2 Cheap Cars offers vouchers in exchange for five-star reviews

A screen grab from a 2 Cheap Cars TV ad in 2015.

Auto dealer 2 Cheap Cars is offering $10 Pak n' Save vouchers to people who give it a five-star review on Google.

In a move which customers are calling "a bribe", 2 Cheap Cars asked people on Facebook to give a five-star review to their local branch, take a screenshot, then send it to the company in exchange for a voucher. Only the first 200 people to do the reviews will receive the voucher.

"We Love Good Reviews!" the company wrote on its Facebook page. "Give us a 5 star review for your local 2 Cheap Cars Branch on Google, take a screenshot and send it to reviews@2cheapcars.co.nz then you will receive a $10 PAKn'SAVE voucher!"

The post has since been removed from Facebook.

When an email is sent to the address, with or without an attached review, an automatic reply thanks you for reviewing 2 Cheap Cars on Google and asks for a postal address to send the voucher to.

The Google pages for the different outlets showed a slew of five-star reviews had come through recently. Some outliers included a woman who gave a one-star review. "Any business who bribes it's [sic] customers to give you a good rating is a bad company well deserving of a one star rating," she said.

Another man gave one star, saying "offering money for good reviews what a joke this company is. Know 3 people who have brought cars from here all to have major issues and refused to fix the issues. Don't waste your time".

"These guys were paying for reviews on Facebook with packnsave [sic] vouchers. Enough for a 1 star from me that's just dishonest! Speaks volumes," another said.

Sue Chetwin, chief executive of advocacy group Consumer, said the promotion was "appalling".

"Hopefully people will see it and take it for what it is. Encouraging false reviews is misleading and deceptive and could be in breach of the Fair Trading Act," Chetwin said.

"It's appalling for them to do it," she said.

The promotion is also in conflict of Google content policies on reviews which state: "Don't offer or accept money, products, or services to write reviews for a business or to write negative reviews about a competitor."

Last month the car dealer was ordered to pay $70,000 and is liable for more than $250,000 after a Labour Inspectorate investigation found serious breaches of minimum wage, holiday pay and record-keeping at the firm.

The inspectorate sampled 12 of the roughly 83 employees, and found they were owed $20,835.34 of entitlements by the company.

2 Cheap Cars was ordered last November to audit its records, which has so far uncovered estimated arrears of more than $250,000.

2 Cheap Cars has been approached for comment but is yet to respond.