While it must be hard to read negative reviews of your work, business owners should come to terms with the fact that customers are going to turn to online outlets to discuss their experiences. The good, the bad, the ugly –Â it all gets aired for the benefit of consumers. Which makes it really an unfortunate display of unprofessional behavior when businesses come out swinging against their reviewers.
The Yelp reviews overall aren’t too harsh, and mostly focus on the texture of the cake, from things like “sample which was GREAT and scrumptious, but the cake was dry,” and “I threw 2 of them away because they were so dry,” to “The cake part is pretty dense, almost as dense as a brownie.”
And yet on multiple reviews, someone responding with the name of the cupcake shop in their Yelp username has posted with an unprofessional level of vitriol. Oh, and the “Y” button on the keyboard must be broken.
In one review, the customer admitted to trying to convince a worker to swap out some of the cupcakes in an assortment, as she didn’t want a few of the flavors. She ends the review with: “Will I be back? Hmm, well, if the proceeds are for charity and I happen to be in the neighborhood, sure thing, but I won’t make the trip out if it’s just for these cupcakes.”
To which the presumed business owner replies:
I was happi to hear about the pathetic pleading on your part ,to get one of mi girls to break polici. Had [eponymous business owner] been there, it would have never happened!
With regard to your comment about limited flavors, we have a varieti of 27 organic cupcakes available. Dang, how mani flavors do you realli need? (no need to answer – I don’t want to hear it)
You give people too mani options they’ll get confused.
[Our business] bakes 6 days a week to create delicious, fresh, organic cupcakes. What’s not fresh is your bad attitude and crappi disposition. What you refer to as dense, is actualli, qualiti, something you might not be familiar with.
Will you be back??? The question is “are you welcome back?” “Probabli not.” it depends on my mood.
Once some of the negative responses by the business owner come flowing in, a thread started by one reviewer leads to a four-part “Surrealiti Check” by the owner.
“The owner says dissatisfied customers are stupid and don’t know quality cupcakes, then has the nerve to say they aren’t welcome in her own store,” says one reviewer, while another chimes in with, “When I was there she had 4 flavors out of 27. Is this a business or performance art? Totally surreal.”
As to the flavors offered, the purported business owner offers these two “Surrealiti Checks”:
“Surrealiti Check #2 [Our] organic CupCakes are an artistic expression therefore, certain flavors are baked as inspired. “Check Mate”
Surrealiti Check #3 During the week we have 6 flavors available, on weekends we have 9 or more flavors however, it would not have mattered because it would not have satisfied you. “Check Mate”
It might be difficult not to respond to negative opinions of your business, but in the end, holding our tongue and trying to instead improve the customer experience will be a lot more productive than lashing out.
*Thanks for the tip, Maria!
More From Consumerist
-
Shop Owner Drives To Customer’s House After Bad Yelp Review
-
Is The Gilded Age Of Cupcakes Finally Ending?
-
Yelp Fights Against Outing Anonymous Reviewers In Lawsuit By Carpet Cleaner
-
Restaurant Celebrates Bad Yelp Reviews By Broadcasting Them In The Restrooms
-
Is Obnoxious Advertising A ‘Firsthand Customer Experience’ You Can Yelp About?
Posting in defense of your own business while not understanding the difference between the letters “i” and “y” is a half-baked idea.
Yes. She really takes the cake.
> Ies. She realli takes the cake.
FTFY
FTFI
i see what iou did there.
She’s obviously going for the cutesy-artsy effect.
Oh wait, I mean “Obiousli going for the cutesi-artsi effect”.
::rimshot::
The no-y thing almost seems like a protest against Yelp.
Gee, great business model. I’m sure I’d go out of my way to visit this place……not. Besides, isn’t the cupcake shop craze over now?
“It might be difficult not to respond to negative opinions of your business, but in the end, holding our tongue and trying to instead improve the customer experience will be a lot more productive than lashing out.”
If this were written by anyone but Mary Beth Quirk I’d say the lack of a “y” in “your” was a clever snipe at the owner’s disuse of the letter.
As it is, though, I’m going to call it yet another typo.
This isn’t a typo…MB’s sentance is fine. It is aimed at all persons, not just the owner.
The ironi in your post is delicious. Just like our cupcakes alwais are.
First people whacked Phil… and now Mary Beth? Gawd.
It’s really tacky.
It’s really tacky.
