OK now I have to speak up, as this is the 2nd time this topic has been brought up in the past 2 weeks. Victoria, I read your post last week about the inconsistent review/rating. I had so many things I wanted to elaborate upon it, but I decided to keep my mouth shut since my tact (or lack thereof!) can sometimes end up haunting me, besides the possibility of irritating the mods. Though now I can't help but comment on some of what you & Angelique have made as great points, & likewise share my view of perception.
I remember that feeling I got upon receiving my first 'less than perfect' review scoring (other boards use different scoring scales than TER, making it possible to receive a perfect score). It was this guy's 1st ASP encounter (therefor, obviously his 1st review nonetheless), & I knew he had a wonderful time, as so did I. Now I went out of my way/over & above normal protocol to accommodate this guy b/c he was hesitant to go through with the session, so I made an exception for him & spent an hour talking to him for comfort. Knowing it could end up a waste of time b/c he could decide to walk out the door at any minute, 2 hours later, he left with a smile on his face & received quite the bargain for an hour of rates. The next day the review was shy of perfect b/c he marked me lower for atmosphere! WT... ? Are you kidding me? I have not & will not ever have an I/C if anything is out of place AND I receive nothing but compliments on the decorating schema & craftsmanship of my residence, while at night candles & incense are going for extra ambiance & this guy wants to take off points b/c he's not in the Taj Mahal? I do recall he kept mentioning how wealthy he was, while raised as poor, & I guess he was just snubbing me.
My point sides with what TylerDurden said in response to Victoria's post last week about how guys have different rating ideals. This is obvious & can have quite the impact. Then, as cdfix stated, he won't give reviews unless he can score them an 8 or higher b/c he is concerned about possible repercussions on the girl's service. Now I thought that was really very apathetic of cdfix, I mean, what a cool Hobbyist to actually care even if he had a so-so time... until I read Pinchi's response on how unfair that is b/c now the reason for ever posting reviews in the 1st place, has been lost. So, while cdfix's gesture is nice, Pinchi's argument is the valid 1, b/c like it or not for us Providers, the whole initial purpose of reviews was to aid in the prevention of Hobbyists getting ripped off.
Fine. But that still doesn't make up for the fact that each Hobbyist has a different cognition regarding the scale spectrum. And not to offend, but I don't think many of them give a damn if they even do realize the effects it will cause for her business.
Likewise, there are the totally fake reviews, as Victoria mentions. One guy tried this crap on me several months back on another board & I got him kicked off. I hadn't even met this jerk who was mad b/c I refused to see him b/c he gave me the creeps & we had only corresponded via site email. And no, it wasn't Somerandomguy12, but he's probably here on this board right now reading this LONG reply. :o
Lastly, there are the exaggerated reviews that contain untrue claims in favor of the Provider to make the author look more Alpha among the other board reviewers, out of competitiveness. It's a mere incident of one upping the other, even if they have to lie. There are a few reviews out there about me with claims that we did this & we did that... no we didn't! Are they forgetting that I was there & I would know? But when you can't edit or comment on your own reviews... !
If you want to know a more effective way to evaluate a Provider's service, I think it would entail one Hobbyist calling another, as a listed reference, & chatting about it, asking the appropriate concerns & getting better explicit details. However, this has its glitches too, b/c there lies an array of possibilities for the callee to lie to the caller, both in her favor & vice-versa. So what can you do?