This site reminds me of the Sneetches story about Sylvester McMonkey McBean. For enough money, he's going to solve all your problems. This site has plastic surgeons paying for memberships & it can get costly but the more they pay the higher thier ratings go as a skilled surgeon. The site allows bogus reviews from employees, family, friends as long as the surgeon pays his dues. This is very unfortunate for the consumer looking for highly skilled surgeons & specialists. Furthermore, it's very unethical.
Doctors can’t buy ratings -- they’re only based on consumer reviews. (Even Dr. Seuss can’t buy stars!) The rating calculation is shown on the doctor’s profile page. It’s an average of all ratings from consumers.
We also don’t allow reviews from anyone connected to the doctor, including friends and family, since this is bad for consumers. We only want to hear from real patients who have unbiased experiences with the doctors they’re reviewing.
We understand that all online trust is earned, so we hope this information is helpful. Transparency is very important to us and we welcome all conversations if you have further questions: contactus@realself.com