It’s realli tacki.
Haters gotta hate. Phil’s gone, so you just gotta hate someone else.
Off the cupcake topic, but, did I miss the goodbye post from Phil, or did he just disappear?
Phil posted in an Open Thread a few months back, so there were no formal goodbyes.
I’ve wondered about Phil, too – does anyone remember when/where the goodbye post was?
His Kindle authoring hobby is off to a rough start:
http://www.amazon.com/Stormin-Mormon-ebook/product-reviews/B005ECYDQG/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Oh yeah, this cupcake shop has all the hallmarks of a long-lived, lucrative business.
Maybe bekause the name Yelp starts with the letter “y”, the owner dekided to, in her own way, boykott Yelp by not using it.
Seems legit.
I see what you did there…
Only problem is she uses y in words like you instead of typing iou or ewe or eew…
I don’t mind the owners comments…
I don’t really like cupcakes too much, myself, so I don’t really understand why people get so worked up over them. You don’t like the flavors..texture… OH, must go write a online review.
…isn’t that the point of an online review though?
Right, because online reviews are solely written when you are happy with a product. Do you hear yourself?
You write a review if you feel like reviewing the product, whether you are satisfied with it or not. And most people are more inclined to tell others about a bad experience than a good one. So why not?
It’s cute how you complain about the merit of other people’s complaints.
I think you can get away with an attitude like that if you are the Soup Nazi. Dry cupcakes? Not so much.
I would like to start using “check mate” as punctuation to my sentences but I just can’t see it working.
The Cupcake Nazy.
When you search Google for the name of the place, part of its name substitutes the “i” where the “y” should be. This businessowner is taking her branding to a whole new extreme. Yikes!
Well with dry, non-tasty cupcakes all she has is branding.
Oh Craaaziiiii Ladiiiii!
Check and mate! lul
I am surprised that we actualli have a non-redacted store name (The Cupcake Ladi) and location. Realli.
I just checked out the website and now I’m blind.
I can’t figure out if it’s Geocities or Angelfire…
It’s clearly Angelfire.
I just checked it out, and the website combined with her cupcakes has convinced me she’s the most arrogant and self-centered person on earth, and in no way equipped the customer service side of business.
“and her comments”, not “and her cupcakes” (although an argument could be made for both).
Now now now…remember you can judge the business, but not the individual.
In this case, isn’t it the same thing? If she’s a one-woman show (as I assume for this type of business) then all decisions on product, theme, and yes, customer service, are all her decision and thus representative of her personally and how she wants her business run.
I’m smelling the hallmark of some alimoni, amirite?
She also pronounces “Cool Whip” funni.
you can tell that the keyboard isnt broken if you look at the personal profile of the person that posted the pictures of the cupcakes on the shops page, the personal profile has a few reviews of other places, using I in place of Y a lot of times, but there are a few y’s that show up here and there, so no, the keyboard is fine, that person is just typing that way thinking they are cute or something, but its kind of hard to take you seriously when you are lashing back at reviews that arent glowing, i have a feeling that cupcake shop probably isnt going to open much longer
Read the owners comments on yelp…wow, she’s nuts… One reviewer went on to say how the cupcake was delicious and she could have eaten a whole jar of the topping… and the owner seems to have gone off on her about that because its not something you can buy in stores…I was quite confused by her response.
The shops website makes me want to break things with the horrible font choices and the constant misspellings because the letter y is the devil?
If I’m ever in the area…I’ll stay far away…
I noticed that, too.
YOU FAILED TO MENTION THE MILLION LAYERS OF CRAP IN MY PRODUCT!
What I also find very confusing is how it sounds like she is making people buy flavors they don’t want. Why would they do that?
I was also confused. Methinks the owner needs to get back on her meds, or get stronger ones.
Oh I just figured that out. By saying “jar of the topping” the reviewer implied that it came from a jar. Yes, the owner is psychotic.
I think it’s pretty obvious why they substitute “y” with “i” if you look at the shop’s name. It’s their brand. Look at Zorbaz.
I can’t believe it took this many posts for someone to point that out.
Yes, it’s branding. Weird, ineffective branding, but branding nonetheless.
I think using that style of branding in every type of written communication is extremely off-putting; it doesn’t give the feel of a cohesive ‘look’ so much as it gives the impression of someone unused to writing in standard English.
Or a 14-year old girl.
