Issue with broker reviews. FPA members, share your views and vote!

If a broker review only praises a good employee and gives no details about trading...

  • The FPA should delete the review since it is not helpful

    Votes: 99 88.4%
  • The FPA should approve the review

    Votes: 13 11.6%

  • Total voters
    112
  • Poll closed .

AsstModerator

FPA Forums and Reviews Admin
Messages
5,739
Hello everyone,

There's been a growing issue in the reviews. Like most issues, it started small. One or two brokers got a few reviews of this type, so there wasn't any need to make a decision. The number of brokers and reviews involved keeps growing.


Some Examples

There have been a number of reviews like this...

My Account Manager Jack Howard is awesome. I've been with 4 other brokers and talked to their AM but John is the only one who really guided me on which direction to take,

Customer support service of this broker is very professional. I would like to mention of Alvin Corman for his patience, excellent service.


Jack Howard is my account Manager & he guide me throughout the journey! He is doing a great job in respond my questions & email.. I m glad to have him!

The chat service was excellent, providing clear and concise answers. I will be opening an account later today.

waiters.jpg

Great waiters, but how's the food?


Why I think the FPA should reject these reviews

To make my point, I'm going to make a small change to these reviews. Imagine of these "great account managers" were instead "great waiters". Now the reviews would say...

My waiter Jack Howard is awesome. I've been to 4 other restaurants and talked to their waiters but John is the only one who really guided me on which food to order.

Customer support service of this restaurant is very professional. I would like to mention of Alvin Corman for his patience, excellent service.


Jack Howard is my waiter & he guide me throughout the journey! He is doing a great job in respond my questions & email.. I m glad to have him!

The chat service was excellent, providing clear and concise answers. I will be ordering some food later today.


A restaurant is primarily about the food, A terrible waiter might be enough reason to not eat at a restaurant, but a great waiter does not insure good food at good prices. A great waiter doesn't prevent the cashier from trying to overcharge you or make extra transactions on your credit card.

If the reviews also included some information on the product (broker services or food), then I would have no problem approving them. Instead, they don't even give enough information to know if the customer has ever placed a single trade or eaten a single bite of food.

Would you trust 5 star restaurant reviews which don't mention the food? Would you trust 5 star broker reviews which say nothing about trading?

MoldyTomatoes.jpg

I left a 5 star review and then my great waiter brought the salad.


What some of the brokers are saying

From one broker representative I recently corresponded with...

Thanks for the analogy. On the contrary, if I went to a restaurant and was treated with a professional, informed and proactive waiter/waitress it would be a breath of fresh air and tell me instantly many things about the restaurant:

1. The company cares about its diners and therefore provides them with exceptional service

2. The company cares about its staff and provides them with training and encourages self progression

3. Since the company does these things, it automatically suggests that they care about every aspect of their business, including the quality of the products they offer


And from another about a one star review mentioning an inactivity fee...

Does It mean that because a client isn’t happy with the inactivity fee that the whole company deserves 1 star? Your logic must apply to both ends of the spectrum.


Why I think these brokers are wrong

In my opinion, "Wow, my account manager is good at providing advice" or even "Their live chat is great!" does not really help anyone in deciding if they should join a broker. A new client may get a different account manager or chat agent. Until a client actually tests at least some broker functions, the helpfulness of the account manager really does not provide any useful advice about whether a broker has good executions or will steal from a client. Some scam brokers have had very friendly account managers, who did all they could to get the clients to deposit. When the time came to withdraw, those account managers stopped being helpful.

If the FPA continues to allow the ability of an account manager or chat agent to answer questions to be the sole information for a 5 star review, I have some simple questions for any broker with reviews like this...

If the great account manager moves to one of your competitors, will you mind if I move that account manager's reviews over to the competitor's review page?

If the account manager quits, will you inform me immediately so that I can remove those reviews from your review page?

Regarding the 1 star over an inactivity fee, my view is very simple. Imagine a restaurant with a great waiter and great food, but you believe the cashier deliberately short changed you. Are you going to give them a mixed review and send people there, or are you going to warn others about what you believe is a scam. This applies double to brokers, since they are financial institutions. If a client believes there is some sort of unfair removal of money from an account, any good points of the company no longer matter. In some cases, the client may be incorrect about whether a company's actions were unfair. In this example, the fee is disclosed on the website, but the client felt misinformed. I can say that I had such a fee charged to one of my accounts at a different broker and I was give multiple warnings before it happened. I do not know how hard this broker worked to warn the client. I do know that reviews are opinions and this client's pinion is that he was ripped off. Allowing companies to append comments to reviews to try to help fix misunderstandings is the FPA's approach to dealing with disagreements like this.

If our company has excellent account managers that work hard and give clients great service then that’s the impression clients have of the company as a whole. They are the face of the company.

Many clients who signed up with brokers had good initial impressions of their account managers, only to find that trading conditions were not so great and withdrawals were hard to get. Many clients who signed up with scam brokers did so because of friendly account managers who talked them into depositing money that could never be withdrawn.

MoldyBread.jpg

I thought he was a great waiter, but why did he serve me rotted food?

Since I took over the FPA's reviews in 2008, I've been working to increase the usefulness and quality of the reviews. I believe these "Great Waiter" type reviews are generally of low quality and provide little or no useful information to anyone considering whether or not they should open an account with a broker. These rate up there with a 5 star review which came in based solely on the broker having a nice website from someone who had not opened an account yet.


What's your opinion?

