Here are some screenshots. These are from our contractor files.

The 20 contractors below have done 22,019 jobs, resulting in 592 claims between them.

That's a claim rate of 2.6 per hundred. On that basis over 97.4 jobs out of 100 have no claims.

Actually however, its even less than that. Please Read on!

When a claim is reported it is recorded immediately - even if its later found that nothing was wrong.

That means if someone reports some missing bed screws and we tell them they are back in the old bed holes or in a chest of drawers, it will already have been reported as a claim for a missing item. Or if we've repacked a burst garbage bag into a box and the client doesn't notice that they have an extra box until after they call us, then it has already been recorded as a claim. Or if it is subsequently discovered that the person at the pickup end didn't send the item, it's still a claim on the list, as are cases where items go missing because they haven't been labeled with a name or address.

Similarly items that are reported as damaged even though they were already damaged, or because they were inherently susceptible to damage because of the way they were packaged or constructed, are all recorded as claims. Big IKEA style wardrobes for example, where the staples may pop out of the back of them as soon as you pick them up or even try to move them.

With at least 97.4 out of 100 jobs being completed without a phone call making a claim, we award ourselves the equivalent in stars. 4.87 out of 5 stars.

(*'claims': many claims aren't really claims. Plese read explanation in this section.)

These claim rates are for damages and misdelivered items combined.

In reality its about 50/50 so its shows about 1.5% alleged damages and 1.5% alleged misdelivered items.

When looking about these results you need to know a little bit more about how these figures were derived.

The claims listings include major disaster claims like when a truck is in an accident, which can result in multiple claims from the one incident.

Furthermore overall in the long run claims are distance related. The further something is moved, the longer the journey and so the greater risk of an occurrence that could result in a claim. A contractor with a low claim rate is likely to just be doing Melbourne - Adelaide, and the highest claim rates will be connected with WA.

Btw, in case anyone's wondering, blowouts and blowouts per job refer to when contractors report that clients have more than they say they'll have.

And lastly - those claim rates are really really good overall.

Some time ago, before we realised what was really achievable, we used a company on the Gold coast with 35 years experience for a lot of the work.
Here are the figures they were getting with us. A claim rate for damages and missing items of over 6%. More than twice as many claims as for the average for jobs booked with us.

That's how we know our service is so good.

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The Star Rating and Review system - trickery of the finest kind.

What is a reviewer ?

A reviewer is someone who is an expert in a field. Restaurants, Cars, Movies, Games, Guns, Airlines, Computers, anything. That expert then compares, reports and writes about whatever is happening in their field of expertise.

A reviewer is not someone who sits down and writes down anything and everything that's wrong with a thing, writes nothing about what might be good with a thing, and who has probably never come across that thing nor anything else to compare it with before.

Otherwise you would have architectural reviewers complaining that a building was disgusting as it didn't spin around to follow the sun, or movie critics who had never seen a film objecting that the credits at the end went for 10 minutes which devastated their experience because nothing else happened after that.

A keyboard warrior, troll type person is not a reviewer. A first time user is not a reviewer, and an angry person is not a reviewer.

And the Star Rating System ?

When you've had a nice meal in a restaurant or take away, you thank the staff and say goodbye.

You may tip them and thank the chef as well. Then you walk out of the restaurant and your done with it.

You might even come back. Next month, next year or in 10 years time because its the only thing you still remember about a City you once visited.

Probably a restaurant might have 100 customers like that a day. And why wouldn't it. Its there to serve meals and it wants repeat business and it wouldn't want to deliberately antagonise anyone.

At the end of the month - maybe 3,000, 5,000, 10,000 happy clients. Some might come in every day. It happens all the time.

Our local kebab shop ... they deliver the same HSP with 'super super well burnt chips' as a special request ... to the same bloke every Friday night. And how many 'Stars' does it get ?

So far quite likely none.

Just the same happy customers.

Eventually for some reason or other, someone is going to be unhappy.

It happens and it doesn't take much ... it might just be a 40 minute delay for a pizza delivery on a super busy day.

So that person gets annoyed. They think the world is coming to an end because their meal hasn't arrived yet. And the brain, being a wonderful thing, comes up with an instant solution. It can get revenge whilst its waiting ...it remembers the review sites, and off it goes, putting words like horrible, disgusting and horrendous out there on the internet.