“Get bad review on website, insult reviewers.”
The business is called “The CupCake Ladi” so using i in place of y is probably to preserve her branding. That being said, it looks incredibly moronic.
The first quote leaves out tbe best part! She opens that little tirade about changing out some flavors with “Dear Frosting Wh#*e”
LMAO!
Was about to post the same thing – that’s pure gold right there.
The owner sounds like she is mentalli instable.
Is it possible these responses were the work of a competitor?
Also, per the site…their cupcakes are 97% organic? LOL…
and 3% crazi
The other 3% is 100% bullshit.
Sorry, Bullshit is 100% natural, so that is part of the 97%.
I think that may be the organic part. The rest is made of printed out y’s.
Is this some sort of artistic exercise in pseudo-Italian? I don’t get it…
I loved that the only review that the owner seemed happy with was the one that said “The Cup Cake Ladi is schizophrenic.”
Actually I don’t think the use of the ‘i’ is intentional branding. Based on the wording of that very-hard-on-the-eyes website, it seems like English is not her first language. One of the lines is “mani organazations that are close to ji heart such as animals, children & the homeless. “
ji heart? That’s not just a replacement of ‘y’ with ‘i’. And some of the wording also makes me suspect ESL.
Ok I think I’m going to revise that thought… Just read one of the yelp replies and this was part of it:
“We lQQk forwqrd to your next visit w/us.”
Hmmm, yeah I’m going with “off her rocker”?
If the swapping out of y’s for i’s wasn’t so consistent, I might agree with you…but this looks pretty deliberate to me.
Again…weirdly off-putting, but deliberate.
LQQK is common eBay lameness. The Qs are suppose to look like eyes looking at something.
Yeah, yeah, I know, lame. But the more you know!
When I see a business person answer reviews with poorly written, misspelled responses I usually avoid them. If they can’t be bothered to write a coherent sentence, then they probably aren’t worth the time or money.
Call me a plebe, but I don’t get the cupcake fad.
I was walking thru Georgetown in DC a few years ago and people were lined up around the block in 95F degree heat to get into this snazzy new cupcake shop. Weird.
If it was Georgetown Cupcakes, I find them to be mighty tasty. Not stand-in-the-heat tasty, but a fine specimen of the genre, if you’re into them.
They still do. It’s the main reason I have NOT tried them yet.
Sounds lyke someone ysn’t gettyng enough fyber in theyr dyet.
haha, someone posted a review on her page today that apparently is referencing the story being posted here
“apparently someone doesn’t understand the Striesand effect, and now this bipolar owner’s tirades against paying customers’ complaints has become a national news story.
I wouldn’t eat these cupcakes if they paid me too just based on reading these reviews by the “owner”"
Travis H.
Boynton Beach, FL
Are people really concerned that cupcakes be organic?
Frosting made from all-natural ingredients might still be considered organic.
Organic doesn’t mean healthy. I won’t lose weight if I only eat organic beef and organic sugar. I probably won’t live very long either.
I can’t get over her insulting someone who left her a GOOD review.
Stand by for full saturation, Streisand Effect generator is now active.
Surreality… Surrealiti…
Did she really use a made-up word beat to death by Vh1 and then purposefully misspell it?? Christ on a cracker, the cupcake lady is a true loony.
Hahah, organic artisitic expression cakes. Got it. Not meant for eating.
Don’t forget! It’s a PERFORMANCE art, not an art like sculpting or painting! /sarc
Is this the owner, or an angry ex-employee IMPERSONATING the owner?
Aaaand, the Yelp bombing begins.
LOL @ 5 “one star” reviews (so far) today. . .
Anyone notice all the good reviews are filtered? Most likely because they were fake; most of them were written by accounts created just to write glowing reviews for the CCL. She really is crazy or very naive about how Yelp works.
Yeah, it seems like it might be a red flag for the first 18 reviews to post on the same dai. . .I mean, day.
Among the filtered review, there’s a few that look real (accounts with multiple reviews already). But most were posted on Feb 22 and are by accounts which only reviewed that place. Very common if you follow yelp.
This is from the ‘About this Business’ tab on yelp
97% Organic CupCakes, 99% Organic Gluten Free, $100% Vegan Small Cakes, 99% Organic Pistachio Sugar Cookies, Organic Gelato, Organic Coffee
Creating the worst tasting organic cupcakes on earth. Don’t forget we are home of the *over priced* generousli filled organic cupcakes .. ..Horrendous cupcakes that are soooo ugli it just might hurt your eyes. We bake ‘em, you chomp ‘em down. Smooches
99% Organic Gluten Free? Does that mean that there is 1% organic gluten and 99% non-organic gluten?