I believe the FPA should stop accepting reviews like this, but some brokers disagree. The reviewers who write these "Great Waiter" reviews also disagree.

Maybe I'm wrong and most FPA readers would love to see one person who can answer questions of new clients be able to increase a broker's ratings, even if many of those clients haven't traded yet.

I want to hear what FPA members think. I'm inviting everyone with a forums account, including company reps, to vote on this issue and to give their opinion.
 
I guess our main focus like trader is the fair , unbiased and technology performance of the broker , a good service is a very helpful but we have to remember something: the people working with the broker are paid to do their job. If you don't have real account with a broker I guess it's better to wait until you have one to do reviews.
 
In any academic discipline the most important starting point is asking the right question. If you ask a wrong question then you get a wrong answer. Similarly, by tilting the premise of the question you try, knowingly or not, to get the result you favor. The FPA reviews are a mix of professional social engineers efforts to comply with their master's voice, and genuine grievances of victims. When I see a review that is praising and kissing up, I ignore and move on. I'm sure other readers do the same.
 
What good is the world's greatest account manager, support tech, or live chat agent if the broker has bad hardware or is run incompetently?

I've had some really good waiters and waitresses whose skill was wasted in restaurants that served terrible meals.

Reviewers can and should praise good staff, but they should also include something about the product itself it they want their reviews to be approved.

On the other side, if a waiter is terrible, then it may not matter how good the might be.



There was one really great waiter I had. His name was Gaston, and he had an amazing personal story about why he became a waiter. The food was also incredible.



I was ready to give 5 stars, but after the maitre d exploded a customer at another table, I ended up rating the restaurant as only 3 stars. :D
 
I am concerned with 2 things, is the broker regulated and how difficult is the withdrawal process. I have researched a great number of brokers and websites, so called platforms and through my research, I have noticed that the majority of withdrawal and scam related issues have been through platforms and brokers without any sort of regulatory oversight. For this reason, I do not trust any review that only talks about account managers. If you are not regulated, how are you protecting my investment and how long does it take to withdraw from my account. Lastly, how does your bonus plan affect the withdrawal process. These are the questions i ask when I get those annoying phone calls as soon as I press enter as I am surveying a website.
 
Perhaps on broker reviews you could provide a basic review list of what people are reviewing. Reviewers could rate specific things they are reviewing like: Ease of Use, Regulated, Deposits, Withdrawals, Trade Execution, Spreads, Customer Service, Problem Resolution, etc. then the reviewer give the broker a grade or star number on each point. I understand it would be a bit of work on the website back end but once set up it should work fine. Also provide a traditional text box for added comments. Or the reviewers could be prompted to broaden their review to include these topics. FPA is a great community and you do the world of FX trading a great service!

Customer service does definately count for something! but it is not the only thing that counts and a broker with many 5 star reviews just on customer service can skew the average results. A problem if potential clients are only looking at the stars and not reading the reviews. This type of gaming the system should not be allowed. Though I am not sure how to suggest stopping it.

Perhaps since the reviewer is rating the customer service of an individual the 1-5 star capability could be removed from the review so as to not skew the average of the star results, but leaves the positive review visible? This is not a perfect solution though...
 
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So far I think the reviews here simply rock.

But what is worrying: how are brokers that had a bad review ever going to clear their name completely? This is just disturbing. Correct me if I'm wrong but everyone likes a broker that has gained 5 star trust and did not change his name. Less so if there was. And someone seriously looking for information can see the broker's reply. If it was in the terms and conditions it wasn't a fault.

To really say if a broker is a good one, it takes time and experience.

In a way reviews here are just right. But I miss an agreeable (so also doable in every way for brokers, this site and reviewers) to become 5 star with a clear reputation. Without anything even being deleted.

Anyway, I have several brokers but in one case it seems a relatively small amount of money is missing in a non-unstable way and in another it wasn't the best review. But if everything stays acceptable there is no problem relatively.
 
I could say only about 10trading.com most difficult thing is withdrawal they are not explain about any investment they need they asking they requesting $5000 deposit" we will give you after 3 hours $4000 profit " do not believe 10trading is real thieves broker Tyler o'grady and Paul William stay a way from 10trading.com I believe 10trading.com whole website is fake I hope Uk government should investigate about them they are spoiling whole country reputation I basically believe in UK thieves could not continue trading under this way UK Government should take action against 10trading.com
 
But what is worrying: how are brokers that had a bad review ever going to clear their name completely? This is just disturbing. Correct me if I'm wrong but everyone likes a broker that has gained 5 star trust and did not change his name. Less so if there was. And someone seriously looking for information can see the broker's reply. If it was in the terms and conditions it wasn't a fault.

Because of many companies blackmailing traders into hiding negative reviews, the FPA was forced to implement a no-removals policy years ago. Two things help to balance this...

1. The reviewer can always leave a followup review if the situation improves. The old review is nested beneath the new one and only the new rating counts.

2. Companies are encouraged to submit replied which attach directly to reviews. If the company and the reviewer each insist the other is wrong, the FPA leaves it to readers to judge. The FPA does not have the ability to force brokers to open their accounting books and server logs. Only regulators and law enforcement agencies can do that.

All of this is separate from the question about whether "great waiter" type reviews should be approved. I believe those reviews are useless and potentially misleading.
 
On the surface, it would seem good to see a positive note on a broker, but, and a big but, could some of these positive reviews of the brokers be doctored by the brokers themselves?? It would be good if the reviewer said also
what the spread, slippage etc., is of that broker to back up his review.
 
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