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So I debated where to post this, and I thought this forum was as good as any!
I had a crappy experience at a "spa" recently. The spa was pretty disorganized. It was my first visit and it was a little out of the way. But I had some errands I wanted to do that weren't far from it. I made an appointment, arrived 15 minutes ahead as requested and the place looked closed. The phone number was disconnected. As you can imagine, that wasn't what I expected. I left a negative review explaining the situation.
Within in a minute I got a call from one of the managers saying my appt wasn't cancelled and the service provider was on the way. They showed up 5 minutes before my appt and things were just rushed feeling. There were some other details that were off as well.
I finished my service, settled my bill. The manager was out in the lobby and had lots of excuses about the place and situation. At this point I was just annoyed and didn't feel that relaxed. The treatment was fine, but the experience sucked.
And here is where it went extra sideways. I got several phone calls from the owners about my review and wanting me to change it. I did update and added more details about my service but on the whole wasn't impressed. Part of the "spa" experience is atmosphere and the customer service. They sucked and were disorganized. That makes it not worth paying more than the cheap place! Poor value. I couldn't believe they were so aggressive about changing my review. They should have spent all that energy on making sure their staff shows up on time, and they make it easy and comfortable to do business with them. All of my issues were things easily in their control.
I rarely post negative reviews, when I do it felt like something was egregious. I do try to leave constructive comments in any negative review to be as objective as possible.
Have you ever posted a negative review? What happened?
Are you saying you wrote a review on Yelp while you were still there in the parking lot, and the manager called you immediately and you then went in and had your appointment?
I have posted negative reviews. The reason is that when I see tons of positive reviews, I take that to heart and may hire the person, or go to the locale, and then be disappointed. And I have my suspicions that in some cases, the owners HAVE received bad reviews but begged and pleaded and special-coupon-coded people into deleting their negative reviews or changing them to positives. In which case, what's the point or reviews?
I had a truly awful experience with a contractor who had GLOWING reviews. I couldn't believe how great the reviews were in light of the service we received. When we turned down the work (we did have a choice) we were basically hounded and harassed on the phone and threatened about how the house item we wanted work on was going to catch fire and we were all going to be trapped inside a burning house, basically. I mean it was out of this world. They kept calling my husband and being nasty about how much danger we were putting ourselves in by not hiring them specifically (v. someone else, they didn't even know who that someone else was, BTW).
They then proceeded to charge us for something they had already admitted they themselves hadn't been charged for, or rather, they received a refund (they had gone ahead and submitted to the county to have the work done or something? - the county gave them their money back immediately). Apparently the guy who told us that didn't tell the home office he told us, and they charged us. So these people not only didn't actually pay, they also got a few free hundred dollars from us for nothing at all (this was in ADDITION) to the charge for their having "spent the time," so that excuse is out).
After all of the cr*p we went through just to shake these people off our leg (for DARING not to hire them for the work) we were then charged for something they had previously said THEY'D never been charged for. I caught them out on that and the receptionist was incredibly snotty to me and all but called me a liar. I mean this went beyond, LOL!
I left a negative review and they left a response that they were GLAD to reimburse me. They also flat-out asked (I mean publicly, in the response, the nerve) me to change their review to a positive in light of the fact that they were so good as to offer to reimburse me (for a bogus charge for something that never happened, that I paid anyway to get them off my back). I responded that, yes, now that I had left a negative review they were willing to reimburse, but please read back and see the chain of events, THOSE had not changed, that WAS my experience with them and if this is what they were doing to avoid the negative reviews, I didn't feel good about myself just sticking it to the next person that way (i.e. not warning them) just so I could shave a few bucks off an already-bogus charge.
Those weren't my exact words, LOL. But you get the gist.
I've posted a 5 star review and gotten a message from the owner.
I've posted 3 star review and described why I only gave it 3 stars, the owner messaged me and said if I come back, just mention my name and I'll have a $25 credit (this happened to my friend as well for the same restaurant and she had already claimed her credit).