That person forgets to mention the apocalyptic hail storm outside that's brought all traffic to a halt.

Then they tip the driver when the pizza arrives and next week they'll order again.

(And yes. They've bad reviewed the Kebab shop instead of the Pizza shop next door this time .. but never mind ... a shop's a shop.).

Meanwhile if the restaurant's had no reviews - bingo its in luck big time (Not)!!

Overnight this restaurant has become 100% bad. One out of one bad reviews.

So people stop coming to it even though the food's still great and people haven't changed and its got great views. Even the regulars think twice. Maybe something's changed, they worry.

Then the owner starts thinking: 'Well if that's what they think I'll use rabbit in my beef instead of the lamb - that's all they deserve'. So if you start to wonder why the food's gotten bad now, you can trace it back to Mr pizza man and that review site's owners. 'If they are going to write that about us, we may as well not bother fixing problems no more. What's the point they are just going to write a bad review anyway... so I won't get more customers no matter how hard I try. So probably I should start mixing in some worms in the food as well'.

And its the same with transport providers, removalists and any other service provider or product.

Even Doctors and dentists now.

Why be a Doctor? You now get the best Doctors - those that try their hardest for their sickest patients - and then someone writes something mean. It won't be long before they - and all their colleagues - will ask 'Why bother ??' And in fact we may already have reached that stage. Think about it.

What's happening in hospitals more and more? You get there, seriously injured, into emergency and there you stay.. until you've bled to death or finished you're heart attack and died. Because no-one gives a stuff anymore. The Doctors are all out the back having a smoke, and the nurses are pissed orf because now with 'me too hash tag', no Doctor will come within a mile of them.

But back to the main point:

No-one counts the satisfaction of clients who express their gratitude to the removalist guys in person with a big thank you, free Maccas, a tip, or by helping unload even though they don't have to.

There are no stars and no good reviews for doing your job perfectly 100%.

No-one scores any Stars when clients contact the office to thank the guys, or when they ask the guys to thank us in the office.

No one records a plus point when clients that say nothing and just use the service again next time they move.

These 100% satisfied clients will almost certainly NOT go on and lodge a review on a review site.

Even if they felt like it, most would soon be put off by the cumbersome sign in procedure.

Despite all that quite a few clients have actually logged in here or there and written something good - and our most sincere thank you to them !!

The important thing to realise is that the Star system is not a rating system and a user based review system is not a review system.

They are a straight out defamation machine, and its defamation thats first and foremost inspired by and encouraged by the review sites themselves. Its a very clever idea, a money making machine cunningly disguised as a consumer service and the recently re-discovered doctrine of name and shame.

The reality is that naming and shaming has the opposite effect to that which its proponents (at least outwardly) say it is intended to have. It makes people worse not better.

Label someone a criminal at age 17 and what does their mind tell them that they've become? A criminal! Might as well burgle that house or steal that guy's phone - I'm a criminal anyway, is what they'll be thinking.

This is something would know deep down. But they really just like the idea because it gives them the chance to legitimately torment another human, whilst simultaneously basking in the glory of being holier than thou.

Its a wonder the more intelligent outlets like google itself or the yellow pages will publish these so called reviews. Do they really expect businesses to pay good money for Advertisements and then allow a bad review to be published right next to them ?

Whilst the socialist thought leaders still crow about its positive impact on customer experiences, this naming and shaming is now happening to everyone in every industry, and the result is not good. But it'll take another 10 years or so before everyone really starts to realise that the results have already started to filter through.

In the meantime we have decided to take them all down - these so called reviewer sites. Lets start by naming them all and shaming them all and those who are behind them:

If you've been defamed please contact us by email, preferably with links to the defamatory sections of their sites.

If you are a company with less than 6 employees you are particularly important as you will have standing to sue.

We're preparing a case against all of them, and if we act as a team we'll have more chance of success.

Lastly, to any individual that has actually posted a review, be warned that that your days are numbered. A considerable body of case law is building up against the practice, and the longer your articles are out there, the greater the defamation.

We will be targetting both reviewers and review sites in the near future. However we offer a moratorium to anyone who manages to get their reviews removed before we commence this project in ernest.

ABC News: before-you-write-that-scathing-online-review-beware-defamation

ABC News: you can defame someone with a simple text message


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We chose the following reviews at random. These are not about us, but they might as well be. Some of the 'reviewed' companies we know of and some we don't. The ones we know of are all good companies IOHO.

