Do you ever hesitate to leave a bad review?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reminded me of this article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/11/google-restaurant-reviews-owner-responses/675918/

Dragon Lee, a family-owned Chinese restaurant in upstate New York, is a beloved place. On Google, it has a 4.3-star average, with high praise for its crab rangoon. Every once in a while, though, someone leaves unhappy. The food “was absolutely terrible,” a Google reviewer recently wrote in a one-star rating—so bad that he later called to ask if there had been a sudden change of chefs. (There had not.) The reviewer, who didn’t respond to an interview request, wrote that he threw most of his meal in the garbage. “I will never go back,” he wrote. “Disgusting!”

Dragon Lee could have ignored the response, or apologized profusely. It did neither. “Learn to spell and use grammar,” the restaurant replied—calling out his misspelled “General Soe’s chicken.” The idea that Dragon Lee had changed chefs was laughable: Since the start of the pandemic, the restaurant wrote, no one has wanted to work long hours in a hot kitchen. “WE DO NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU AND YOU DO NOT DESERVE OUR SERVICE!” concluded the reply. “DO US AND EVERYONE A FAVOR, DO NOT EVER COME BACK TO THIS PLACE EVER AGAIN.”

This was not a one-off diatribe, a rogue manager on a bad day. Dragon Lee does this all the time. Perhaps you are a one-star reviewer who saw an outdated menu with lower prices? That “just shows how ignorant you actually are,” the restaurant responded—and it doesn’t care if you come back: “It’s one less dunce we have to deal with.” Publicly claim that its sesame chicken and chicken wings were raw? “If you didn’t like it. We understand … but saying it’s Raw, just shows us how uneducated and stupid you actually are,” the restaurant wrote. “Just saying.” In the restaurant world, where online reviews have an ascendant power over a business’s bottom line, Dragon Lee is doing what other spots can’t, or won’t: It’s arguing with its customers.

Yeah in their response the place wasn’t as direct (they aren’t Chinese after all lol) but they did push back hard.
I don’t regret deleting the review; at least I got it out of my system.
Just tired of the BS when a place charges a high price, expects tips, but the service they provide is underwhelming. It’s everywhere honestly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reminded me of this article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/11/google-restaurant-reviews-owner-responses/675918/

Dragon Lee, a family-owned Chinese restaurant in upstate New York, is a beloved place. On Google, it has a 4.3-star average, with high praise for its crab rangoon. Every once in a while, though, someone leaves unhappy. The food “was absolutely terrible,” a Google reviewer recently wrote in a one-star rating—so bad that he later called to ask if there had been a sudden change of chefs. (There had not.) The reviewer, who didn’t respond to an interview request, wrote that he threw most of his meal in the garbage. “I will never go back,” he wrote. “Disgusting!”

Dragon Lee could have ignored the response, or apologized profusely. It did neither. “Learn to spell and use grammar,” the restaurant replied—calling out his misspelled “General Soe’s chicken.” The idea that Dragon Lee had changed chefs was laughable: Since the start of the pandemic, the restaurant wrote, no one has wanted to work long hours in a hot kitchen. “WE DO NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU AND YOU DO NOT DESERVE OUR SERVICE!” concluded the reply. “DO US AND EVERYONE A FAVOR, DO NOT EVER COME BACK TO THIS PLACE EVER AGAIN.”

This was not a one-off diatribe, a rogue manager on a bad day. Dragon Lee does this all the time. Perhaps you are a one-star reviewer who saw an outdated menu with lower prices? That “just shows how ignorant you actually are,” the restaurant responded—and it doesn’t care if you come back: “It’s one less dunce we have to deal with.” Publicly claim that its sesame chicken and chicken wings were raw? “If you didn’t like it. We understand … but saying it’s Raw, just shows us how uneducated and stupid you actually are,” the restaurant wrote. “Just saying.” In the restaurant world, where online reviews have an ascendant power over a business’s bottom line, Dragon Lee is doing what other spots can’t, or won’t: It’s arguing with its customers.

