And CW/CompassRock is being very open about it. On May 15, they promoted on their StuyTown Facebook the "Community Rewards game," which offers prizes for generating points. Spreading the word on social media generates points....
"Community Rewards" is set up by a Texas company called Modern Message. Here are some of the perks Modern Message offers companies that set up an account with them (click on graphic to make larger):
As you see, Yelp is listed.
Also note when CW/CompassRock posted their Facebook message about Community Rewards: May 15. On May 16, a wave of positive reviews started being posted on Yelp.
Hmm... "Negative reviews slowing you down?"....
I wonder how Yelp will feel about their reviews being part of a "rewards" program that offers prizes as an incentive?
53 comments:
Idiots. Yelp discourages this and their software will notice and bury them.
https://biz.yelp.com/support/review_solicitation
Did none of these ass hats do any research?
I would think this a Yelp no-no, but Modern Message could defend the program as not compelling users to write positive reviews. In other words, a user could provide a negative review. Of course, chances are very good that a user, eager to get points and win prizes, would not write a negative review. That's what Modern Message is banking on, as well as CW/CompassRock. But the use of a "reward system" clearly violates the intent of Yelp, which is to have reviews that are not encouraged by money or prizes.
Brilliant STR, uncovering yet another scam. Another scam and a very desperate one. If the property was so great they wouldn't need tricks and scams. Guess the old business model that innately garnered a 10 year wait list was a much more desirable and honest way of living.
IDIOTS for helping CW CompassRock Tishman Speyer Brookfield destroy the best middle class thing NYC had going for it! IDIOTS! IDIOTS! IDIOTS!
They so fucking desperate and sleazy.
Btw, check out a posting on the TA fb page. There. Is a handbook written for landlords who want to get rid of tenants. The writers give Tenant #1 - free market and Tenant #2 - rent stabilized and the different methods to utilize in getting them out. It can be a bit confusing reading until you realize that in their slobbering, orgasmic greed the writers start confusing Tenant #1 and Tenant #2!
Either way the fact that it's being publicized what they're dong should render all those perky comments useless. Report them to Yelp.
Everyone should report the reviews here's how http://www.yelp-support.com/article/Can-I-report-a-review-if-I-think-someone-paid-to-have-it-posted?l=en_US
I would think this is deceptive marketing.
YELP. you flag them people
flag the phony yelp reviews.
Everywhere I go, everybody I meet (and I get out and about a lot!) whenever I mention that I live in Stuyvesant Town they say they've heard about it and what they've heard is not good these days. Of course, I fill them in on some of the gory details and advise them to tell their friends and acquaintances.
CompassRock "advertises" (payoff) on Yelp
Now this is what it looks like when someone fights to protect the integrity of a property.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/nyregion/landmarks-panel-rejects-changes-to-four-seasons-restaurant.html?_r=0
Now before the TA and pol trolls get all defensive and literal - fighting to protect the integrity of a space can be done without the landmark preservation designation. There are ways that at the very least official actionable attempts to protect the integrity of the PCV ST make up in both working class community and land configuration could have been fought for but there are no records of the TA or pols fighting to protect us. Only records of lip service to do so with no follow up actions. Well except the actions to pave the way for CompassRock by the TA's and pol's inactions and phony forums. That is why we did not go to the phony door knocking stunt.
We wouldn't have the current guys fight for us because we deserve better fighters in our corner who stand up for us with their actions and not just their hollow words or even worse their pretending to fight for tenants when they are making back room deals to replace us with new stabilizers and pave the way for permits to commercialize.
Didn't someone post a link to an article about how this property was designed by one of the first black architects to do something of this size and wouldn't that have been a terrific argument to have at least tried.
Thx 7:50. If PCV ST were a wealthy community instead of a working class community there is no doubting the local politicians would have fought hard and won the fight to preserve PCV ST without having to rally or protest or send post cards. Can you imagine the politicians telling Spinola or Banks or Dimon to have their members/employees send postcards with their demands and needs? If Spinol wanted a law written or a loophole opened or closed to have all their members send post cards instead of directly calling Schumer, Maloney, Garodnick or Cuomo? Or telling them to call 311 with their complaints? Fact is the pols would have done a lot more if this was a wealthy community that needed protecting or was even inconvenienced in the slightest way.
Maybe that is the biggest problem causer -- all our politicians are millionaires and / or from very wealthy families so all they know how to handle are the problems of the rich and the tired, old programs to help the poor (which have proven not to work but have been used by politicians for decades). They don't know how to handle the middle class problems - many problems the politicians created. We need middle working class people in positions of leadership because putting Goldman Sachs in charge of housing, BlackRock in charge of Tenant Protections and middle working class lives in the hands of millionaire politicians has proven detrimental - a predictable no brainer conclusion.
If WE know this place sucks, then THEY know it as well. Just this morning I observed an outside garbage can overflowed with tenant garbage, surrounded by it as well.
It looked like a land fill.No kidding! It is absolutely disgusting around here,horrible.
Where is the T.A. addressing this to management?
We never, NEVER had outside overflowing garbage cans prior to the Speyer scam. Not once in my decades of living here.
