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Are online reviews of tradespeople reliable?

The short answer

Treat them as one weak signal. Review manipulation is a recognised problem the ACCC has pursued, and a licence check plus references for comparable work tells you far more.

TradieAnswers editorial · written in-house and sourced to the authorities listed below

Checked against 5 published sources, listed in full at the end of this page. How we source this

Reviews are useful at the extremes and unreliable in the middle. A long record of detailed, specific reviews over years means something. A short burst of five star ratings with no detail means very little, and paid or incentivised reviews are common enough that the ACCC has taken enforcement action over them.

Patterns worth noticing

  • A cluster of reviews posted in a short window, particularly right after a run of poor ones.
  • Reviews with no specifics: no description of the job, the timeframe or the problem solved.
  • Reviewers with a single review to their name.
  • Responses from the business that are defensive or that disclose the customer's details, which tells you how a complaint would be handled.
  • No negative reviews at all over many years, which is not how real businesses work.

What is worth more

  • A current licence, checked by you on the register rather than shown to you.
  • References for work comparable to yours, ideally that you can go and look at.
  • A written quote that is specific about scope and exclusions, which reveals how they think about a job.
  • Whether they are willing to put things in writing at all.

Sources

Every source below was fetched and its response recorded on the date shown. Where a government site blocks automated clients, that is noted rather than reported as a successful check.

  1. Consumer rights and guarantees · Australian Competition and Consumer CommissionChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  2. Contracts · Australian Competition and Consumer CommissionChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  3. ABN Lookup · Australian Business RegisterChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  4. Verify.Licence · NSW GovernmentChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  5. Fair Trading · Queensland GovernmentChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK

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