Ray likes Roadninja, a free mobile app that tells users what amenities and gas prices are available at the next highway exit. He doesn’t think it’s perfect, though. That’s why he was kind of annoyed when it prompted him to leave a review…and his options were limited.

“I like the app but it does have some issues that, to me, would keep it from getting a 5 star rating,” Ray writes. “Allowing only 5 star ratings gives me a further incentive to rate it lower that I otherwise would because of the not completely forthright way in which it is soliciting its rating.”

Users probably can adjust their rating once the app sends them to the review page. The ratings for the current version of RoadNinja make it clear that reviews with less than five stars are getting through.

Still, it might make someone who isn’t inclined to give a good review but didn’t think this all the way through to dismiss the prompt because they don’t want to post a five-star review.

We wrote to the RoadNinja sensei (really, that’s what his or her e-mail address is) to ask why they’re being so picky. We’ll update this post if we hear back.

Companies want perfect scores or not to hear from users at all, since various systems reward only perfect reviews. This reminds us of the feedback survey paradox: businesses from car dealerships to chain pizzerias do their best to keep customers from giving them anything but a perfect rating on feedback forms.

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