If you don’t care about the backstory and just want to discuss the poll topic: let’s say you wrote a fair, factual, negative review of a business on Yelp. Not long after your review, you receive a negative private message from the owner. What would you do?
Long story for those of you, like me, who are bored at work and want something to read :).
Where I live, an amazing Middle Eastern restaurant opened up (given that I live in redneckville, this is a big deal!). I ate there repeatedly, told all my friends, took any guest I had, blah blah blah- I didn’t want this little hole in the wall to close due to lack of business. I wrote two glowing reviews on Yelp about the place.
Oh, and just so you don’t think I’m some crazy psycho blowing up their Yelp page :D, there are lots of other reviews (many of which mention the service issues I get into on my negative review).
Review 1:
[spoiler]
Don’t be fooled by the questionable location (somewhere between Ross Dress for Less and the Long John Silvers), RESTAURANT is the single best restaurant in town. Bakersfield, despite being truly a pretty big city, is plagued with an obsession with chain restaurants. Actually, the reason might be that a lot of our local eateries tend to be way over-hyped, way over-priced, and way under-delicious.
RESTAURANT is the exception to this rule.
The owner is the absolute nicest guy you could meet- totally friendly and accommodating. My first time in, he was more than happy to explain the menu options to me and give suggestions-- and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. I get the beef shawarma, but we also usually order his special garlic hummus as an appetizer. The hummus isn’t on the menu, but if you love garlic, ask for it- amazing! There’s also an appetizer that is a plate of feta cheese, Greek olives, cucumber, and onion drizzled lightly with olive oil- it’s simple, but really good.
Every person I’ve taken to RESTAURANT has absolutely raved about it, even the folks who generally don’t eat out at places more exotic than Chili’s. Definitely hit up RESTAURANT and give it a try, you wont regret it. [/SPOILER]
Review 2 (an update on review 1, made 5 months later):
[spoiler]
RESTAURANT continues to be- hands down- the BEST restaurant in town. It’s a completely sub par location that makes you go in with the lowest of low expectations, but man, do they deliver.
For those of you who are curious: they’ve worked out the kinks as far as their slow services issues. Trust me, that used to be a problem for me, too- but now, they’ve got that on lock.
I don’t even like any other hummus, but RESTAURANT hummus is my absolute favorite- tons of garlic, sumac, and deliciousness. Definitely try the beef shawarma, which is about 10,000 better than the dreck they’re
selling at A DIFFERENT RESTAURANT.
Lately, friend and I are all over RESTAURANT for takeout. Perfect. [/spoiler]
Then some shit went down. I had a terrible experience two months later and wrote a review about it, not exaggerating anything:
[spoiler]
All good things come to an end, right?
While up until this point, I’ve been perhaps the biggest RESTAURANT proponent in town (reviewing positively twice on here, telling everyone I know to go there, taking big groups), but I suppose that isn’t the case anymore. Which is unfortunate, because they really are delicious. Like the other less-than-positive reviews have alluded to, the problem here is definitely the service.
A few times, I’ve called ahead and ordered takeout without much of a wait. This time, I called ahead and was told to come in 15 minutes to pick it up. Because I know RESTAURANT is always a bit slow, I waited 25 minutes before heading over. I walked in and waited literally 15 minutes before someone came out of the kitchen- there was only one table of a few folks at that time and when the owner finally came out, it was to give them some tea, then he headed back to the kitchen.
All said and done, I literally waited 35 minutes, standing by the register, without so much as being acknowledged. Finally, I just left and grabbed something elsewhere. Normally, I’d have popped back into the kitchen or something, but I have a cold (hence the takeout) and just didn’t have the energy. Plus, you shouldn’t have to do that anyway.
45 Minutes later, I had a missed call from the owner (I keep my phone on silent, so I didn’t immediately notice). Then the wife called and I picked up. She asked where I was and so I explained what happened. Her response was to yell, “Do not do that again! We now know to not trust you!”
Wait. . . what? I wait for 35 minutes in the front of your store without so much as an acknowledgement and you can’t. . . trust me? No way.
They’ve made it clear they don’t want my business, which is a shame, but what can you do? [/spoiler]
Fair enough. . . or so I thought. I almost immediately got a really odd private message on Yelp from someone named Max S. (the owner’s name is Max), written not too differently than the way in which the owner speaks.
“Hello miss,I have been watching you that day when my wife had a lot of customers, I can’t let u damage RESTAURANT, this place should be the greatest restruant, istead of wining which I’m sorry to say you could say something they deserve respect miss.I do not want you to take this offense please just listen I know these people and,they are the nicest people you can meet period, they are faithful people and,respect your service,you should say sorry for this childish article,they are christain and,are a family have some courtesy to them.I hope you come back miss you have a amazing day:D
Godbless”
That whole email is more strange than annoying (despite calling my childish), so I just ignored it.
Then today (so, 3 months later), I got this from a newly created Yelp account:
“Why is it that for all the times you had positive experiences with the RESTAURANT, you never once gave a good review, but the instant something went wrong with them you rant on and on and on about that ONE bad experience? That’s very mean of you. Did it ever occur to you that they were having trouble in the kitchen? I used to work there and know for a fact that there have been issues with the stove, which they recently had to replace. Also, it is not THEIR fault that they didn’t know you were there. It was YOURS. Cold or not, you should have told them you were there to pick up your order. Being sick is no excuse. Even if they came out briefly and saw you standing there, they could have very easily forgotten you. There is only ONE cook in that kitchen. You’d have known that if you’d bothered to look. Also, I do not blame the lady for yelling at you over the phone. In her eyes you tricked them into cooking a meal that you had no intention of picking up, because you were too lazy to tell them you were there. Don’t you blame your problems on others. Have you any idea how hard it is to work in an understaffed restaurant with malfunctioning appliances? Obviously not. By the way, you owe RESTAURANT some POSITIVE reviews for all the positive experiences you did have. Also, I think it is very pathetic of you to refuse to go back just because of ONE bad experience. Do you disown friends or family over ONE argument?”
Alright, now it’s worth noting: my positive reviews are still where they’ve always been-- right there on the Yelp page, so this girl is just dumb. That said, this is crazy. I reported that message to Yelp and then went back to the restaurant’s page, updated it with the two harassing emails I’ve received, and that’s that. I can’t help but wonder if I should have just deleted my original post though.
So, what would you do in that situation?
