsening globally together with the fact this matter is in another country and really does not affect me personally in any direct way, have decided to put any such follow up on ice.
To be honest, privacy issues aside, I am significantly far more concerned around our continued almost exclusive reliance on Facebook’s products to communicate with our friends and family and subsequently helping Facebook, a sole for profit entity, gain a very concerning amount of control over our lives collectively.
Facebook Inc. aren’t some benevolent entity, they are a business and their first and foremost mandate ahead of anything else (including a head of wider social concerns) is to ultimately maximise profits to their owners.
Decades on, I desperately struggle to see why more of us aren’t concerned about this. Please, can someone enlighten me as to the faults in my thinking here? Please?
Also, Custom Audiences. I know I am alone in this thinking, But I consider businesses uploading my personal client information as part of a Custom Audience List to Facebook a breach of my privacy. You are effectively giving my personal information over to a 3rd party and that is not OK.
Facebook use that information to their advantage by matching up information as to where I have been, where I have shopped, etc.
We really don’t need to be rewarding nor supporting Facebook’s on going track record of behaviour, and we really don’t need to help support such a company (particularly a for-profit one) taking so much power and subsequently control over our lives.
Update 7th December 2021: Much of the original Thrifty Australia operational structure has been rebranded as SIXT Australia. NRMA’s master license for Thrifty expired earlier this year and they have now changed over to be SIXT Australia.
This post refers to when NRMA’s Car rental division, Kingmill Pty Ltd, were trading as Thrifty Car and Truck Rental Australia.
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Dare I say it, I have had largely reasonable experiences with the ‘Thrifty’ car rental brand in Australia. Vehicles provided have predominantly been received in clean, tidy and good condition. Majority of hires have been smooth with one disappointing experience in the middle involving one of their licensees operating in Suburban Melbourne who I felt were dishonest and were also caught posting fake reviews to boot (Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd). Continue reading “NRMA Car rental division (Was Thrifty, now SIXT Australia)”→
Update 9th January 2022:– Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd used to be trading as a Thrifty Car and Truck Rental independent franchise up until late 2021. They have since rebranded to be SIXT Car rental Vic & SA.
It is sincerely hoped under their new banner as SIXT Australia – Vic & SA that Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd will use this opportunity of a clean slate to continue to improve their business practices and move on from some of their former practices observed and experienced as a past customer of theirs.
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Known SIXT Locations in Victoria, Australia which are operated by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd
SIXT – Avalon Airport, VIC
SIXT – Bayswater, VIC
SIXT – Blackburn, VIC
SIXT – Clayton, VIC
SIXT – Coburg, VIC
SIXT – Campbellfield, VIC
SIXT – Dandenong, VIC
SIXT – Footscray, VIC
SIXT – Frankston, VIC
SIXT – Geelong, VIC
SIXT – Hoppers Crossing, VIC
SIXT – Moorabbin, VIC
SIXT – Pakenham, VIC
SIXT – Preston, VIC
SIXT – Richmond, VIC
SIXT – Tullamarine, VIC (Not the Airport one)
Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd also operate…
SIXT – Mount Gambier Airport, SA (South Australia)
SIXT – Repairhub (Derrimut, VIC)
Direct Vehicle Warehouse (formerly Thrifty Vehicle Sales)(Dandenong, VIC)
SIXT Car and Truck rental locations in Victoria not operated by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd…
SIXT – Melbourne City (operated by Kingmill Pty Ltd – Master Franchise / NRMA Motoring and Services)
SIXT – Melbourne Airport (operated by Kingmill Pty Ltd – Master Franchise / NRMA Motoring and Services)
SIXT – South Yarra (operated by Christer Aust Pty Ltd)
SIXT – South Melbourne (operated by Christer Aust Pty Ltd)
SIXT – Brighton (operated by Christer Aust Pty Ltd)
The information has been compiled from what I know as a past customer to NRMA Motoring and Services car hire division (Originally trading as Thrifty, now trading as SIXT) and will likely be incomplete. I’m not employed in anyway within the car hire industry. The information was originally compiled upon request from other fellow Thrifty Car rental customers (back in 2018) enquiring as to which Thrifty car rental branches were operated by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd and which of those that were not.
Update 7 December 2021: Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd (formerly Thrifty Car and Truck Rental Victoria now trading as SIXT Car Rental Vic & SA) have since kindly refunded me the admin fees earlier this year that were originally charged outside of the written agreement and which originally triggered off my indignation. Many of the fake reviews posted while they were trading as Thrifty have since been promptly deleted upon separately advising the matter had been turned over to the ACCC and Consumer Affairs Victoria for comment.
Had also fielded the occasional E-mail from those identifying themselves as past employees of Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd, describing Working Conditions, Pay and Internal Culture issues, etc. though these have since tailed off as Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd followed their franchisor to rebrand as SIXT Car Rental Australia.
It is however sincerely hoped that under their new banner as SIXT Australia, Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd will take this clean slate as an opportunity to continue to substantially improve on their business conduct and practices going forward.
