Bad Reviews

novella1186

Do you write them? 

How bad do things have to be for you to be compelled to write one? 

Did you review all your vendors after your wedding? 

Did you give any of them a bad review? If so, why? 

Would you try to fix the situation/give the business/vendor/whoever a chance to redeem themselves before writing a bad review? 

There are a few vendors that I'm genuinely excited to write good reviews for because they have been awesome and I would gladly recommend them to anyone I know. 

My florist on the other hand... I posted this in another thread but I'm getting fed up. I haven't been able to reach them and they never bother to return my calls or emails. We had a final payment due last week which we never paid, because when I asked for a final invoice (several weeks ago) no one ever bothered to send it. I finally got an e-mail the other day from the owner that her assistant should have gotten in touch with me, but she never did. Then I was told they'd send me an invoice yesterday but they never sent it. 

After several weeks of trying to schedule a phone meeting with them, they finally scheduled one and then immediately cancelled, and then didn't respond when I tried to reschedule. Still have no idea what the final payment amount is (since I changed some things in the contract) or when they're supposed to deliver the flowers, and I'm starting to wonder if they'll even bother to show up. I'm thinking that if I end up reviewing them, it will be a negative review, given all these issues. 

I'm curious to know what knotties have done in situations with vendors and potential bad reviews. 

Cookie Pusher

Do you write them? Yes, I think I'm a pretty honest, fair reviewer. I definitely have more positive reviews than negative ones, but I'm not afraid to give an accurate assessment of a business.

How bad do things have to be for you to be compelled to write one? 1-star reviews are pretty rare for me. Like, there have to be little to no redeeming qualities about a business to get a 1-star. Most really negative experiences still manage to get 2 stars from me.

Did you review all your vendors after your wedding?  All of the ones that are reviewable, yes.

Did you give any of them a bad review? If so, why? Luckily, no. Everyone we worked with was awesome.

Would you try to fix the situation/give the business/vendor/whoever a chance to redeem themselves before writing a bad review? Depends on the situation. If it's something that's even correctable, yes. If it's something that isn't, well, no. If a vendor forgot something or gave me the wrong item, I'd let them find a way to make it better. If there was a health code violation or a safety issue, no, I'd want other people to be aware of the potential dangers.

lyndausvi

I do not write reviews.    I have written corporate about poor service and/or a bad situation.

I didn't have an issues with an vendors to write one for the wedding.

I always give a business an opportunity to fix things.

I read reviews, but with a grain of salt.  I only look at ones that are less then 6 months old.  Even then the ones that are more recent are better.  Then I look at the complaint.  Just because there is a bad review doesn't stop me necessarily from still using the business.

I doesn't trust Yelp at all.  EVERY FUCKING DAY I get a call from Yelp sales people.  Basically if we advertise with them we will see less bad reviews (which we don't really have any already).   Back in Indy a Yelp group all but demanded DH to give them a free reception.  They basically blackmail you into doing it or you will see more bad reviews.          

 Knowing that stuff I take reviews with a grain of salt. Especially from the big players.

littlepep

I have definitely written reviews for non-wedding stuff. Since we haven't had ours, I haven't done that yet. 

I try to right really good reviews if I've had an exceptional experience, but I've also written critical reviews. 

I think comments like lack of communication that you've had can be useful for other people. Reviews where people say dumb stuff like "this restaurant only has coke and not pepsi; it was terrible!" are not at all helpful. Like Lynda, I read the with a grain a salt. I do think they can be useful though. 

knottie9c5ed33df4bbd226

I plan to. I am super into Yelp and review constantly. If I have horrible service, I will write a horrible review. A lot of times the company contacts to apologize.

ETA: I also write great reviews when I have great service.

KatieinBkln

I'm much more likely to write bad reviews for bad service than bad product. Usually, they can fix bad products/give you a refund/etc., but if someone is rude and management doesn't bother doing anything when I bring it up in person? (or the bad service comes from an actual manager). Bad review.

I try not to get emotional in the review itself. Just state facts. 

Even then, I review things very rarely. I think 99% of my yelp reviews are positive ones for small businesses I want to see succeed.

Yelp is a huge can of worms anyway--half the time it's some dumbass who is mad that the take-out sushi joint "lacks ambience" or a rant about how terrible their day was going and then the restaurant was out of feta. Bishes be cray.

I will also say though--companies that reply to every. Single. Bad review. with extremely defensive posts explaining why their policy is X or why this person is not representing their experience properly? I avoid those places like the plague. It shows they're much more interested in how they appear on Yelp than in how they actually run their business. Even if it appears they are technically in the right, I find the need to reply to random people on Yelp with novels explaining how incorrect they are to be childish-looking and ridiculous. Take the high road, company. Do good work, encourage your pleased customers to write good reviews, and the rest takes care of itself.