I've posted 1 star, saying if I could post -5, I would. Those ones, I haven't received a response from.
As a Yelper, if I'm not sure where to go (food wise), I turn to Yelp. Yelp saves lives.
You should perhaps even post that the owner is now harassing you. That is not cool.
I've posted a 5 star review and gotten a message from the owner.
I've posted 3 star review and described why I only gave it 3 stars, the owner messaged me and said if I come back, just mention my name and I'll have a $25 credit (this happened to my friend as well for the same restaurant and she had already claimed her credit).
I've posted 1 star, saying if I could post -5, I would. Those ones, I haven't received a response from.
As a Yelper, if I'm not sure where to go (food wise), I turn to Yelp. Yelp saves lives.
You should perhaps even post that the owner is now harassing you. That is not cool.
^ That's the thing (the underlined)...what on earth good are reviews if they can just be bought off?
We may as well not be using Yelp at all in that case.
Are you saying you wrote a review on Yelp while you were still there in the parking lot, and the manager called you immediately and you then went in and had your appointment?
Yup. I was about to leave and was looking on Yelp for somewhere else to go. The manager called while I was about to make an appt at another nearby place. They were going to let me walk in. I was in my car at that point figuring out where to go next.
I was shocked that they called literally 1 minute after my review.
I post to Yelp occasionally. I try my level best to be as objective as possible. And I tend to hesitate before giving a one-star review, chiefly because I know someone's livelihood could be affected. Hey, there's not a business on the planet that hasn't had a bad day. So I'll go easy on the non-chain places with the one-star reviews. You really have to not just be incompetent, but discourteous to get one of those from me.
The other thing? There are incidents where people have actually been sued for one-star reviews. So if you give one, be sure you can back it up.
But, no, I wouldn't change it based on the plea of a manager.
I upped my review to 2 stars since the massage was fine. But not going back. I had only looked at the first page of reviews and they were all good. I later scanned all and found 2 more that had a similar experience to mine and the provider didn't even show up in one.
I've heard from restaurants when I've given them a less than positive review. Their responses haven't been nasty but more along the lines of something like this "We're sorry you didn't like (the place), when you come in again please identify yourself and we will make sure that you are satisfied." I never take them up on the offer because doing so would mean they will know who I am.
I ate in a restaurant that at one time (years ago when I was a kid) had a great reputation but over the years slid into mediocrity as more restaurants came along and were doing the same cuisine even better. The dining experience when I went was just fine---good service, decent but uninspired food. I gave them 3 stars and pointed out the good things but then mentioned that there were other restaurants that were doing it better. The GM sent me a message saying she was sorry that I didn't like it and could I please contact corporate and tell them what they could do differently. I ignored it.
One amusing response I got for a place that I gave 4 stars to because most of the items were good---they did have a couple of items---one was a smoothie, the other a honey-ginger "healthy" drink---both were downright terrible. The manager got in touch and told me to let him know when I will be in next time so that he could tell me which menu items to order LOL!
To those who post a bad, but well deserved review---save any receipts you may have. I know someone on Yelp who posted a bad review of an esthetician, who harassed them, accusing them of never being their shop. The owner then wrote to Yelp HQ with their accusations. Yelp took down the review, and the yelper had no proof that they were there.
Also, when I look at Yelp reviews for a business, I do the following --- I look at the 5 star reviews, then look at who wrote them. If it's someone who freely gives out 5 stars, then I take their reviews with a grain of salt. Same thing with the one-star reviews---If it's someone who gives out way too many one star reviews, I look closely at what their complaints are all about---and also take their reviews with a grain of salt.
I leave Yelp reviews, and was contacted once by the manager of an upscale restaurant here. I didn't change my review because the things I didn't like about the place wouldn't have been resolved by going BACK.
I do think it's VERY unusual that the spa people responded to Yelp immediately. I mean, it makes no sense. If they were THAT worried about the business, it would be easier to just do a god job than to chase down and hound negative reviewers.
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