xxzxxi Posted May 18, 2018 Posted May 18, 2018 This is largely concerning GNG, a clinic I was actually really sold on until recent botches have come to light Some reviews seem genuinely supportive of the company and have before and afters. They are convincing. I'm just wondering what are your standout tips for spotting a fake review? I'm pretty new to the forum and the search didn't show much. Thanks!
ririna Posted May 18, 2018 Posted May 18, 2018 Okay, since I've been worried about the exact same thing lately, let me tell you some of what I've learned: Promotional reviews are usually those where the clinic gives a discount to a customer in order for them to write review(s), as well as share their photos and/or videos for the clinic's use. This essentially allows the clinic to promote themselves to a wider amount of people (usually foreigners). In GNG's case, in the past year they've ramped up their game tenfold and issued a LOT of promotional reviews, which is why they got so much attention on here. You can usually tell if they are promotional reviews if you just check the clinic's Instagram or blog pages and on their YouTube, and see if they have pictures of the same person as in the review. Now, the reviews themselves being promotional doesn't necessarily make them innately dishonest/ bad. Of course, most people wouldn't write a super positive review on a clinic if they didn't quite get the results/ treatment they expected, even if they got a discount (like in the case of pspi, who went to GNG). But what is more concerning is the fact that a clinic like GNG is putting so much effort into promoting themselves. Because, if a ps clinic is giving out promtional discounts left and right and targeting them hard to foreigners, you have to wonder; are they doing this because they're not getting enough patients in Korea? Because if so, it puts a lot of things into perspective. Places like ID clinic do this exact same thing, marketing hard to foreigners who don't know any better because the people who actually live in Korea won't dare go to them. (I'm not comparing GNG to ID necessarily, but you get my point.) The worry is that non-promotional and non-sponsored patients will get less good of a treatment, because the clinic doesn't need to use their photos for publicity and so the patient has less power over them in a sense. This was the case for that poor girl who got a botched nose job recently at GNG and did not have a publicized surgery. Also side note-- even if the person shares pics of themselves, know that it still might just be someone from the clinic writing that post. This was the case for this View review here, where the person writing the review wrote as if she had just recently had the surgery, and was even writing monthly "updates" as well. It was proven that the reviewer was fake since the girl in the picture's surgery actually happened years prior, in 2015:# Okay, so what I'm saying is essentially this: Cross-reference every review you see. Check the clinic's website and all their social media, check dates, and most importantly, message people! Not every promotional review is fake. This way, you can get a little more insight on them, hear their story, get more pics, etc. Honestly speaking -- it still is a huge worry of mine, trying to filter each review I see and recognize which ones are reliable/ trustworthy and which are written by shills/ those working for the clinic. So, if others have more to add on this, please do!
danbam Posted May 18, 2018 Posted May 18, 2018 Yeah it’s a large problem regarding transparency, and even I was drawn on in on the glowing reviews. You’re already aware so that’s a great first step, but regarding a lot of sponsored reviews, I’ve noticed a lot having similar and repetitive structures. Often the reviewer won’t be overtly explicit which tends to throw a lot of people off as it doesn’t seem like an advertisement (we don’t take too kindly to those lol). As Ririna expertly says, look on the clinics sites, talk to others on the blogs, check other forums other than purseforum and ALWAYS STICK WITH YOUR GUT. If the situation just feels the least bit shady, just run for the hills. However be open to listen to every one, and just take the information with a grain of salt!
nochu Posted May 18, 2018 Posted May 18, 2018 The simple & possibly unpopular answer is: don’t worry about it. Being concerned about “fake reviews” can easily lead to paranoia and your research more difficult. I’m thankful this forum has not turned into a witch hunt for promotional reviews, but sometimes it seems it could go that way. I came to tpf to read first hand experiences from prior patients. If patients don’t feel comfortable writing reviews here due to backlash from getting a discount, the forum loses a lot of value. As a clinic hits a wave of popularity, both positive and negative experiences come up. Neither one are guarantees an individual’s own experience will be positive/negative, and the existence of bad experiences doesn’t mean the positive ones are lies. The posts here should be treated like any other business review on Yelp, Google, etc. People use them as a one part in a holistic research process. No reasonable person is basing surgery decisions on a couple reviews alone, so I see no harm in posts from patients who received discounts. And by the way, not everyone who has a picture in a gallery or clinic website is “sponsored” to write reviews. Granting a license to use photos, posting an online business review, etc are not conclusive of that. Some people just really do vlog/blog everything, or love to share their opinion. When I got my surgery years ago, I ok’ed the posting of my photos as I didn’t care about it. Recently I didn’t feel comfortable with it anymore and asked the clinic to take it down, which they did.
rosalind66 Posted May 18, 2018 Posted May 18, 2018 same here, I am also very concerned of being mislead by sponsored reviews during research. here are some things I have noticed so far about sponsored reviews; no one will ever take initiative to post pictures on PF when nobody has asked them beforehand. even if someone asked for pics, people will usually decline to post the pics on an open thread, they would prefer to send it via PM. so if out of the blue somebody posted a review complete with pics, that is a sign. besides that, sponsored reviews usually use overly positive language. their experience is absolutely perfect, the doctors, staff, facilities, after care, results etc is a perfect 10. I mean, realistically speaking perfect clinics don't exist. no offense but usually promoters seem to be not so good in English? I observed that they use very basic vocabulary and tend to not discuss surgical methodology. they would rather speak about the emotional part of surgery. other than that, some promoters try to suggest a clinic on unrelated threads (threads that are not about that clinic). actually sponsored reviews are not necessarily fake. but naturally they will omit anything unsatisfactory about the doctor and clinic, therefore they are not a reliable source for research. having said that, I might not know any other hints of a promoter myself. if someone here has additional advice, please do share your wisdom!
californiarollin1992 Posted May 19, 2018 Posted May 19, 2018 I agree with most of what you said, but I don't think reviews with pictures necessarily indicates sponsorship. Some may discount reviews that do not include photographs--though it's completely understandable why someone wouldn't post them--because often times, members are also suspicious if all they see are words describing one's subjective experience but no evidence of a positive outcome (even if you offer to share through private message, I feel as if the more suspicious members who are not interested enough in the clinic to PM may just assume you are hiding something). I had a low budget so I offered every clinic I visited B/A photos, reviews, etc. in exchange for a discount. I ultimately decided on GNG, and even though I agreed to post reviews, ergo promotional material, there was no stipulation stating that I had to share my photos (I did censor the other parts of my face in the photos I did share though lol), so my posting them actually had nothing to do with the deal, just like the absence of photos in a post wouldn't make it more likely to be unsponsored. Also, sharing photos over and over again through PM is more inconvenient, and I feel like some will gloss over reviews/not go out of their way to request photos from a user if they are are lurkers, new here, or just beginning their search with a general survey (that was my experience, at least).
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