Twice in the last couple months I have run into some really shady agencies in NJ -- the kind of thing this site is designed to prevent, right?  I would gladly name the agencies by name, but I suspect the moderator would delete that.

In any event, to give you an idea of just how shady, one agency used a motel where there was a recent shooting, and the other agency just got completely busted.  Congrats.  Luckily I was not around for either debacle.  But so it is clear, we are not talking about places that might provide less than stellar service.  We are talking about agencies that are dangerously incompetent.

In each instance I wondered if these people could have been avoided in hindsight -- that is, did I not read the reviews carefully enough.  To some extent, the answer was yes.  (When searching for reviews, it's probably a good idea to NOT exclude bad websites.  That's where some of the problems were found.)  And yet the agencies both got a number of decent reviews.  Some really bad ones, too, which should have raised flags, but still a lot of decent reviews.

So what's going on?  When I checked the reviewers in greater detail, I found some interesting things.  Like reviewers who claim to have seen dozens of providers, and who always, always gave ratings 7 and above.  Or reviewers who gave outstanding reviews for a provider who never had a review from anyone else.  Or a provider whose other reviews uniformly were mediocre.  Or a provider who has been completely delisted.

In other words, all of the telltale signs of reviewers who seem to be deliberately submitting bogus reviews on a regular basis.  Again, I'd be more than happy to identify these guys by name, but I suspect it would be deleted by the moderator.

Guys -- what are you getting by posting false reviews?  VIP points?  Are you really that pathetic?  TER is pretty inexpensive as it is; do you really need to post false reviews to maintain your status?  Are you doing this to win "favors" with a provider (ick!)?  Or do you just so utterly lack standards that everything is the same to you?  Are you one of those guys that buys wine based on the price?!?

I do not know what the problem is, but it mucks up the situation in New Jersey.  The whole point of this site is to give honest and meaningful feedback -- and that requires telling the truth!  Shading the truth -- for any reason -- undermines the entire purpose of the site.  It's unfair to your fellow hobbyists, who are relying on your honest reports.  It's also unfair to the providers, incidentally, who are working hard to provide a decent service, because in the end we cannot distinguish the honest from the false if everyone gets a rating of 8 or 9.  Some providers really do deserve a 7, 8, or 10 -- and some do not.  The ones who don't should get lower scores, or you are effectively unfairly scoring the deserving providers.

I don't know if this is a common problem in other areas, but in NJ I very quickly ran into 2 agencies that bordered on being complete scams, yet had fine reviews from several hobbyists.  I'm not talking about YMMV -- I am talking about lies.

If other honest hobbyists in the NJ/NY area are willing to do so, I would appreciate sharing info about likely bogus reviewers and scamming agencies.  The place that just got busted really gave me pause.  It's the kind of place we all should have gotten fair warning about on this site (i.e., that they were an unreliable and unstrustworthy agency to begin with).   If the reviewers cannot be trusted, then those of us who are going to be straight with each other should communicate UTR via private email.