Will leave this post up as is, as purely a historical snapshot / record of perhaps my single most unusual consumer experience I’ve ever had either side of the Tasman and the first and so far only time I’ve ever had to initiate formal action under any given country’s Consumer Protection Framework anywhere in the world. It should however be understood much of this post may no longer be current particularly the bit about planning to take them to VCAT upon my return visit to Australia.
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Topping off personally my single most disappointing consumer experience to date either side of the Tasman that I can recall… upon looking to place a review regarding my last hire experience with Thrifty Car Rental out of Mickelham Road, (Melbourne), discovered that the franchise owner along with certain senior staff of franchise operation Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd, had posted several of their own reviews whilst failing to disclose their commercial and/or employment connection to the business…
Lawrence (Vic.) Pty Ltd. T/A Thrifty Vic Car and Truck rental – Managing Director… “Personally I think that these guys are the best rental company in Victoria. They always have great service a delivery on time with a smile. I would recommend them to anybody.“
– Source: Google Maps (This has since been removed upon advising I had referred the matter to the ACCC and CAV)
Thrifty Franchise owner Lawrence (Vic.) Pty Ltd for Dandenong, posting a 5 star review of his own business. This has since been removed.
…Being the owner, of course he would think and say that about his own business. Some disclosure in his review would have been nice.
Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd’s Chief Financial Officer, was also discovered to have placed multiple 5 star ratings of a number of Thrifty Car and Truck rental locations…
Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd’s Chief Financial Officer posting 5 star ratings for the branches owned by his employer in breach of ACCC Guidelines. (They were formerly operating as Thrifty, now operating as SIXT Car and Truck Rental Australia.)
Some more ratings placed by the same individual. He has placed 5 star ratings on at least 8 (possibly more) locations owned by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd along with 5 star ratings for a handful of other Thrifty Locations owned by other business units.
Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd’s Chief Financial Officer posting 5 star ratings for the branches owned by his employer in breach of ACCC Guidelines. (They were formerly operating as Thrifty, now operating as SIXT Car and Truck Rental Australia.)
Also came across this… Known employees (confirmed upon glancing at their profiles) including the owner of Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd are seen posting fake ratings and reviews for Thrifty Vehicle Sales location (Since renamed simply to “Direct Vehicle Warehouse” as of December 2021) that they operate in Dandenong. (These have since been removed in haste upon advising I have turned the matter over to the ACCC and Consumer Affairs Victoria)
Fake Reviews posted to the Thrifty Vehicle Sales page in Dandenong (Since renamed “Direct Vehicle Warehouse” as of 2021) by those in the employ of the reviewed business (Lawrence Vic Pty ltd). These have now been removed after advising I had referred the matter to the ACCC and CAV
Furthermore, if you glance at the rest of the profiles from where the ratings and reviews have come from, quite a few of them I feel appeared (at least to me) to be from direct friends to one of the Staff in question (Profiles liking and commenting on posts from the staffer’s profile and vice versa or more apparent, the staffer appearing on the friends widget of those profiles).
While friends of staff are well within their right to place a review if they are genuine customers, a potential conflict of interestis present and this should really be disclosed within any review they post as per the ACCC Guidelines in respect to asking friends to leave a review.
More Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd staff posting positive reviews, this time for Thrifty Weipa. (While this may be a different business unit to Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd, they are still part of the Australian Thrifty Car Rental network and any such review should disclose this)
Thrifty Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd employees posting reviews for Thrifty Weipa. While a different Franchise, they are still part of the same network and should be disclosed.
An older review from 3 years ago posted by another employee of Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd…
Another Google self review from a Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd staffer for Thrifty Car and Truck Rental Campbellfield.
Here’s a more recent glowing review for Thrifty Car and Truck Rental for Footscray…
(the statement “…team that works together to achieve their goals” caught my eye as it’s not normally something posted by a genuine customer)
(The review below was quickly removed after I posted a temporary review publicly challenging it)
Glowing review of Footscray Thrifty Car and Truck Rental posted by a staff member of Thrifty Footscray. This was quickly removed after posting my own review to challenge it.
From then I looked at the reviewer’s other review for Coles Express, a service station very close by Thrifty Car and Truck Rental Footscray where he mentions “…as part of my job for a rental car company…”
Same employee mentioning he worked for a car rental firm. No surprises which one.
…All the above fake reviews were the ones that were known about and could be directly linked to Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd personnel.
The last fake testimonial above was only caught by virtue that the staff member in question had posted in another review mentioning he worked for a rental car company.
In my mind, it certainly raises the question… How many of the other customer testimonials could also be fake or otherwise have been posted by Thrifty Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd personnel?
Wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd management possibly encouraged their employees to engage in the practice particularly since the owner himself was seen placing at least a couple of his own fake reviews.
Reviews posted to Lawrence Vic Pty ltd. New location: Thrifty Coburg in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. While an individual review from a profile where this is their only review is not sufficient by itself to raise a red flag, the ratio of such reviews do raise a red flag with me.
Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd’s newer location, Thrifty Coburg, Melbourne, Victoria. 4 out of 6 reviews revealed anomalies. 3 out of 6 reviews were posted by people with only 1 review with a 4th review from below…
The reason why this looks fishy…
The ratio. Out of 6 total reviews, 3 were made by reviewers with only 1 review,
One of them being especially and suspiciously hyperbolic. “Wow, what an experience” is a sizable red flag to me as such reviews have in the past often been found to be fake upon my own investigation. How often would one be so over the moon renting from a car hire place?
A 4th review was made by a reviewer who has a total of 5 Google reviews to her name. However, out of those 5 reviews, 4 of them are for Thrifty locations all operated by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd, another red flag…
This reviewer has a total of 5 Google reviews to their name. 4 of them for Thrifty locations, all operated by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd. I suspect this is more than a coincidence.
There are a few further individuals who if you Google their name present results to their LinkedIn profiles indicating they work for Thrifty. Whether they are the same people who posted these (in my view) rather anomalous, “written like an advert” review for Thrifty Vehicle Sales Dandenong is not able to be definitively confirmed as there are a ton of People in the Melbourne Area with the same (first and last) names, Never the less, the prose is very unlike a customer would normally write and combined with a match to Linkedin, these reviews I feel should be viewed with a high degree of skepticism.
While I acknowledge that Lawrence Vic Pty ltd isn’t alone in such antics (Far from it), Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd is the first business (that isn’t an outright cold calling boiler room “wire” scam operation) who I have both personally had any sort of interaction with and seen engaging in the posting of falsified testimonials.
Overall my hire experience with Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd was far removed from my usually smooth hire experience under the Thrifty brand in Australia. I will admit to letting my guard down in this instance due to trust built up from multiple positive hiring experiences before hand under the Thrifty brand. Issues with the Lawrence Franchise include…
Failure to disclose upfront the full fee structure in their written legal documentation in respect to minor damage caused by a small Roo jumping into the side of the vehicle. An undisclosed and non-specific 3.5% Administrative fee was levied on top of other Administrative fees and was not disclosed to me verbally nor in writing. (I understand as of September 2020, Thrifty Australia have now rewritten their Terms and Conditions to better disclose this to cover their network of outlets and franchises, however, was not disclosed as per their terms and conditions as of 2018 at the time of the hire) Note March 2021: Have since had a large portion of that refunded back to me.
Upon contacting the Licensee’s HQ at Dandenong thinking that these matters would be easy to clarify, I was instead met with a defensive attitude from one of their accountants (who I now learn has since left the organization) with the chain of communication abruptly closing at “Thanks for your feedback on our disclosure” with no further attempt by Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd to explain or otherwise point out where in the written agreement these charges applied.
Failure to provide a copy of the agreement at initiation of the hire requiring several follow ups. (This doesn’t appear to be an isolated incident with Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd.)
Upon eventual receipt of the above, discovered a break down add on I never requested and which I strongly believe was snuck on by the RSO under IMO obvious pressure by his bosses to meet his monthly sales target. The RSO agent I strongly believe drew my attention away from it during the walk through of the said agreement. I will take this on the chin this time, but this is something that prospective hirer’s must watch out for. Don’t be too trusting in “the brand”. Renting from one Thrifty branch (in my case, several different Thrifty branches) does not mean they do things the same way as any other Thrifty branch.
The vehicle, A Hyundai Accent hatch ran rather poorly compared to the same Make/model I rented several times from other Thrifty branches in Australia and New Zealand. The service sticker also indicated the vehicle was 2 months over due for it’s service. Anecdotes from Employees and Fellow customers a like indicate that they regularly cut corners on servicing.
On presenting a New Zealand Driver’s license, Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd demanded 2 x Australian Phone numbers and an Australian Address. No where was this stated anywhere on booking nor the unified thrifty.com.au Website. This is different from Thrifty Melbourne Airport and Thrifty Melbourne city (Spencer st) where no such requirement exists.
Their employment ads suggest a rather Sales driven culture I feel (“…totally focused on achieving targets and budgets”) and this has been emphasized in Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd’s ads far more than for Front line roles advertised by other Vehicle Rental agencies (operating under the Thrifty banner or otherwise) I feel.
I have also since dropped a note to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) to let them know of Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd’s conduct.
If would be fair to say that I hold the management of Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd personally responsible for the matters arising out of my hire with them. Nor have I ruled out possibly taking out a case against Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) when I’m next back over the ditch on business.
To date, this remains by far and away my single most acrimonious experience as a customer to any business either side of the Tasman. I would expect to see these sorts of business antics 20 years ago in Mainland China (when things there were less developed) and not in a country such as Australia.
While I have since continued to rent through other ‘Thrifty’ branded business units in Australia without experiencing anywhere near the same sorts of issues, my continued custom with Thrifty as a brand is now under review (particularly so now that NZ AA and Thrifty Australia between them seems to have ended the hire car deals for us NZ AA Members).
In a nutshell… I consider trust extremely important in any transaction I undertake and Lawrence Vic Pty Ltd through their conduct I feel have completely failed to demonstrate this.
