Aveling Homes Product Reviews

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To Our Valued Customers

The origins of our review website
In 2014 we decided to launch avelinghomesproductreviews.com.au to display the feedback that we had received from our own customers.
At the time, Aveling Homes was concerned that external review websites were allowing businesses to offer incentives in exchange for customer reviews.
The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) stated in their 2013 Online Reviews Guide the following- "The ACCC recognises the potential for incentives to cause biased reviews, inflating review results and misleading consumers in some circumstances"
It was our opposition to the incentivising of customer reviews that led to the development of avelinghomesproductreviews.com.au.
Background to the ACCC proceedings
In March 2017 Aveling Homes Pty Ltd had proceedings brought against it by the ACCC with respect to its two company owned customer review websites.
The proceedings related to the period January 2016 and about November 2016.
The two company owned review websites published “actual” reviews from "actual" clients of Aveling Homes Pty Ltd. (Aveling Homes and First Home Owners Centre review websites)
The proceedings had absolutely nothing to do with the issue of "fake" reviews or “fake review websites”. Unfortunately the issue was misreported by several media outlets as they did not truly understand the issue at hand.
One of those leading media outlets thankfully corrected their article around 8 months after their original article was published.
Who made the complaint
The issue all began when a private NSW based company called Product Review Pty Ltd who owned and operated a consumer review website called productreview.com.au contacted the ACCC in 2016 to lodge an issue with respect to the Aveling Homes Pty Ltd customer review websites. The source of the complaint is a matter of public record.
What did the ACCC claim following the investigation
In short, the issue raised by Product Review Pty Ltd led to an investigation by the ACCC after which time the ACCC made the determination that during the periods January 2016 and about November 2016 that the two Aveling Homes Pty Ltd review websites;
- a) Represented to consumers that each of the Review Websites was affiliated or connected with www.productreview.com.au ;
- b) Represented to consumers that each of the Review Websites was independent of Aveling Homes Pty Ltd;
- c) Conveyed the impression by the overall star rating and the reviews published on the Aveling Homes Pty Ltd review websites that
  the reviews were not more favourable towards Aveling’s products and services than would have been the case if all reviews received by Aveling Homes Pty Ltd were published.
Our defence
Our defence was simple. Both of our review websites featured our registered company names in the domain names, both review websites featured our company logos and both review websites clearly stated on each page of the websites that the websites and their content were copyrighted to Aveling Homes Pty Ltd.
It is for these reasons that we believed that the consumer would have understood that the review websites were owned and operated by Aveling Homes Pty Ltd and thus we based our defence on such a belief.
With respect to point "C" above Aveling Homes Pty Ltd accepts that it had not published at least 133 customer reviews on the avelinghomesproductreviews.com.au website, 45 of these reviews were less than 3 stars and at least 88 were 3 stars or more. The omission of the reviews meant that our overall star rating appeared as 4.5 stars out of 5.0 when it should have been 4.2 stars out of 5.0.
The outcome
Aveling Homes Pty Ltd lost and we subsequently learnt an expensive legal lesson.
Unfortunately, prior to November 2016, it was not clear enough that the two customer review websites:
- (a) were owned and operated by Aveling Homes Pty Ltd; and
- (b) were not connected to productreview.com.au
In late 2016, Aveling Homes Pty Ltd made changes to the two customer review websites to make it clearer that the customer review websites:
- (a) were owned and operated by Aveling Homes Pty Ltd; and
- (b) were not connected to the independent review website, productreview.com.au
Clearly, we are now one of the more consumer educated builders in Western Australia.
What now
We no longer have two review websites. The review website belonging to the First Home Owners Centre ceased to exist when that trading name merged with the “master” brand Aveling Homes.
The avelinghomesproductreviews.com.au website continues to operate and features over 750 reviews from valued Aveling clients.
The First Home Owners Centre recommenced trading in April 2019. Whilst the main https://www.firsthomeownerscentre.com.au/ has been reinstated the previous review site has not been reinstated, however a sample of positive customer reviews does appear on https://www.firsthomeownerscentre.com.au/. These sample reviews represent some positive reviews provided by customers and do not represent all reviews.
Aveling Homes Pty Ltd remains committed to providing the consumer with a transparent experience.

View official website

Aveling Homes

4

from 807 reviews

avelinghomesproductreviews.com.au, which is wholly owned and operated by Aveling Homes Pty Ltd, displays the official customer handover reviews that have been received by Aveling Homes Pty Ltd since January 2014.We decided to establish this review website for our customers as we strongly oppose review websites that allow people to be paid incentives in exchange for their reviews. As the ACCC says “The ACCC recognises the potential for incentives to cause biased reviews, inflating review results and misleading consumers in some circumstances”: ACCC Online Reviews Guide-November 2013.

Aveling Homes is proud to say that no review on this website has been received due to a financial incentive.

Any official customer handover review form that did not have an option for the customer to provide an overall rating of Aveling Homes Pty Ltd has not been published. Some clients may specifically request that we do not publish their official customer handover review. If a client makes such a request then we will not publish their handover review. Aveling Homes Pty Ltd will keep a copy of such requests. Prior to January 2014 Aveling Homes Pty Ltd did not conduct official handover reviews. Aveling Homes Pty Ltd has verified that all published reviews are those of actual clients. Aveling Homes Pty Ltd confirms that no review has been altered prior to publication except for the removal of employee and sales agents names in order to protect their privacy (this accounts for the underlined spaces in some reviews).avelinghomesproductreviews.com.au is not associated with productreview.com.au. On the 1st of February 2017 Aveling Homes Pty Ltd consolidated its various trading names and as a result of this decision avelinghomesproductreviews.com.au now includes official customer handover reviews from the First Home Owners Centre and Aveling Developments. Building contracts for all reviews on this website were signed with Aveling Homes Pty Ltd. Aveling Homes possesses a copy of each of these client reviews. Some customers have opted to provide a star rating only without a supporting comment.

reviewed on November 12, 2019

Jannette & Steve McKeig

Contract Number: 12867

We are extremely satisfied. From the beginning to hand over we were kept up with every stage of the build. All our questions were answered to our satisfaction. From beginning to end we were carried along in a very professional manner.