Thanks for your prompt message.
A) I tried to be fair by mentioning the product looks good, I didn’t point out that I didn’t have a proper look but that it promising on first impressions. I also pointed out, to be equally fair that the reviews shown are likely stemming from the promise of a free gift rather than proper plugin evaluation. It’s a matter of ethics. How can someone trust a company called ‘Trust Index’ if the reviews are obtained via reward. I’ll point out Amazon has been known to ban sellers for such review practices and its against their policy. It’s called customer manipulation reviews and on their marketplace and others such as such Etsy it is banned because I know these marketplaces aren’t relevant here but its to show you I am not the only one who doesn’t like customer manipulated reviews.
B)The wording, although perhaps not intended did come across as harsh. ‘Do not’ is aggressive and is a command.
C) I understand you need to obtain reviews for social proof but I will give you the example of my customer experience. After I signed up and saw that I needed to jump through all these hoops for a trial I began to worry about my personal data and quickly made sure all links via my Facebook page were removed, because trust was broken.
On closer inspection I dont think there was any worry with privacy data but the doubt was planted by manipulated reviews.
I started to double-guess all the 5 stars reviews I read that lead me to download the plugin, not knowing if they were legitimate or someone just wanted pro features. I felt duped.
If the offer was my email address or even signing up in exchange for a free trial I wouldnt have cared. Its adding the review into the mix that’s problematic.
I will delete this review tomorrow as I don’t want to hinder a small business, I just wanted to express my point-of-view.