unethical business experience *LONG READ*

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Knightslayer

I think reviews can be very helpful in allowing the business to fix its mistakes.

I order a lot from one restaurant and always specifically ask for my sandwich extra toasted (not subway). I found that whenever I ordered off a food app the sandwich would never even be toasted at all even if I specifically asked for extra toasted. I dealt with it a few times thinking just someone overlooking the instructions. After the 3rd or 4th time I started giving bad reviews on the app. I really didn't wanna because this place has one of the highest ratings on door dash and I am friendly with the owner and the food is great but I left a 1 star review and in the comments stated food is good but they never follow instructions and don't toast their sandwiches for door dash customers let alone extra toasted.

I've never had a problem since. If restaurants want 5 star reviews they'll have to deal with 1 star reviews when they deserve it as well.

Some may think not having your sandwich toasted is a petty thing to leave a 1 star review but if you're paying $20 -$22 for a sandwich tip included then you best believe I want exactly what I ordered.

So the problem has been addressed now...is your one-star review still up?

If you've taken it down, then I think you handled this well. That's a good use of the rating system.

If you've left the review up in spite of them fixing their problems, then I just want to log off, go to bed and wake up some other day.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Ignore the bad reviews? Well what if they misrepresent the facts? Why would you not want to fix that problem some guy introduced into your life and business? That's not reasonable to just tell the business to ignore something that is going to damage their business daily in perpetuity.

It's also entitled to tell a business to "elevate their service" to get five stars. There are people that wouldn't give you five stars short of fellating them on the way out the door. Some people want to feel special instead of just coming in, buying their thing, and leaving. If a business just treats you politely and gives you what you came in for, don't give them any stars. Just fataing move on with your day. A three- or four-star damages them. Why would you want to do that to somebody? It's so mean.

I also love how people are questioning why a business owner would get mad. Like, lol. Here's a bad review and you have the AUDACITY to be mad at me? Why, I never. I mean, a bad review is a literal attack on you business and as the owner of that business you should just ignore it? Fata. That.

I know what a good customer experience is and you will get it and you will be happy. If it wasn't what you were expecting, you're the one who is wrong!
You're sure giving the impression you run your shop like the soup nazi.

I can tell you in my experience, 9 times out 10, the business that listens to complaints and replies constructively is going to be better run and provide a better experience than one that is defensive and dismissive of every criticism.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by chedder

Seems like the whole review system is broken and useless. 5 star or nothing, consumers aren't qualified to leave reviews, 4 out 5 stars is bad, everyone gets a participation medal.

What's the point of it all then? Sounds like social media/internet making things worse instead of better (as usual). The ultimate magnification tool.

Yes. That's the point. The rating system - unless moderated - is broken.

And yes, if you can shed bad reviews every six months the good reviews should be shed, too.

But yeah, the other option is just don't leave a review...you have no responsibility to do so.

[Bigtime]

Where do we stand on google reviews if you don't get your side of ranch?

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by Sliver

My problem is less that ratings are supposed to be a favour to the business...

Absolutely not. Businesses are not entitled to "favours" unless they are earned. Ratings are references for other potential clients.

When reviewing ratings for a business, I do watch for vindictive or extremely specific issues and try to weed them out. I look for patterns of reported issues.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

I know what a good customer experience is and you will get it and you will be happy. If it wasn't what you were expecting, you're the one who is wrong!
You're sure giving the impression you run your shop like the soup nazi.

I can tell you in my experience, 9 times out 10, the business that listens to complaints and replies constructively is going to be better run and provide a better experience than one that is defensive and dismissive of every criticism.

Yeah, did you read FormerPresJamesTaylor's post? That's the kind of guy that writes bad reviews businesses can't defend themselves from and don't deserve. That post and attitude is what I'm talking about when I'm getting mad at bad reviews company's don't deserve.

Do you agree with his rating philosophy and do you think it's fair?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by ben voyonsdonc

Absolutely not. Businesses are not entitled to "favours" unless they are earned. Ratings are references for other potential clients.

When reviewing ratings for a business, I do watch for vindictive or extremely specific issues and try to weed them out. I look for patterns of reported issues.

Yeah, no ####. I didn't say they were expected to be favours. Why did you snip out the rest of the post lol. Throw the context back in, please.

[Knightslayer]

Originally Posted by Sliver

So the problem has been addressed now...is your one-star review still up?

If you've taken it down, then I think you handled this well. That's a good use of the rating system.

If you've left the review up in spite of them fixing their problems, then I just want to log off, go to bed and wake up some other day.

Door dash doesn't give you the option to remove reviews I don't think and you rate them after every order. When my order is good I rate them 5 stars. Even the first 3 or 4 times I didn't get my sandwich toasted I still rated them 5 stars because I know the owner but really was getting sick of eating a non toasted sandwich so I rated them 1 star and left a review. Ever since they fixed it I've been rating them 5 stars again. I think that's how the system should work.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Knightslayer

Door dash doesn't give you the option to remove reviews I don't think and you rate them after every order. When my order is good I rate them 5 stars. Even the first 3 or 4 times I didn't get my sandwich toasted I still rated them 5 stars because I know the owner but really was getting sick of eating a non toasted sandwich so I rated them 1 star and left a review. Ever since they fixed it I've been rating them 5 stars again. I think that's how the system should work.

Yeah, that seems reasonable to me, too.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by FormerPresJamesTaylor

Occasionally my Samsung phone will alert me via GoogleMaps that I've been at a business and asks me to leave a review, this happens more if I've walked through a mall, it tends to ping multiple locations. This has given me great opportunity to voice my opinions about businesses, big or small, as I tend to be non-conformational offline. Unless a small business as gone ABOVE AND BEYOND, I've rarely if ever given "the full five".

