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Everyone Has an Opinion, But What’s Fair to Do About It?

Posted by Foobooz on May 8th, 2012

Fidel Gastro had an interesting experience the other week. After commenting on a Foobooz post, Senor Gastro received a phone call from a restaurant employee urging him to contact the employee personally before making a comment in a public forum. While we admire the employee’s resourcefulness in acquiring a recently changed cell phone number, we wonder if that didn’t step over some invisible line. Sites like Yelp offer tools for business owners to respond to reviews and even offer tips on how to do so constructively. But a phone call just seems overly forward. And more than a little bit stalker-y.

We can certainly see the benefit of reaching out to a disgruntled customer after the fact to try and fix the situation or correct any misconceptions. But if you get yelled at by a bartender, can an email from a manager truly change an experience from one-star to a four-stars?

So we have some questions:

  • Have you ever been contacted by a business owner over an online comment?
  • Did the contact affect you positively or negatively?

Check out Fidel’s answer to the employee in question (linked below, and totally worth the read) and then let us know what you think in the comments.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Happy Hour [Fidel Gastro]


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    This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Food Nerd News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

    • Abby

      I have been contacted after making online comments several times, although only once for a negative review. I received a phone call from the owner/manager/whomever of Erawan Thai Cuisine after I reviewed my lunch experience on Yelp. This was an order I had placed online and there was a considerable amount of mix-up between Grubhub and the restaurant. Long story short, I ended up with two delivery guys from two different restaurants show up with lunch since the cancellation didn’t go through in time at the first place (Grubhub’s screw-up). I touched upon this in my review but the bulk of the criticism was aimed at the food, which was detestable. The lady wanted to be sure I understood it was Grubhub’s fault and not theirs. OK, cool, but your food still sucked and I still won’t be back, in person or through Grubhub.

      On the positive side I’ve had a few store/restaurant owners send me a message via Yelp after posting a glowing review, just to thank me for taking the time to do so. Those are the places I want to go back to, not the place where the crazy lady calls me to give excuses for the service and not even mention the terrible food!

    • Marx

      I’ve been contacted once after posting a negative review online. It was on Yelp and it was regarding pizza that I deemed “blah.” The response was “Our pizza has been described in many ways, Blah is a new one.” It made me even less eager to give them a second chance. Trust me. It sucked. “Blah” and my two-star review was being nice. I’ve also gotten positive feedback and it’s made me want to return twice as fast.

    • Timo

      I am surprised that anybody that runs a restaurant would actually hve the nerve to contact someone posting without their permission.

      Frankly, the group that runs the restaurant involved in the article run nothing but crappy establishments. The service in everyone of their restaurants is hurrendous. Fromt the two sports bar/ night clubs downtown, to the massive place on Penn’s Campus, to the failing restaurant on Arch, the service is pathetic. I can only imagine that the new place in Chestnut Hill follows the others with similar problems.

      The restaurant group has made money dispite the inadequacies of the service and management staffs. I no longer waste my time patronizing any of this companies restaurants, because it isn’t worth the frustration experienced when dealing with the service staffs. I really have no interest in visiting the new Chestnut Hill location either, even though I drive by it regularly.

    • http://www.phillyphoodie.com/ PhillyPhoodie

      I have been contacted via email and comments which is fine, but if I got a phone call, I would have some choice words. I have also had mysterious Yelpers with one or two reviews PM with insults, which I find hilarious.

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