Sham reviews are the rage in online trading these days. There was an entire episode on Radio 4 -Money Box on planted/sham online reviews. Maybe I should have called them about sham reviews on AW.
I thought about writing a full expose on my escapade in Southport ..but based on my experience it would have been a very disparaging one. It was just an awe full experience on so many levels....but going into specifics would have only been sharing details of an distasteful experience.
Also I feel sorry for hitting below belt on the livelihood of a WG. Maybe this is an internal dilemma of mine which I have to resolve for writing reviews on UKPunt.
Yes, it might be disparaging and distasteful to go over it again (although some people find it cathartic) but more detail about what happened would be undeniably helpful and certainly sway those who might otherwise read your review and still be tempted to give her a shot because they don't know exactly how or why she was bad.
There's no reason to feel sorry for them at all, they promise a certain appearance and level of service but don't deliver it so there's absolutely no excuse for them to still take your money (full price).
An honest and accurate negative review is in no way hitting them below the belt (which surely wouldn't hurt them anyway
). You also have to consider how helpful it is to punters who work hard for their money, might not have a lot of it and certainly don't deserve to be ripped off. A dishonest or crap WG does not automatically deserve an income. The same applies to any person in business.
As you say, it's an internal dilemma for you to hopefully get over. Reviews on here are solely for the purpose of helping other punters to make more informed decisions. They are not for promoting or damaging anyone's business, even though that often the effect that it has. That effect though, is entirely the fault of the WG.