CompassRock has increased the amount of garbage, wasted energy, and carbon footprint of Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town, destroying the environment is not OK.
It's amazing how they do not care about the images around here.
Oh wait. How could they? They are sailing on their luxury yachts right now!
Unnecessary construction that sucks up energy that nobody wants
These idiotic construction development decisions are being made by our government everyday despite wise people saying "No" at the expense of taxpayer dollars.
$36million Boondoggle HQ Unwanted, Unneeded, Unused
May 20, 2015
Military Bungled 64K; Training Needed In Not Wasting Taxpayer Money
That money and many other similar instances could be put to better use assisting our vets here. Or subsidizing homes for them in PCVST. Or anything would be better than the construction that reaped profits for developers at the taxpayers expense.
Its a good quick short article. Reminds me of the unnecessary bunker built here because they wanted to increase the business atmosphere and decrease the residential atmosphere. But the excuse (lie) was once we are on location management will be able to better serve residents. Management services did not get better. They just got "nice" offices where there once was Open Space Park.
Real estate development is completely void of wisdom.
For partying, drunken lewd acts, noise complaints by students, available 24 hours a day 7 days a week
Tera Nakata
Residence Hall Director
Phone: 212-998-4971
Email: tn24@nyu.edu
Olga Sanchez-Eltell
Resource Manager
Phone: 212-998-4210
Email:obs200@nyu.edu
AND
call 311 to file Noise complaint and give names of people making the noise.
http://www.nyu.edu/life/living-at-nyu/on-campus-living/explore-the-residencehalls/grad-halls.html
If NYU college kids are keeping up your kids let the Resident Hall Professional Staff know. Here to serve you 24/7
Oh seriously. Those are obviously fake reviews. It even looks like they are cut, paste, copied, scripted.
wow this is pretty bad
Is CompassRock so confident nobody will hold them accountable for their crimes they have become this outrageously out in the open? What is going on in this city?!
Agree these are desperate marketing tricks. The more I read on what all of them are doing the more apparent it becomes 1. they know they are making bad decisions that appear to make short term gains by masking actual loss in value and 2. the lack of transparency on the Brookfield dealings by Marsh Steinberg Garodnick Kane/ Paul Weiss show something is being done "to" us residents and not "for" us.
They are running Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town into the tree-less ground.
Easy to be confident when backed by the crooked Democrat politicians of NYC.
Some recent Yelp reviews (4 stars, 3 stars) seem to be not as fake (some minor negative points) but they are as BS as the ones before. They are probably driven by the rewards scam. Gotta love this shit: “and the walls are thick (sound muffled).“
WTF?
And this line sums up their prized demographic: “yet I see big dogs all over the campus.” Yes, the campus.
Let’s “Funny” these reviews ASAP.
"Easy to be confident when backed by the crooked Democrat politicians of NYC."
Not a big fan of the current NYC Democratic Party (too corporate) but your boy who ran for mayor, Joseph Lhota, as per his party’s MO, did not believe in ANY residential rent regulations. Hey, I bet you’re happy re Cuomo; he’s Pataki “light”. And the new NYS Senate Repub. leader, John Flanagan? From "Crooktown"? Give me a f**king break. Anyway, all the action right now is in Albany. Where we are all f**ked.
Fake and deceptive ads is the oldest dirty tricks. Zillow runs ads for RE industry trying to get more people to buy homes in the Wall Street banker industry mortgage scams in a repetitive cycle of stealing the working class / middle class assets in the trillions of dollars. Their copy writing reads - your not just buying a house, you are buying a home / you are buying a place where you memories happen. You could run the same ads saying -- Wall Street RE, we are not just stealing your house, we are taking the place where your memories happen we are taking your home.
We are leaving this bastion of corruption.
PCVST -- Keep up the good fight against these resoundingly stupid crooks!
I dont' think they are buying these reviews. Modern Message is a well known company that allows residents to share their voice and engage socially. There's a big difference between buying fake reviews, and encouraging ACTUAL residents to share their feedback online. Just sayin.
It just never ends with these people. Never ends. I hate living here, but I cannot afford to live anywhere else. If I could, I would leave, without ANY hesitation. Have a nice weekend everyone.
Horrific -
http://town-village.com/2015/05/22/peter-cooper-mom-i-lived-under-the-neighbors-from-hell/#more-8892
STR - this is just awful. I am sure you are in the know about this but ugh. Just terrible.
Have a fabulous holiday weekend!
They are turning storage rooms into apartments and yanking out all the asbestos. I hope they are doing the asbestos abatement correctly because this shabby outfit is known for taking short cuts and paying for cheap labor. Maybe prospective victims who read Yelp should be warned about that.
This is an honest review of Compass Rock. It was posted on the Co-op City blog. I don't know who wrote it, but he/she sure got it right!
"Posted: 03 May 2015 at 8:24am
DO NOT HIRE COMPASS ROCK MANAGEMENT. It would be a horrendous mistake to hire that inept, greedy management company for Co-Op City. They have done terrible damage to Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village. They have a double standard for residents based on financial status; common repairs are now delayed a week and they ignore quality of life complaints because they believe those problems are driving out regulated renters hastening the demise of the community.