Review 1.

absolutely rubbish choice.
I used [it] to move from Perth to Melbourne we wanted to send our furniture earlier than us and we called this company and we talked to Graham(?)before taking money he sound like there is no problem about sending our furniture in advance and arriving in exactly day but after all in Melbourne it ended up we had to arrange someone to be at home and also it didn't arrive in the day that they promised so we had to pay more for accommodation.

I really regret using this company

Our comment: Its probably not their fault. The rail companies are terrible and accountable to no one. They have a monopoly now, even though they guaranteed the government that wouldn't happen. Every few months when go to a terminal to pickup a container that their computer system says is there, its not. $250 wasted. All customers waiting at home have to be re-contacted. etc etc. 'container still in Adelaide or where-ever'. And sending it can be just as bad. Suddenly the rail compnay gets all booked up for a week or two and there's nothing you can do.

Review 2.

[xxxx] handled my move from Melbourne to Perth. Two container loads of goods loaded without any damage. Guys arrived on time for the pick up. Friendly staff who explained how they planned to move my belongings. Job done quicker than I expected. No issues with this company and would use them again.

Review 3.

We had occasion to use [XXXX] Removalist's in our move from NSW to Rosebud, Victoria. They picked our belongings on the 12th December 2017 and delivered the next day to Rosebud.

Our settlement had been delayed due to conveyancing incompetence, the boys had arrived at 12pm our settlement was set back to 3pm on a 35 degree day.Our removalist's Chris and Joe never complained and in fact stayed with us in the heat making sure that we were stowed away safely..I cannot begin to tell you how much of a huge relief they were in an otherwise completely chaotic day.

Comment: Great but no different to what most other decent human beings would do. It all depends on the drivers on the day a bit, but also what other commitments they have. They may have just wanted to stretch out their day and not do another job. Being paid $200 in wages whilst doing nothing isn't so bad for the drivers. Probably next year they won't have a job because their company will have gone broke.

Review 4.

3 quick reviews, all about the same company:

Great service, the staff were so helpful and the removalists were brilliant.

Absolutely horrendous customer service from management/owner.

I would highly recommend your company to future customers.

Comment: Looks like two by the company and the middle one from a consumer terrorist of some sort. And that's what they are all like 100s and 1000s of them.

Look at reviews about removalists in Britain,USA or Canada..... All the same.

When we last looked in 2016 Kents had a few bad ones but it looks like they may have someone working full time on this stuff now so you need to go back a few pages to find them.

Kents

Its ludicrous. The time and cost involved should be devoted by the business to the business and in not in counter terrorist activities.

No sane government should allow it - but then they allow telephone canvassing without any real restrictions, an rail monopolys and the nbn and .... OMG to go on could take million words.


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We wrote earlier about the restaurant and how very satisfied diners will walk out and go home without ever leaving a good review.

The reviews simply don't happen on their own. They take work.

If every diner was given a survey sheet after the meal and asked to stuff it into a collection box on the way out ---- then the business would most certainly get reviews. Or if their pay station was logged into a review site or sites and they asked each customer to leave a quick review there and then - it would happen. It can be done.

But it takes work. And it will capture the praise of the silent majority.

We know that ourselves. Until a few years ago we would mail a survey letter to every client after the job, and the responses were overwhelming positive.

See testimonials here: Testimonials (We only stopped when Australia Post stopped their Reply Paid service).

Getting Stars and good web based reviews in the modern era is also hard work. It takes a lot of time money and effort.

Apparently even Amazon is contacting people and offering incentives to leave good reviews.

It's common for our competitors to counter bad review with enough good ones to push the bad ones down out of sight. They either place them themselves or use other deceitful means.

They may be written by the site owners or theirs friends and family or for a fee by a good review service overseas and they usually go like this: 'Fantastic service ! Couldn't recommend Lucy and Joel highly enough. will certainly use them again ...will recommend ...highly ..great.. fantastic..'

And its highly illegal too.false-or-misleading-online-testimonials

The more genuine ones are written by real customers who are incentivised by some offer like a discount next time round.

The only way for a business to shine on a these pseudo review sites is to devote vast resources into monitoring what gets uploaded there, and then having networks in place to post counter reviews to push all bad ones back down the list.

For our part we've decided not to get on the review/star ratings chase treadmill.

