Sued over a Bad Review

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Part of the problem with these reviews is that now whenever you go somewhere, your damn phone sends you a notification asking you if you want to ''help others out, review where you're at". No matter where I'm at now, even out of country, literally every single shopping/restaurant/entertainment location sends me that notification. Social media nerds hop all over that. All it takes is one single bad incident, and in the palm of you hand you have the ability to literally ruin a business.

In some way its kind of good your phone puts you on the spot to leave a review, because now employers know you have the power to influence their businesss by leaving a review, so they have to make sure you receive good service. On the other hand, you get a bunch of ####ty teenagers and immature pricks leaving bad reviews for the slightest inconvenience. Drinks took too long to arrive? 1 star. Waitress wouldn't give you her phone # as your creepily hit on her? 1 star. Etc.

Personally I don't like to see people get sued for a bad review. But in some cases it's deserved. Some people like to be complete asses online, and good on others for putting them in their place. The best is when managers actually comment back and explain the entire situation.

These days, we the consumer have more power then ever before to influence a business and potential cash flow heading towards it.

I think the problem is mainly that the whole system is anonymous and you don't need to prove that your were even a client or customer. At least with the BBB, you need to provide a receipt or something.

Even if you ignore that a large (probably most) negative reviews are fake/exaggerated, negativity is still a much stronger motivator than positivity. If someone has even the slightly negative experience, their gears will grind until they find an outlet (typically the internet) to vent on. When someone had a positive experience, they do not feel the burning need to tell the world, because it is expected when you pay for a service. So right off the bat, negative reviews are going skew things.

Then in industries like the food industry where you have young employees and young patrons, they often have petty vindictive attitudes and don't understand that they can literally ruin the livelihoods of people that don't deserve it. If the system wasn't anonymous, you would keep people honest at least.

One guy I know who runs a restaurant hired an online rep manager and they have a 4.7 rating on Google now... and the place isn't that great. The place across the street has a 3.3 and is a much better establishment.

[Titan]

Well, thank the good baby jebus that no one mentioned Ranch dressing or tipping. Nothing Springs1 to mind as to how that would work.

That was a narrowly avoided disaster.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Titan

Well, thank the good baby jebus that no one mentioned Ranch dressing or tipping. Nothing Springs1 to mind as to how that would work.

That was a narrowly avoided disaster.

As an aside I think I discovered where Springs1 is from. On my way back from vacation I stopped at Pappa T's in Dillon Montana. We walked in sat down and they brought over a bottle of ranch dressing before we had even ordered without us asking for anything.

It was in a 1 L plastic squeeze bottle. While we were there someone was at the counter refilling about 20 of these bottles.

[Titan]

NSFW!

[snootchiebootchies]

I think personal reviews of businesses are important but at the same time, people seeking reviews of an establishment need to read the reviews with a critical eye. For example, I've learned over the years that a restaurant with four or five of reviews and a 4.5 aggregate rating is rarely better than a restaurant with 200+ reviews and, say, a 3.5 aggregate rating. I'd rather choose a restaurant with an established and repeating customer base than a new trendy restaurant with a few over-enthusiastic reviewers.

[GGG]

The other thing with reviews is that you read the negative reviews and the positive reviews and look for similarities with different perspectives.

A positive hotel review will say the bathrooms were dingy and old but they were clean and for the price and location it was acceptable.

The negative review will say the bathrooms were disgusting with Caulk peeling everywhere and stains everywhere.

So the reality is probably the bathrooms are clean but run down so if that's a deal breaker for you go somewhere else. With intelligent reading of both negative and positive reviews you can usually get a good idea of what the place is about.

[Smartcar]

Originally Posted by snootchiebootchies

For example, I've learned over the years that a restaurant with four or five of reviews and a 4.5 aggregate rating is rarely better than a restaurant with 200+ reviews and, say, a 3.5 aggregate rating.

I don't agree, the restaurant with 200+ reviews (unless they are hugely trendy or have been in business a very long time) is likely paying a "reputation management" company.

[Harry Lime]

The one and only time that I tried to leave a Yelp review, Yelp took it down for unspecified reasons one day later.