HURRICANE SANDY - Compass Rock Management did literally nothing to prepare. As a result over a dozen buildings were completely flooded and left without emergency lighting in halls or stairways. Elderly, disabled and ill residents were left without food, water or medication for days while CR did nothing. In the end it was left to an OUTSIDE group of volunteers to haul packs of water, snacks and flashlights to those residents, while Compass Rock Management did nothing but hand out pieces of paper to residents already mobile and at street level. When I asked a manager why there was no provisions, no lights and no preparation, her answer was "we're not a hardware store."
And there you have it! That's CR's attitude towards dealing with a crises. So just imagine how they deal with everyday issues.
Do not let this inept bunch of greedy hustlers from Colorado destroy Co-Op City. They know nothing about managing apartment complexes in NYC and don't even care because it's all about cutting corners, cutting services and making money. "
>>I dont' think they are buying these reviews. Modern Message is a well known company that allows residents to share their voice and engage socially. There's a big difference between buying fake reviews, and encouraging ACTUAL residents to share their feedback online. Just sayin.<<
They are encouraging residents to post reviews by offering points when you do. More points, more prizes. That is clearly against the spirit of Yelp, which wants reviews from members who are not seduced by money or prizes to post a review, a review which tends to be 80% positive under such circumstances according to Modern Message's sales pitch to companies. Modern Message began three years ago, btw.
Who is Modern Messaging multi-family / student housing mezzanine debt closers connected to? A few of their links to connect some dots.
http://www.corporationwiki.com/Texas/Dallas/john-hinckley/68766783.aspx
http://www.corporationwiki.com/p/28ksen/wellington-capital-group-llc
http://www.wellingtoncapitalgroup.com/
Since 2001 Wellington Capital Group has built a successful track record of closing the most challenging debt, mezzanine, and equity capital transactions. We have strong connections to hundreds of active funding sources. The experienced team at Wellington Capital Group develops and executes financial structures that turn problematic transactions into closings.
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-hinckley/b/bb3/130
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1577101/000157710113000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml
Quite obviously these new companies as "modern message" are formed as a component to support claims in the financial dealings with mezzanine debts having the potential to intentionally mislead.
They are probably also trying to change the negative Yelp Reviews that come up first on Google when searching for Stuyvesant Town, and that 2 rating looks pretty bad too. This is probably increasing marketing costs since they have to spend that much more money to find new tenants. Unfortuntately the Google review rating is still a 4, but something tells me that will number will be headind south soon too..
Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town - Apartments ... - Yelpvwww.yelp.com › Home Services › Real Estate › Apartments
Rating: 2
177 Reviews of Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town "Their slogan should really be "that's not my department". You'll be hearing that phrase often. Stuy Town ...
The people at Co-Op City won't tolerate these grifters. They'll run them out on a rail.
This bunch of hustlers are desperate! They will do anything to lure the gullible.
This is illegal if they are doing what it seems to rip off and deceive buyers. It takes years for authorities to stop these scams, the process is slow probably by design.
Yelp should get around to this. Sometimes it can take a week or longer for their process to kick in of removing suspicious reviews. As to the bigger picture, the onslaught of solicited reviews using a rewards system, that may definitely take more time, but the greater the amount of solicited reviews, the more trouble CW/CompassRock may find themselves in.
But honestly, do they need to cheat and lie.
The apartments rent quickly. I never see an empty one unoccupied for long here.
do you? it's the market - nyc residents will and have to put up with shit for now, and maybe forever. Zero inventory.
Whoever helped CW/CompassRock cover up at Riverton by settling with no discovery will help CW/CompassRock get away with Yelp too.
Maybe the FTC should look into the activities of these goons?
May 25, 2015 at 7:33 AM there are hundreds of listed available apartments in Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town
With all the politicians involved in the Paul Weiss RE deal the FTC would probably turn a blind eye and deaf ear to what is being done to people here.
Anyone notice that the site shows apartments for rent with a range of a price ;;;
$2800-3500 on one address.
Why are there tons of places renting cheaper than my place , and i've been here for 4 years. should not mine be lower or same? I KNOW WHY and it's illegal. Reporting all this.
They list hundreds on the website - this could be fake or bait and switch. One gets to the 'broker' and o, that one at ---- price is gone, rented, how about this one for 1500 $ more - and it just happens to have a legal rent.... drumrolll..... of only $6200.00 a month!!! Such a bargain.
This battle can only be won in the media. STR is an excellent resource but if all of this information sits here, it doesn't do anyone any good. Start Twitter accounts, spread this bullshit, use hashtags #StuyTown #Rentals #NYC #YouveBeenWarned. Get creative. Annihilating CompassCrock in the media, particularly social media where their key demo lives, is the only way to hurt their bottom line and leverage any kind of power this community has left.
7:46 Great ideas!
@7:46 Thank you for the reminder. I forget about Twitter. And you're right. It's where all their renters are. Tweet those dog shit photos! lol #MyHome #StuyTown
teach me how to tweet. :( Help us
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