Novella, your florist sounds like a nightmare. Yeesh. Can you go to their location in person or is it too far from home to be reasonable?

lyndausvi

hicoco said:

I plan to. I am super into Yelp and review constantly. If I have horrible service, I will write a horrible review. A lot of times the company contacts to apologize.

do you try to get it fixed at the time?

amelisha

I do read restaurant and hotel reviews, but carefully. I discount old reviews, reviews from people who review everything or even most things negatively, and anything that isn't a concrete issue or obviously a personal preference ("I didn't like the ambiance," "The salad dressing wasn't to my taste," "The server was young and seemed a little new,", "The beds were too firm") I also ignore anything that seems overdramatic (I doubt the owner yelled at you and told you never to darken their doorstep again when you asked for extra pickles) or nitpicky (really, the front desk didn't tell you when the pool opens and so you hate this place?)

I write reviews on Trip Advisor because I find it helpful for booking my own travel and want to give back to the community, but I try to stick to the facts and post photos when possible. And if I have an actual problem, I always give the place an opportunity to fix it and I always try to ask politely and pleasantly. Only 2 of my 30-something hotel reviews on Trip Advisor are poor ones.

I feel pretty strongly that it's much more effective to speak to management than to try to air my grievances on the Internet in general though. More effective in my mind.

minttobemrsb

I ALMOST wrote a bad review about one of my vendors, but at the last minute, I decided that I should wait and see how everything else went. I'm really glad I did because when everything settled and they finally called me to straighten things out, I was polite, but honest about how I felt. The new coordinator is doing a great job and continues to apologize over something that happened before she was even hired. We did not ask them to AT ALL, but they even cut a few minor costs as a way to make us feel better. 

When all is said and done, I will probably write reviews for my vendors. I like to read other people's experience with someone before I book so I'll do it back. 

novella1186

lyndausvi said:

I do not write reviews.    I have written corporate about poor service and/or a bad situation.

I didn't have an issues with an vendors to write one for the wedding.

I always give a business an opportunity to fix things.

I read reviews, but with a grain of salt.  I only look at ones that are less then 6 months old.  Even then the ones that are more recent are better.  Then I look at the complaint.  Just because there is a bad review doesn't stop me necessarily from still using the business.

I doesn't trust Yelp at all.  EVERY FUCKING DAY I get a call from Yelp sales people.  Basically if we advertise with them we will see less bad reviews (which we don't really have any already).   Back in Indy a Yelp group all but demanded DH to give them a free reception.  They basically blackmail you into doing it or you will see more bad reviews.          

 Knowing that stuff I take reviews with a grain of salt. Especially from the big players.

I don't trust yelp either. Several months ago we had a horrible experience at a restaurant. Like so far beyond anything I had ever encountered before. It was really awful. I hardly ever write reviews but I felt compelled to write one so I did. I just stated the facts and kept it simple, didn't use any bad language or anything. The next day, my review had been removed.

novella1186

KatieinBkln said:

I'm much more likely to write bad reviews for bad service than bad product. Usually, they can fix bad products/give you a refund/etc., but if someone is rude and management doesn't bother doing anything when I bring it up in person? (or the bad service comes from an actual manager). Bad review.

I try not to get emotional in the review itself. Just state facts. 

Even then, I review things very rarely. I think 99% of my yelp reviews are positive ones for small businesses I want to see succeed.

Yelp is a huge can of worms anyway--half the time it's some dumbass who is mad that the take-out sushi joint "lacks ambience" or a rant about how terrible their day was going and then the restaurant was out of feta. Bishes be cray.

I will also say though--companies that reply to every. Single. Bad review. with extremely defensive posts explaining why their policy is X or why this person is not representing their experience properly? I avoid those places like the plague. It shows they're much more interested in how they appear on Yelp than in how they actually run their business. Even if it appears they are technically in the right, I find the need to reply to random people on Yelp with novels explaining how incorrect they are to be childish-looking and ridiculous. Take the high road, company. Do good work, encourage your pleased customers to write good reviews, and the rest takes care of itself.

Novella, your florist sounds like a nightmare. Yeesh. Can you go to their location in person or is it too far from home to be reasonable?

Unfortunately they're about 3 hours from our house so I'd pretty much have to take a vacation day from work to get there during business hours

And I 100% agree with you on the businesses who write super long defensive responses on yelp. I've seen that before and I stayed away, not because of the bad review but because of how the business responded to it.

wandajune6

lyndausvi said:

I do not write reviews.    I have written corporate about poor service and/or a bad situation.

I didn't have an issues with an vendors to write one for the wedding.

I always give a business an opportunity to fix things.

I read reviews, but with a grain of salt.  I only look at ones that are less then 6 months old.  Even then the ones that are more recent are better.  Then I look at the complaint.  Just because there is a bad review doesn't stop me necessarily from still using the business.

I doesn't trust Yelp at all.  EVERY FUCKING DAY I get a call from Yelp sales people.  Basically if we advertise with them we will see less bad reviews (which we don't really have any already).   Back in Indy a Yelp group all but demanded DH to give them a free reception.  They basically blackmail you into doing it or you will see more bad reviews.          

 Knowing that stuff I take reviews with a grain of salt. Especially from the big players.

This. In particularly egregious cases I'll also write to every member of their board (BestBuy has gotten that treatment from me). I find it much more effective in resolving issues.

I read results to get a feel for things but that's it. I only write reviews if I'm thrilled by the service or was grossly inconvenienced (i.e. The vendor who took my deposit and contract but decided a few weeks before the wedding that she was too busy for the job.).