Cover-More travel insurance's cash-for-reviews competition risks breaking law
EXCLUSIVE: ONE of the biggest names in travel insurance may have broken the law by offering the lure of cash prizes for positive reviews.
ONE of the biggest names in travel insurance may have broken the law by offering the lure of cash prizes for positive reviews.
Cover-More, which claims to be the choice of 1.8 million Australians annually, is at risk of breaching the Competition and Consumer Act over a two-month promotion that enticed customers to share their "positive experiences" on the leading customer feedback site productreview.com.au in return for the chance to win $1000 each month.
In some months before the promotion there was no review, positive or negative, of Cover-More. But during the late 2012 promotion nearly 350 positive reviews were published, even after Product Review rejected many for being "overly positive". Another 120 were posted in the subsequent two months.
As of yesterday, Cover-More had 544 "excellent" reviews on Product Review. Remove those generated during and immediately after the promotion and there would be half as many five-star reviews as one-star or "terrible" reviews.
Yet Cover-More talks itself up on its website as "highly rated".
"Cover-More Travel Insurance Australia is rated 4.1 stars by 846 customers on Product Review,". its homepage says.
This has angered customers who posted negative reviews.
"I think it does skew it," said Jill Kajewski of Griffith, who had great difficulty making claim on her insurance after serious illness in her family forced her and her sister to return home early from Europe.
Jeff Marriner of Melbourne said he believed Cover-More was "misleading" would-be customers. Mr Marriner struggled to have a claim approved after he and his family were forced to leave Fiji due to flood.
Both Ms Kajewski and Mr Marriner gave Cover-More 1 out of 5 ratings on Product Review. Ms Kajewski said: "I'd have given them 0 out of 5 if I could have."
An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission spokesman said: "Businesses that offer incentives to those who write positive reviews risk misleading consumers and breaching the Competition and Consumer Act."
Beyond that, the ACCC said it couldn't comment on "potential investigations".
A Cover-More spokeswoman said it had "external legal advice that our 2012 promotion was compliant with the prevailing legislation".
Product Review data manager Josh Berriman said it had stipulated future Cover-More promotions give all an equal chance of winning, regardless of whether the review was positive or negative. Cover-More denied Product Review had taken issue with the promotion.