It seems odd to me that your community moderator, Laura, keeps deleting the posts of members who notice and comment on these shills, but you should be aware that your members are also contacting the honest tour operators to let them know what is being done against them.

Here is an example of an email we received:

Dear (name removed to protect the innocent) It might interest you to know that I caught a shill for SPB tours operating on Cruise Critic. The shill posted on 4 separate Cruise Critic forums (including mine) about what a great deal the $399 package deal is through SPB tours (he provided links and tour descriptions – this is a NEW offer through SPB – it was NOT offered a week ago). Anyway, I reported the shill to the Cruise Critic administrator and the posts were removed …. but the damage was already done and cruisemates that were looking at joining our group have decided to go with the SPB tour. It really made me angry as I have been working very hard to get our group together. I don’t understand why the shill (I suspect that his real name is Anthony) felt he needed to do such a dishonest thing as SPB tours receives very high ratings on Cruise Critic (as does ****). Do you have any idea of what is going on with SPB shills operating on Cruise Critic? Sorry to go on about this but I was really upset and I thought you might be interested to know what I found and, subsequently, reported to Cruise Critic. Thanks in advance, Jill and here is another: Hi ****

Username: Love4Sailing I think that this person is operating as a shill for SPB tours. He has recommended this tour on 7 separate roll calls within one hour. Would you please investigate this? Many thanks

There are many, many more examples of these shills operating here, and I know that many of their posts were removed AFTER someone complained, but the question remains, if SPB is using shills, why has their name not been banned from Cruise Critic as is stated in your own Terms of Service?

We were recently sent a copy of a letter which was sent to your Community Moderator, Laura:

To: community@cruisecritic.com

“Hi Laura, I have been diligently working to compose a group (through Alla tours) for the Baltic cruise we will be taking on NCL in August. Just this morning, a post appeared on our Roll Call from someone (“Jim”) saying they are considering a Baltic Cruise and giving info on SPB tours. I fear that this “Jim” is a shill for a tour operator. I find it suspicious that “Jim” posted the same information on 3 separate Roll Calls within minutes of each post.

Jim’s handle is 52TBird. I may be paranoid but, just in case, I thought you might want to know.

“From NCL SUN Baltic 8/15 Roll Call: Greetings! My name’s Jim. Just starting out on Cruise Critic. My wife and I went on a Mediterranean cruise last year (our first) with Princess. It was great, but we wanted to try NCL this year and check out Northern Europe/Scandinavia/Russia. We still haven’t settled on a date, but we’re definitely looking at the end of the summer, maybe even September. We really don’t want to book our shore excursions through the ship. We’d rather go through a private company, but we’re not sure yet which one. I saw a post on here about Alla, and I’ve been in contact with SPB-tours myself. SPB said in August they’re doing a special where they include Berlin, Helsinki, Tallinn and St. Petersburg for $399 per person, but you need a group of at least 6 to commit. It sounds pretty good to me, so I’m thinking about it. They say something about it on their front page *** I’ve been talking with Anthony and/or Vika there at *** Looking forward to it guys! -Jim

From NCL SUN Baltic” “7/19 Roll Call: Greetings! My name is Jim. I’m planning a cruise with my wife in August or late July, but have been checking the NCL posts to see what people are thinking about shore excursions. Some of the cruise groups in August have been talking about Alla, but also a lot about SPB. I was looking into SPB and talked with Anthony too. They seemed really nice and helpful. They mentioned a package deal in August for 4 cities for $399! I don’t know if that still works in July, but it sounds good. Can anyone give a strong recommendation for a tour company from past experience? Any help would be appreciated. -Jim

From NCL SUN Baltic” ” 7/28 Roll Call: Greetings! New to cruise critic and excited to get to meet you all! My wife and I took a Grand Mediterranean cruise last year onboard the Ruby Princess…amazing! This year we’re looking towards a Baltic cruise and wanted to see what NCL was like. We still haven’t decided exactly on the date (I know, it’s getting late!). Anyway, we’re looking for some advice on tour companies. I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about Alla. I’ve also contacted SPB-tours with an inquiry, and they told me they’re offering 4 cities for $399 at the end of July/August – Helsinki, Tallinn, Berlin and St. Petersburg. I might lean towards that one because it’s easier. Does anyone have any suggestions? – Jim”

I am pretty sure you get the point.