Just like we don't pay for advertising on google, we aren't going to pay to the review system.

And finally we'd just like to add, when you see good reviews about us, they really are the real thing.


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The Fairfax Newspapers had an article recently where they spoke to Restauranteurs about online reviews.

This is what they said:

One Melbourne chef, who asked not to be named, has been on the receiving end of a few bad reviews, and while she doesn't want to comment on [xxxxx's] case, says she understands why a restaurant owner would want to hit back.

vancouvers-rumpus-room-restaurant reviews client back

I've had customers post reviews saying that my pasta tastes like shit. That they found rat droppings in their salads. Stuff that is just absolutely not true.

Our restaurant is consistently reviewed well by actual reviewers, and it drives me nuts to see these people - who don't have to provide any evidence, by the way, that they even set foot in my place - write damaging lies about my work. My team and I work so hard, and we just don't deserve it.

And while most chefs agree that customers have the right to report on negative experiences, it's tricky for readers to know whether a particular restaurant or meal was definitively bad, or whether it simply wasn't to that customer's taste.

As [xxx] [xxx], executive chef at Sydney's [xxxx] and [xxxxx], says, 'Nobody likes a bad review, but especially one from someone who is a complete unknown'.

Reviews from critics are different, he says - they are trained to give an unbiased, objective view. Keyboard warriors (my term, not his) are not. But, he admits, 'it's the game we're in. We rely on the internet for so many aspects of life, and this is just another one. It's not always bad or vindictive, and sometimes customers genuinely have had a bad experience and just want to let you know. That, I'm OK with'.

One of these commentators makes a good point - she says they don't even need to prove they dined there.

There are a lot of companies out there with names similar ours, and there are plenty of reviews out there critical of us for jobs we had absolutely nothing to do with.

What's more if you're a competitor there's nothing that's more fun than to have a few beers, log onto a review site and go to town on their rivals' service one Saturday night.

Here is how a bad review comes about. Who are the reviewers?

And here is the real story behind one of our customers who - as we were loading - trotted along behind the guys from the house to the truck on every single trip out and back again all afternoon. A bizarre activity that no-one normally ever does... so its probably no surprise that it lead to this: reachshesha@gmail.com

The vast majority of removalists are all good people who enjoy their work tremendously, because of the variety, the healthy lifestyle and many other factors. They take pride in doing a good job, and the companies behind them similarly try very hard to ensure all jobs go as close to customer's expectations as possible.

The internet has given an outlet to those people who have gotten everything their own way in life from the get-go by stamping their feet and screeching 'parent person: I. Want. It.'

No matter how hard you try, they are going to make a vindictive attack on every service provider they go to whenever they want for something.

These internet 'reviewers' are usually some type of mad demented person before they even start. At best you can call them a consumer terrorist.

The unfavourable reviews in blogs, social media campaigns and other web based outlets, are placed by people that know full well that they are asking for something that they are not entitled to have.

So they are angry, and off they go, bending the story a little here and there so that they can still keep believing they are telling the complete and utter truth, but hiding and omitting all of the fine detail so that no-one gets the full picture about what a fantastic service or product they really had. >

People are smart, and the malicious words really start to flow once they set pen to paper.

Other forms of of consumer terrorism that fall into the same category are threats to take their story to current affairs, the ACCC, the consumer ombudsman whatever that is or to bring the case to the attention of the relevant consumer affairs bureau and or a small claims tribunal, when all you are usually doing is asking them to pay the cost of the extra 20% or whatever goods they've told the driver to load.

Look at product reviews.com.To make a comment on this site a user needs to first go through a quite lengthy sign in procedure.In our view not many will bother if they want to make a positive comment. (Although some of our clients have)

Only people with a deep desire to troll a business with a negative review will make the effort. (And Remember: If they had a genuine claim they could easily pursue it through NCAT QCAT VCAT or any of the other State or Territory consumer tribunals).

As Sutton says, 'they're multiplying': 'Are you noticing more and more awful behaviour? That could be thanks to the faceless internet', Sutton says. 'There's so much evidence - experimental evidence, field studies - that when you don't have eye contact with someone ... you are more likely to slam them, to be less empathetic, to be less generous,' he says.

With social media, with Twitter, all of these different technologies that we use, we have more and more communication, including within organisations, email, that is not face-to-face. Anyone can publish whatever they like!


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