I have been mostly a lurker on the board but am not new to the hobby.  I have had my doubts about the safety of the board after watching an interesting phenomenon....

I logged on to look after visiting a provider and having my single worst experience ever.  The kind that rips you off,takes your money when NO service was provided, and claims to be affiliated with LE to scare you.  

Interestingly enough, there were some very bad reviews on her--intermixed with some pretty good ones!  

She is still being reviewed on occasion, but ALL OF THE BAD REVIEWS FROM THE PAST ARE GONE.  

Makes one highly suspect of the accuracy of info on this site and wondering who really runs it?

Anyone able to provide an explanation as to why such very, VERY bad providers can have bad reviews wiped clean?

someone (usually the reviewee) will complain that the review was false, and state their case to management who will then make a judgement call on the question.  Sometimes they pull them and sometimes they don't

You mention that this gal had several bad reviews at the time you saw her.  I have to ask why you would take that risk?

In any case, it is an imperfect system, but I think the management does the best that they can.

If this is all true, it IS very disturbing.

The only thing I can think of is to try contacting TER Admin and explaining, in detail, what you wrote here.  If she is a well-established provider, you may have to build a strong case.  Do you have any provider references that can verify that you are an experienced hobbyist that providers trust?  That may help some.

Obviously, since you have not given any specifics here, we can only go by what you wrote.  If true, this kind of review manipulating could undermine the credibility of the TER database.

One bad review?  No big deal.
A few bad reviews?  Could be a problem.
Many bad reviews with LE undertones?  Major red flag!

Prospective clients NEED to see this kind of information.

If this happened as you've stated, I think you owe it to the TER community to post a review reflecting this experience with the provider as a rip off. If that ends up disappearing then there's some serious questions that need to be addressed.

Thanks for the responses.

To clarify, I discoverd TER AFTER I had a visit from this gal, only then did I see the bad reviews.  One of which appeared to be due to a similar experience as mine, although not being a full member I couldn't read the whole review.  

I'm a very occasional "hobbyist" these days, although as I mentioned I have seem providers off and on for a long time--and didn't trust anyone anymore after that experience.  

So I did not post a review.  Not sure if it's too late or not, it goes back 8 months or so.  

Just was thinking about it again and after poking around TER, found some gals I had seen before with reviews on the site.  All of those reviews--what I can see of them anyway--were pretty similar to my good experiences with them.  

Then I noticed the gal in question has reviews posted that all are fairly decent, and the bad reviews are gone.  Not due to them being too old either--good reviews can be found near and before the time I saw her, but the bad reviews I had seen months ago are gone.  

I think what I'll do is take the suggestion to contact the board to ask them that.  

To the person who suggested I posted reviews--I would but don't have contact info for them all anymore, and it appears that is required.  

But I'll ask about that too.  Some of the gals still advertising with reviews on this site were pretty good got me and I'd love to give them a plug.