Up until today, I have stayed 100% out of this argument, because as a tour provider myself, I know that my HONEST Cruise Critic reviews help drive my business and I know that getting in a fight with CC risks my own name being banned.

But this year we have seen a decrease in our bookings because of SPB’s new tour bundling and their dishonest shills working for them, and today something was brought to my attention that spurs me to take a stand and call Cruise Critic on their actions.

Within hours, 2 separate, honest CC members noticed shills operating in their Roll Call. They posted to comment AGAINST the shills and to bring attention to their fellow cruisers of this practice, yet their posts, which they are totally within their rights to make, were removed.

Luckily, not before someone sent me a screen shot.

The first is:

robincruiserhood1 Cool Cruiser Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: SF Posts: 1 SPB-Tours fan club vs independent reviews.

Dear Fellow Cruisers and Moderator: Get real! There are more red flags in this part of CC than on a Russian street during their Bolshevik Revolution! As travelers and readers of CC’s forums we are asking for independent tours and want to deal with independent advisers. What we seem to be getting here are the same people recommending the same companies. Why is the difference between the Google ranking of a St. Petersburg private shore tour companies and the companies recommended on Cruise Critic so huge?? Let’s try to find out and take a look at the posts of “cruiser Len”. Nobody knows what happened to “agent” Len after his Russian tour, we can only guess. But this “independent” fellow has been posting day and night only about SPB-Tours and favorite goddess, Vika. Don’t you think his reviews sound phony? What about others? Dear Moderator, please direct serious attention to our comments regarding poster Len and others on the team of SPB-Tour fans who are intent on sabotaging this destination. Their independence is in serious doubt. You are urged not to remove this post or ignore the problem otherwise we will do our best to pass this information to CC management level, cruise operators, various travel forums all over the net, and to the world press. It won’t help CC’s reputation if the world finds out that you permit paid advice and fake reviews on your forum.

Then this one: Originally Posted by Giantfan13 – “Hi and welcome to cruise critic and our little corner of this world. You will not regret booking a Baltic cruise. It is truly a cruise of a lifetime and visiting some of these ports, that we’ve only dreamed about, is just fantastic. Guaranteed you will have the time of your life. Does anyone else find this guy suspicious? I think it’s pretty safe to say that he works for Baltic cruise. I wouldn’t take anything he says too seriously, he’s just advertising. ”

Response:
crusingmantenthousand Cool Cruiser Join Date: Mar 2012 Posts: 3 @Giantfan13 “Okay I’ve been using this forum for quite a while now, but I never actually joined until just now and it’s because of you, here’s why. There’s no way you love that SPB as much as you say you do, obviously you’re cluttering up the forum with “promotional” reviews, you’ve posted that same reply in like half a dozen other threads just recently. Normally I don’t mind but people make big (expensive) decisions based on what is said in these forums and they should be able to decide based on real reviews, and not just someone “advertising”. Mods please forgive me, but I just had to say it.” (Note from me: why should the mods forgive that post? The mods themselves should be removing such blatant attempts at advertising!!!)

These examples bring me to my question: WHY IS CRUISE CRITIC ALLOWING SPB TOURS TO NOT ONLY VIOLATE THE SPIRIT OF THIS WEBSITE, BUT ALSO THE TERMS OF SERVICE??? No other tour company is being so openly promoted with such an obvious bias.

I work my butt off to provide a great tour and I am incredibly proud of the amazing reviews that I have received at both Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor. Every one of them is an honest review from a real customer, your allowing SPB’s shills to continue to operate, in fact, allowing SPB to even be mentioned any longer at CC is a slap in the face to the providers who follow the rules and to the hundreds of thousands of your users who believe your site to be member driven and honest.

I have developed serious doubts about the honesty and integrity of the site moderator and it makes me question if SPB is not only a prominent advertiser at CC or if they are making payments to the moderator (stranger things have happened in this business!).

Author: uallamack

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