Feedback. Companies ask for it all the time. People look to reviews on websites. Everyone wants feedback these days, especially after services have been rendered.

But, in my experience, people don't want negative feedback. I just submitted a negative review to Homestars.com. It was published, and then the owner of the company got it removed. supposedly for rule violations. I say it did not violate any rules. I'm waiting for their reasons.

But thinking back, when we bought a new car years ago, the salesman handed us a forum to fill out, and told us to give him all 10s, otherwise, he could get fired. Similarly, other times we've provided feedback, you could tell that negative feedback would be unacceptable.

Then what the hell is feedback for?!?

I find that I can't trust feedback anymore. Yoou can't trust review sites, or reviews. If you publish a negative review, you never know if someone is going to have it quashed, or call their lawyer on you.

I'm aggressive against false claims, like what Jae recently did. But where I'm wrong, I like to think I want to know how I can improve. But feedback requests are rarely honest these days. They want positive feedback only.

After my Homestars review went public, the owner of the company called me to say, "F**k you." I'm not kidding. This company has all 10s on Homestars. You can't trust that site. He had my review deleted in less than 10 minutes. My appeal is taking hours, and I expect it will take days or weeks.

There's an alarm company called "Grand Alarms" in Vaughan, Ontario. It also goes by "Built-in Systems". Everyone I know thinks they are the most pushy salespeople ever. They have contracts with dozens of homebuilders to be the only alarm company allowed to wire your home while under constrution, then they charge you exhorbitant rates and fees. Their lawyers have threatened Internet forum owners, so that you won't even be allowed to post the name "Grand Alarms" in big forums like redflagdeals.com. Go ahead and try if you want, the software will censor the name, so they won't come up in Google searches. I don't know anyone who likes them.

But on Homestars, they have high ratings.

Similarly, the Better Business Bureau is a crock. I tried to help some people get refund from a pyramid scam years ago, and BBB reviews wouldn't stick around. The company managed to get them removed.

Don't trust feedback you can find. Even on the Internet. It's fluff.

If you want real feedback, you have to do it the old fashioned way. You have to talk to people. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.