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Fraudulent App Ratings

P

pMad

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 28, 2008
182
1
There is an app on iTunes which I believe is having it's ratings jacked up by it's developers. The reviews constantly talk about how great the developers are. How great customer service is. And most troubling - when/what the next versions will be released (only the developer would know this stuff).

A huge number of reviews talk about customer service. How many of you have ever called customer service for any app?

How do I contact Apple to rectify this situation?
 
pMad said:
There is an app on iTunes which I believe is having it's ratings jacked up by it's developers. The reviews constantly talk about how great the developers are. How great customer service is. And most troubling - when/what the next versions will be released (only the developer would know this stuff).

A huge number of reviews talk about customer service. How many of you have ever called customer service for any app?

How do I contact Apple to rectify this situation?
Click to expand...
For each review you can "report a concern."

It's located in the upper right corner of each review.
 
pMad said:
A huge number of reviews talk about customer service. How many of you have ever called customer service for any app?
Click to expand...

Although I never get calls (since I don't put out a contact number) but I do get about 30-40 emails a day in regards to my apps.
 
Dear pMad,

I don't know to which app you are referring but as a developer I can say that many people contact me for support via email and some of them also leave a review on iTunes AFTER having received support.

A few with problems first made a bad review and after asking support they changed into a favorable review.

A couple that made bad review even have not changed after their problem have been solved.

So, for my personal experience, I think most of those reviews should be real.
 
These complaints are weird by the OP.

As other developers said, they get contacted regularly by customers.

I also know some developers have means to communicate with users and provide information on pending updates. Which means it is entirely possible someone writing a review would have information about future updates.

I just don't think any of the information the OP provides is evidence that something shady is going on.

Sounds like someone with a competing app is a bit bitter.
 
yep, we get tons of emails too and often give out info on when we've submitted new versions and such (heck we blog about it). if you're really concerned, just report the reviews. if enough ppl flag it, i'm sure apple will look into it. chances are it's nothing, though.
 
marksman said:
These complaints are weird by the OP.

As other developers said, they get contacted regularly by customers.

I also know some developers have means to communicate with users and provide information on pending updates. Which means it is entirely possible someone writing a review would have information about future updates.

I just don't think any of the information the OP provides is evidence that something shady is going on.

Sounds like someone with a competing app is a bit bitter.
Click to expand...


I couldn't program an app if my life depended upon it.

The App is iScore Baseball --- look at it --- tell me if you think the reviews are more than a bit self serving.
 
:Shrugs. Maybe I'm naive, but I'd like to think that fraudulent positive ratings are pretty uncommon.

To be honest, I think the App Store has the opposite problem. All the garbage negative 1-star ratings with the review of "THIS SUX! DON'T BUY IT!!!!!!!" And that's it. Completely worthless feedback. I mean for Christ's sake, if you're going to give an app 1-star, say it "SUX" and not to buy it, could you actually tell us WHY you think that? From the reviews I've read, I'd guess that at least 60% of app reviews fall under this category.
 
I've emailed a few people about their apps. Sometimes for bugs, sometimes for feature requests. I don't see why that's weird.

Most people I'd think would go that route instead of instantly giving a 1 star review, "Brkoen dont work LOL."

All developers I've contacted responded very well—sometimes with insight into the next releases. I don't see how I couldn't have left a review similar to the one's OP is complaining about—and I'm not a developer.
 
Tunnelrunner said:
:Shrugs. Maybe I'm naive, but I'd like to think that fraudulent positive ratings are pretty uncommon.

To be honest, I think the App Store has the opposite problem. All the garbage negative 1-star ratings with the review of "THIS SUX! DON'T BUY IT!!!!!!!" And that's it. Completely worthless feedback. I mean for Christ's sake, if you're going to give an app 1-star, say it "SUX" and not to buy it, could you actually tell us WHY you think that? From the reviews I've read, I'd guess that at least 60% of app reviews fall under this category.
Click to expand...

Yeah, or the other thing I can't stand is people think you OWE THEM THE WORLD for a 99 cent app. I've seen countless times where people say "Would be worth it, but they need to add online multiplayer!" or something insane. Are you kidding me!? It's a 99 cent app! It's not a full blown game for crying out loud. It's a buck, you don't deserve to "demand" or be upset about anything for that price (unless it's a truly awful app where they rip you off). But most of the time that's far from the case.
 
astrosaurus said:
Yeah, or the other thing I can't stand is people think you OWE THEM THE WORLD for a 99 cent app. I've seen countless times where people say "Would be worth it, but they need to add online multiplayer!" or something insane. Are you kidding me!? It's a 99 cent app! It's not a full blown game for crying out loud. It's a buck, you don't deserve to "demand" or be upset about anything for that price (unless it's a truly awful app where they rip you off). But most of the time that's far from the case.
Click to expand...

Agreed +1 +1 +1 +1!!! I'm so tired of "should be free" just because its not a 3D game with 4 levels of AI and 30+ hours of game play. Just because we only spent a month of man hours developing an app instead of a years worth of man hours, doesn't mean we should GIVE AWAY our hard work.
 
Jeremy1026 said:
Agreed +1 +1 +1 +1!!! I'm so tired of "should be free" just because its not a 3D game with 4 levels of AI and 30+ hours of game play. Just because we only spent a month of man hours developing an app instead of a years worth of man hours, doesn't mean we should GIVE AWAY our hard work.
Click to expand...

many folks have no understanding of what it takes to write applications. it's just ignorance..just have to try and educate them (from their perspective they think it's simple because they don't know the inner workings). generally, i agree though :)
 
Jeremy1026 said:
Agreed +1 +1 +1 +1!!! I'm so tired of "should be free" just because its not a 3D game with 4 levels of AI and 30+ hours of game play. Just because we only spent a month of man hours developing an app instead of a years worth of man hours, doesn't mean we should GIVE AWAY our hard work.
Click to expand...

It's the same folks who would then give that free app one star. Ever notice how some developers temporarily drop their app to free, so they'll get more positive reviews, and then the ratings drop in average! Sometimes the more you pay, the higher the rankings (I think it's because you don't drop $5+ without consideration, but people spend $.99 without reading a description. Check out iSkate for an example. Just search for skateboard and see what people buy, thinking they're getting 'touchgrind'!)

Jeremy, iDice still gives me lots of value for the small price I paid. And I use the Mac version too! Keep up the good work.
 
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