When looking to hire a contractor one of the first places that a consumer will turn is to websites where reviews are left. What we learned when dealing with Brian Darnell’s Prodigy Restoration Group is how a business owner with low moral character can manipulate online reviews.
The below screenshot from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) page was taken after Brian Darnell closed his Prodigy Restoration Group business entity and started doing business as Darnell-Construction. We will look at the errors on the BBB page for Darnell-Construction in another post.
There are numerous problems with the reviews on the BBB website for Prodigy Restoration Group, but we will point out the problem with this one first provided by Charles S. This is a review that the business, operated solely by Brian Darnell, commented back on thanking Charles for the “great review“.
When Brian Darnell was providing us a quote for replacing the Windows and Doors he included the labor costs that his assistant would be paid as part of the detailed quote. “Charles“, whom we had met, was going to assist with this project. The arrows below point to the line items for Charles‘ labor costs.
The review that Charles left for Prodigy Restoration Group, the company he was going to be paid by to perform work on our house, was a clear violation of BBB policy.
Not only that, as the BBB points out, the review is sent to the business for them to review, along with the person’s contact information. It is obvious that this took place since the “business” reponded back to Charles thanking him for the “great review“.
This was not a surprise to us by this stage of things, Brian Darnell had already fully demonstrated the depths he is willing to stoop in order to deceive consumers. It came as no surprise that Brian Darnell would thank his employee for the glowing review that the employee left of the business.
Something else that is worth pointing out about this BBB listing, the business address for Prodigy Restoration Group. When we looked into the address we found the following:
It was not where Prodigy Restoration Group was located, it was nothing but a virtual office that provided, as the advertisers state, a “Professional address”.
Lesson:
As Brian Darnell demonstrated with his Prodigy Restoration Group, the reviews on the BBB website can be manipulated by unethical business owners who are out to mislead consumers.