The worst offenders are restaurants who offer discounts if you give an online review, specifically Google Reviews. This type of behaviour is predatory. When they try this tactic my review is instantanious and they're hit with a 1star so quickly their heads spin. The bonus being you still get the discount code which I am happy to accept, the meal and the service was excellent so I don't mind returning. One - or low - stars also afford the customer the ability to turn the tide, customers are always right and we've seem to flow away from that in recent years. One stars get immediate action and are attention grabbing, both useful tools that can be helpful in sorting out an arrogant business owner.

OP, I am so sorry to hear about your poor experience with your hot tub, if you DM me the name we can 1star bomb it on my end to help you find complete and full satisfaction.

Truly shameful on their part!

Even if we were to all agree that reviews less than 5 stars are good and fine and should reflect the quality of the experience in the given context... this behaviour is insane and is the entire reason the review system is so ####ed.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Even if we were to all agree that reviews less than 5 stars are good and fine and should reflect the quality of the experience in the given context... this behaviour is insane and is the entire reason the review system is so ####ed.

Yeah, thanks Pepsi. His post eloquently describes why I get so bothered by ratings. I face a guy like this every six months and it's a nightmare, puts my staff in a funk and just generally hurts our morale because we feel so defenseless against people like this.

I hope it gives a better perspective on where business owners are coming from and what we face with respect to reviews.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by blankall

For a small business, 3/5 reviews are extremely damaging. With the way current algorithms work, anything less than a 5/5 is going to cost a small business a lot of opportunities. If you guys are casually giving 3/5s, you should really reconsider what you're doing and the impact a review like that has.

No, no it's not. I have no idea where you get this from. Where do you guys come up with this BS.

If a business has a lot of below average reviews, don't you think... um... maybe... it's deserved?

On the topic of STD/DD etc, there is a restaurant that I like that was around a 7 on STD. It's now in the 9s. Amazing that they didn't go bankrupt.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

So, wait... the story being offered in the original post in this thread is being viewed as suspect as to whether it accurately represents the facts, but this post from some random unknown user describing insane behaviour that sounds like literally no human being I have ever met is being taken at face value?

Originally Posted by Sliver

They're some BS here and you guys have broken BS detectors if you're not seeing it.

HMMM.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by chedder

Seems like the whole review system is broken and useless. 5 star or nothing, consumers aren't qualified to leave reviews, 4 out 5 stars is bad, everyone gets a participation medal.

What's the point of it all then? Sounds like social media/internet making things worse instead of better (as usual). The ultimate magnification tool.

The whole system is definitely broken. Google is a private business, and google Adwords are very expensive. Yet, google is the only infrastructure we have to find out about most businesses.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Shazam

No, no it's not. I have no idea where you get this from. Where do you guys come up with this BS.

If a business has a lot of below average reviews, don't you think... um... maybe... it's deserved?

On the topic of STD/DD etc, there is a restaurant that I like that was around a 7 on STD. It's now in the 9s. Amazing that they didn't go bankrupt.

Where do I get this from? From someone who is actually running a small business that took years of good reviews to build an online reputation. At any moment someone could give me a 0/5 review that would tank my business. My perfect google rating is almost solely responsible for driving my business, and the whole thing is very tenuous.

And yes, typically when a business has many low reviews it's deserved. However, even 1-2 bad, or even average reviews, are enough to significantly affect a business, and the fact that many posters don't seem to realize that is very troubling.

Once again, not commenting on the OPs particular case.

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

Yeah, I was f'n around.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Yeah, no ####. I didn't say they were expected to be favours. Why did you snip out the rest of the post lol. Throw the context back in, please.

The additional context doesn't change anything.

Yes, people can be dicks in their reviews of companies but often they are very justified in leaving negative reviews and should not fear reprisal from the business on issues like their warranty when they leave a negative review.

People should be free to leave negative reviews. How they are presented can be problematic. Giving ratings out of 5 and averaging them is simple but can lead to skewed results by buying positive reviews or by receiving an undeserved negative review.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Yeah, did you read FormerPresJamesTaylor's post? That's the kind of guy that writes bad reviews businesses can't defend themselves from and don't deserve. That post and attitude is what I'm talking about when I'm getting mad at bad reviews company's don't deserve.

Do you agree with his rating philosophy and do you think it's fair?

No, but all companies are going to have some customers like that, including competitors. Striving for a perfect Google rating isn't realistic.

I only ever really look at online business reviews if I am looking to buy something I know little about, or if I'm out of town looking for hotels or restaurants. It's a zero sum game. I am not going to avoid buying an item or going to a restaurant altogether if they all have a few bad reviews, but will often pick the one with many reviews where most are good. If there are no bad reviews, how are the ratings useful at all?

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

So, wait... the story being offered in the original post in this thread is being viewed as suspect as to whether it accurately represents the facts, but this post from some random unknown user describing insane behaviour that sounds like literally no human being I have ever met is being taken at face value?

HMMM.

Weren't you also taking one at face value and the other as a farce?

You ever heard of a business voiding a warranty because of a google review? I mean it may have happened, but it's also insane haviour that sounds like literally no business I have ever worked with.

[ResAlien]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Weren't you also taking one at face value and the other as a farce?

You ever heard of a business voiding a warranty because of a google review? I mean it may have happened, but it's also insane haviour that sounds like literally no business I have ever worked with.

Ah so you’re accusing gimp of lying. Maybe he started this thread to have a bit of fun? Suppose that’s possible.