Used carefully, Yelp can be a great resource to learn about the best local dining establishments and other businesses and keep up-to-date on new places that open. One thing has been lacking on the site for a long time, though: a sense of drama. Fortunately, the YouTube channel Real Actors Read Yelp is here to fix that gross oversight on Yelp’s part, hiring talented stage actors to get across the true agony of an improperly prepared sandwich. [More]
online reviews
Virginia Supreme Court: Businesses Can’t Censor Yelp Reviews Until They Prove Statements Are Libelous
By 1.2.13
As we’ve covered numerous times, online review sites like Yelp can become a nasty battleground between unhappy consumers and business owners who take issue with what they claim are overly negative, sometimes malicious, comments. Last week, Virginia’s highest court ruled against one such business that had tried to squelch a customer’s reviews. [More]
Hotel Claims Overzealous Employee Posted Sign Offering To Pay For Nice Online Reviews
By 12.14.12
Earlier today, we told you about the Texas hotel that offered guests up to $5 if they posted positive reviews on any number of popular travel sites. A rep for the hotel has since responded to say that this was a case of an overzealous employee acting on their own. [More]
Dallas Hotel Blatantly Offers To Pay Guests For Positive Online Reviews
By 12.14.12
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Here’s a tip to hotel managers around the world — Paying for reviews is bad enough. Advertising that you’re willing to pay for positive feedback is only going to communicate to your guests that you run a bad hotel and that you expect them to not have anything nice to say about your establishment. [More]
Restaurant Owner Posts Completely Reasonable Response To Negative Online Feedback
By 12.13.12
No, that isn’t a sarcastic headline. After being lambasted by readers’ comments on his recently opened eatery, a Washington, D.C., restaurateur did what some of his foodie kin could not — issued a restrained, thoughtful and apologetic response. [More]
Here’s Why You Should Ignore The Yelp Star Rating And Always Read Filtered Reviews
By 11.30.12
Small business owners around the country have a very love/hate relationship with Yelp, and which side of that fence they fall on probably has something to do with the community review site’s filtering system. Depending on which reviews the site hides behind the filter-wall, consumers may be getting either a very honest or very skewed version of the truth. [More]
Shop Owner Drives To Customer’s House After Bad Yelp Review
By 10.26.12
After receiving his first negative Yelp review, the owner of a California store made repeated attempts to contact the disgruntled customer in the hopes of turning him into a gruntled customer, and ultimately ended up at the Yelper’s doorstep. But before you go looking for the shop owner’s mug shot, this is actually a good thing. [More]
Restaurant Owner Gets Revenge On A Customer With A Fake Sex Site Profile, Hooks Up With Libel Conviction
By 9.7.12 — Updated: 11.19.12
We’re constantly amazed at businesses that just don’t know how to take criticism. No, it likely doesn’t feel good to read negative reviews about your establishment on the Internet, but getting revenge by posing as a customer on a site for adults looking to hook up is not only childish, it’s going to have some legal repercussions. Just ask the co-owner of two eateries who retaliated in this manner against a customer she felt she had maligned her. [More]
Who Dares Visit A Restaurant Without Reading Online Reviews First?
By 8.31.12
The best satire is deeply rooted in reality. That’s why an article from this week’s issue of the Onion shook us to the core. “Brave Woman Enters Restaurant Without First Looking It Up Online,” the headline blared. At Consumerist HQ, we asked each other: is there really anyone out there who is so bold and reckless that they would do such a thing? [More]
Is It Still Wrong To Buy Reviews Even If They Aren't Necessarily Positive?
By 8.27.12
If all you want is for it to look like someone is at least reading your book and is willing to talk about it on the Internet, does it matter if it’s a good review or a bad review? Not to some self-published authors, who have turned to companies willing to write book reviews for a fee. All they want is that air of credibility that comes with having a real live person talk about their work. [More]
Some Companies Apparently Pay Attention To Your Online Complaints
By 7.30.12
When you go to Twitter, Facebook, an online forum or any other form of social media to voice a complaint about a product or service you’ve purchased, one can understandably be left with the feeling that no matter how loud they shout, no one is listening. However, some businesses say they are monitoring all those negative posts and reviews and a few claim to be making systemic changes in response. [More]
Statisticians Sniffing Out Fake Online Reviews Using Scientific Methods
By 6.18.12
Online reviews can make or break your decision to try out a new hotel, check out a restaurant or even influence your choice of medical care. Unfortunately, companies desperate to be perceived as awesome sometimes try to sneak in their own positive reviews, posing as fellow consumers. Good for us, then, as science has come up with yet another way to help sniff out the fake reviews. [More]
Diner Demands $100 Gift Card To Not Post Negative Yelp Review
By 5.29.12
We’ve written before about companies offering free stuff or discounts in exchange for positive online reviews — or for removing negative comments — but a restaurant in California says a disgruntled diner tried to use the threat of a scathing Yelp review to squeeze a $100 gift card out of the eatery. [More]
Plastic Surgeon Sues Patient For Defamation After Negative Online Reviews
By 5.22.12
Online rating sites are a great tool for consumers researching services their peers have already experienced. So in the case of getting cosmetic surgery, a bad review is akin to a huge spitball thrown at a business, which is why an Orlando plastic surgeon is suing one of his former patients for defaming him online. [More]
Science Figures Out How To Identify Groups Of Fake Online Reviewers
By 4.18.12
Anyone who has sifted through anonymous “user” reviews of products is likely aware that there’s a good chance some of those comments were posted by shills trying to game the system to make the product look much better or worse than it is. While there are already a number of common-sense ways to suss out a bogus review, science has found a way to identify entire groups of review spammers. [More]
Growing Number Of Cyber Shills Invade Online Reviews
By 12.13.11
Since the dawn of online reviews, businesses have been attempting to game the system by flooding sites with bogus star ratings, fictitious reviews. And even though the major sites have enacted safeguards to prevent automated ways of rigging reviews, there’s little they can do to stop an actual human from logging on to boost a review in exchange for a few pennies. [More]
Hotel Openly Advertises For Fake TripAdvisor Review Writers
By 6.16.11
It’s no secret that hotels put bogus user reviews of themselves on sites like TripAdvisor, but usually they’re more discreet than this. TripAdvisorWatch found an example of an owner of several hotels in Hanoi posting on freelancer.com under his real name asking “if anyone can teach me the way to write reviews on this forum in which my reviews can not be found as fake and be removed.” [More]
If You Want Unbiased Hotel Reviews, Don't Trust Expedia
By 12.10.10
What’s the purpose of hotel reviews on Expedia.com? Based on the recent experiences of two customers who wrote to Consumerist this week, it’s not to provide a balanced overview of customers’ experiences. Two unrelated readers stayed in different hotel chains in different cities, had bad experiences, and wanted to warn other travelers. Expedia posted neither of their reviews. Why not? [More]