Yeah in their response the place wasn’t as direct (they aren’t Chinese after all lol) but they did push back hard.
I don’t regret deleting the review; at least I got it out of my system.
Just tired of the BS when a place charges a high price, expects tips, but the service they provide is underwhelming. It’s everywhere honestly.

You didn't have to leave a tip. Why are you so hung up on this?

[Anonymous]

I once had a bad experience at a local donut place and was ready to write a bad review. Then I decided to just email the place instead to let them know that there was something majorly wrong with the donut I had received. The manager wrote back, apologized and explained they had had an issue with the batter that morning, and gave me a voucher for free donuts next time. I was glad I took this approach over a negative review.

[Anonymous]

If you're in the mood to write an essay, Yelp is not the place for it.

A review should say (if accurate): 'Here's what I ordered . . . . I liked _____, though ____ was not to my taste. The prices were good. The portions were large. The service was good. It might take a while to find a place to park.'

A review should not say unhelpful things like this: 'The waiter was rude. It was too expensive. The ___ was terrible. The ____ was not properly spiced. The portions were too small. They failed to serve one item we ordered, and we had to ask them to remove that from the check. Parking is impossible. I had passed this place and was curious and decided to stop by. I went with my GF and two other friends to celebrate the birthday of one of the friends. We got there about 8 and decided to start with a glass of wine. We told the waiter we needed to leave by 10 so we could get home in time to watch the new episode of Get Gotti, which we had heard would be a good one. Here's what the others thought about the place. I don't know why this place gets good reviews.'

[Anonymous]

I generally judge people who leave bad reviews based on one poor service experience, unless I agree that the service experience described was especially abysmal.

[Anonymous]

I can go to a terrible restaurant a couple of times to give to give it a fair shake and confirm it’s terrible — then you jump on the review sites and everyone loves their slop. Makes no sense. Review sites are worthless.

[Anonymous]

Majority of restaurants are serving so-so food made by depressed working poor (servant class). I wouldn’t feel good leaving a bad review that’ll exist on the internet forever. And frankly it’s just a waste of time.

Cook at home. Eating out has become a total racket.

[Anonymous]

Yes. The food was great. Why did you leave a bad review for? Cause you expected there would be seating and there wasn’t?! It’s like leaving a review for Giant food stores that they don’t have seating. It’s not their business model. You could have just been factual, that “the food was great. There is no seating, wish there was. It’s expensive”. Did you give them a 1 or 2 stars out of 5 for this?

I don’t give bad reviews for restaurants unless they really mess up. I probably have 1 star only one place. I bother giving reviews when a place is exceptionally good. For places that feel like a 3-4, nothing spectacular, but nothing particularly bad, I just don’t leave reviews.

[Anonymous]

I’ve left my share of 2-4 star reviews.
I think it’s useful to have a variety of opinions. I recently went to a place everyone was raving about online and had an underwhelming experience. My non fancy local place was better than this supposedly fancy city joint.
I guess nobody bothered to leave a review that they were underwhelmed.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they’re unnecessary. Why do you need to crush a business? Take your bad experience up with management. More often than not, a restaurant is more than willing to fix a wrong if you just let them know about it. Give a business a chance to fix an issue first before complaining publicly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they’re unnecessary. Why do you need to crush a business? Take your bad experience up with management. More often than not, a restaurant is more than willing to fix a wrong if you just let them know about it. Give a business a chance to fix an issue first before complaining publicly.

Restaurants fail because people don’t want to eat there. The restaurant needs to address why people don’t want to eat there. Restaurants are not failing because of poor reviews. They fail due to word of mouth. I’m not going to recommend a place if I don’t like it he food, service, price,value, etc. Restaurants fail because they are doing something wrong and everyone knows it. It’s not crushed by Yelp reviews. Some restaurants are just not good.

[Anonymous]

All the time. I blast them on Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor and Facebook.

If you show me a tip option at a place that is counter service, I promise I'll do everything I can to hurt your business.