The restaurant in question served us rancid and undercooked food, and when I brought it back and pointed it out to them directly, they were condescending and actually threw a twenty dollar bill on the counter and said, 'thats all you're going to get'. I didn't even get into the overtly racist behavior, towards other patrons of the restaurant, as I stood there.

After my bad review was pulled, I stopped caring generally what review sites say. As someone stated earlier, I'll check whether there are a large number of reviewers, and if there is a halfway decent score, I'll try it. Quantity matters on review sites.

If there are no critical reviews at all, somethings up. No one is perfect all the time.

[Harry Lime]

Originally Posted by Smartcar

I don't agree, the restaurant with 200+ reviews (unless they are hugely trendy or have been in business a very long time) is likely paying a "reputation management" company.

Son of a....
I don't want to have to start conversing with live people to find a restaurant. Are we living in the dark ages?

[Reaper]

I don't trust most people. The online realm is not going to be my foray into trusting people.

[driveway]

I had someone write a negative blog post about me once and slap it up to every food-review site around. Yelp, chowhound, urban spoon, etc.

I 60% deserved it.

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by driveway

I had someone write a negative blog post about me once and slap it up to every food-review site around. Yelp, chowhound, urban spoon, etc.

I 60% deserved it.

Like, a review of you as a person?

[driveway]

A review of my specific delivery of customer service. There was a genuine error made on our (the restaurants) part. I tried to find a way to fix it, offering her pretty much anything she wanted to come back and give us a second chance. It basically went like this:

"You've had a bad time, that's our fault."
"Yes, it is."
"We will do anything to get you to come back."
"I'm never coming back."
"I mean anything: tonight's free, dinner for two next week free. Gift certificates you can give to family, you name it."
"I'm never coming back."
"Never? You're never, ever coming back? No matter what?"
"No, I'm never coming back."
"Okay, then you're not my customer and that means you're not my problem."

She did not take kindly to that last part.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by driveway

A review of my specific delivery of customer service. There was a genuine error made on our (the restaurants) part. I tried to find a way to fix it, offering her pretty much anything she wanted to come back and give us a second chance. It basically went like this:

"You've had a bad time, that's our fault."
"Yes, it is."
"We will do anything to get you to come back."
"I'm never coming back."
"I mean anything: tonight's free, dinner for two next week free. Gift certificates you can give to family, you name it."
"I'm never coming back."
"Never? You're never, ever coming back? No matter what?"
"No, I'm never coming back."
"Okay, then you're not my customer and that means you're not my problem."

She did not take kindly to that last part.

you more than 60% deserved it. you say that to any customer in a place I ran, you'd likely be out of a job.

[GP_Matt]

I have gone back to reading local restaurant reviewers. They write a decent review of the place, recommend a few dishes and give you an idea what to expect. They are also not anonymous and have a reputation to uphold.

Avenue Edmonton does a great job.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

you more than 60% deserved it. you say that to any customer in a place I ran, you'd likely be out of a job.

If there's nothing he can do, he's going to do nothing. Seems fair to me.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I'm just wondering what he did that led the person to turn down a bunch of free meals.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by SebC

If there's nothing he can do, he's going to do nothing. Seems fair to me.

You don't vocalize it like that though. The hardest part of being in customer services is remaining polite even when dealing with ####ty customers. Instead of "you're not problem" a simple "Sorry, I hope you reconsider" could have gone a long ways. Especially, based on the limited account of driveway, this wasn't an incredibly terrible customer. A mistake was made, she wasn't happy, and didn't want to come back. Hardly unreasonable position, as long as she wasn't being a dick (which may have been the case), I didn't exactly see the need for the snarky reply.

In any case, does anyone know a lawyer who will help me sue the user "This post is terrible"?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

In any case, does anyone know a lawyer who will help me sue the user "This post is terrible"?

Just think, if your posts didn't command their attention so often, you wouldn't have to sue!

[Smartcar]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

I have gone back to reading local restaurant reviewers. They write a decent review of the place, recommend a few dishes and give you an idea what to expect. They are also not anonymous and have a reputation to uphold.

It's the bolded part that makes local restaurant reviewers' experiences not likely to be representative of what you as an average diner will experience. The very best restaurant reviewers in the old days were scrupulously anonymous. Not so much any more.