Business are out to make money, and doing that requires customer satisfaction and return customers. When customers post bad reviews, the bad news spreads faster than good news. Businesses have to play “Firefighter” in some cases by posting rebuttals. Honestly, if someone had said something bad about you, wouldn’t you think it’s FAIR to be able to tell your side of the story?
A lot of times, “customers” often think they’re entitled to everything and try to scam the system, and when they don’t get their way, they think that posting negative reviews on Yelp or other sites will allow them to exact their revenge. They think that the business will then try to suck up to them and offer rewards to bring them back. What they forget is that businesses reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.
If you made an edible item that someone didn’t like and then that someone publicly shared the negative experience with everyone, how would you react?
Sorry dude. Sounds like you’re sticking up for an asshole business owner, it’s not gonna work. You asked, “If you made an edible item that someone didn’t like and then that someone publicly shared the negative experience with everyone, how would you react?”
My answer: I would take that feedback into consideration and if it was merely an exception to an overly positive response from customers, I wouldn’t worry too much. If many people talk trash about the product, I would have to strongly consider altering the product to comply with the demands of the customers, or risk losing them and my business in the process. Never would I talk shit back to them, insult them, and go so far as to do so online for other potential customers to see. You’re an idiot to stand up for abysmal customer service, and you can’t claim you’re just playing devil’s advocate either.
I get trying to look at it in a balanced light, but this lady clearly has some mental issues. A small specialty boutique lives and dies on customer service and satisfaction. To verbally abuse your customers is bad enough, to do so in a semi-literate fashion makes it even worse.
Plus have you seen her website? Even if her cupcakes were made of magical rainbows and she herself was a customer service god, the website alone would be enough to warrant the heckling.
I’d reach out to the customer and try to improve.
This stupid witch even bad mouths some of the POSITIVE reviews.
How would I react? “I’m sorry you had a poor taste experience with our cupcakes. Many customers enjoy the rich, dense flavour of our products, but we understand that tastes vary. I hope that you will give us another chance, as perhaps a different flavour may better suit your palate.”
I like how the owner referred to the woman in the first quote as “Dear Frosting Wh#*e”
So classy.
Granted, the woman did describe herself as a “Frosting Wh#*e” in her own comment… For the owner to use the term and just overall be a butthole was uncalled for, though.
y
I’m not sure what pisses me off more. The really rude lady or her spelling.. I’m staying literally a mile or two from here in reston. I soo want to drop off a book on how to use the letter “y”
It’s not just the letter Y. She mispells other words too for “cutesy” effect. She’s like the Nell of cupcake shop owners, having invented her own CupCake language.
Oh my god… Has anyone checked out the actual website? It’s an eyesore! I wouldn’t visit the place based on the ridiculous site alone!
http://www.thecupcakeladi.com
Every now and then she slips and uses a ‘y’ on the site.
Think she has permission from the copyright holder to use Jimmy Durante singing Make Someone Happy on her website?
I love supporting local businesses. Negative reviews at Yelp can be a deterrent, but I account for differences in opinion. Insulting, negative responses from the business owner are a guaranteed way to never get my feet in the door. She sounds like a holier-than-thou b*tch, and I wouldn’t want to shop at her place.
OOOH, look! Somone taught Shaniqua how to use a computer!
She’s not using the “Y” because the male chromosome is XY. Using the letter “Y” is analogous to submitting to the male dominated hierarchy or whatever. The only valid chromosme is XX.
But what did the letters A and O ever do to her?? “lQQk forwqrd”… She obviously has a vendetta against vowels.
Yelp. The review website that refuses to publish negative comments from newer members.
You’re better off posting on craigslist.
M00se bites can be nasti
Wow, the lunatic even bad mouths some of the positive reviews.
What an utter arse.
Fail soon
Can someone please explain the whole cupcake fad to me ? I though cupcakes were for children.
I’m also amused how in her reply to the woman who called her schizophrenic she typed “We LQQK forward to seeing you again.”
QQ. For those who don’t do MMO games, QQ is calling someone a crybaby.
Appropriate pronoun given her condition.