Online reviews do work

[Aggie1999]

This is not really a post about badassity, but more of a post showing the power of online reviews. I recently had a poor experience with service done to my home. I posted a review on Google and Yelp describing the issues. Owner of company calls me a couple weeks later apologizing and refunds my money. He did ask for me to remove the reviews which seems fair since he rectified the issues with refund.

Truthfully I don't like leaving bad reviews. I do them very rarely as I know they can have a big impact beyond just the one person that caused the issue. Sometimes they are warranted though.

[Frankies Girl]

It actually sounds like he bribed you to remove your review, and you took the bribe. Not sure this is a badass move.

They did bad/poor work, and reviews are supposed to be there to let others know about your experience so they can be aware of it if they decide to use this same group, or steer clear of them. And a warning for the business to do a better job or wrack up enough poor reviews that they no longer have a business.

Would you still have gone with this guy if you'd read a review similar to what you'd written?

Why would you not add to the review that the owner called and apologized for the crappy work and refunded your money? Was the refund only upon your complete removal?

By you accepting a "refund" contingent on you removing your review, you're saying it's okay for them to do crappy work as long as you got it for free, and screw the other guy that might have the same thing happen.

So in a way, I wonder what your true motive was for putting up a bad review in the first place since it was apparently not to warn others about this place?

[TheAnonOne]

It actually sounds like he bribed you to remove your review, and you took the bribe. Not sure this is a badass move.

They did bad/poor work, and reviews are supposed to be there to let others know about your experience so they can be aware of it if they decide to use this same group, or steer clear of them. And a warning for the business to do a better job or wrack up enough poor reviews that they no longer have a business.

Would you still have gone with this guy if you'd read a review similar to what you'd written?

Why would you not add to the review that the owner called and apologized for the crappy work and refunded your money? Was the refund only upon your complete removal?

By you accepting a "refund" contingent on you removing your review, you're saying it's okay for them to do crappy work as long as you got it for free, and screw the other guy that might have the same thing happen.

So in a way, I wonder what your true motive was for putting up a bad review in the first place since it was apparently not to warn others about this place?

I think the refund was justified for the removal of the bad review. The business themselves will need to fix their work quality, or they will quickly go bankrupt doing this.

[Aggie1999]

It actually sounds like he bribed you to remove your review, and you took the bribe. Not sure this is a badass move.

They did bad/poor work, and reviews are supposed to be there to let others know about your experience so they can be aware of it if they decide to use this same group, or steer clear of them. And a warning for the business to do a better job or wrack up enough poor reviews that they no longer have a business.

Would you still have gone with this guy if you'd read a review similar to what you'd written?

Why would you not add to the review that the owner called and apologized for the crappy work and refunded your money? Was the refund only upon your complete removal?

By you accepting a "refund" contingent on you removing your review, you're saying it's okay for them to do crappy work as long as you got it for free, and screw the other guy that might have the same thing happen.

So in a way, I wonder what your true motive was for putting up a bad review in the first place since it was apparently not to warn others about this place?

Ouch. Sure, it was to warn others about my experience. That's why I posted it. Had no expectation of a refund two weeks later.

The owner was apologetic and said he was addressing the issue. It's a small business and I could tell he was definitely concerned over the review and I am assuming the quality of the work. It's a fine line, especially with small businesses. Should one employee having a bad day or whatever wreck the business even after the owner makes it right? I can see both points of view.

[COEE]

I'm beginning to rely less and less on online reviews.

A while back I enrolled in a monthly subscription service the shipped me electronics every month.  They were shipping cheap Chinese knock-off stuff, but their website showed legit high quality stuff.  First month I was annoyed, but thought I'd give them another month.  Second month the same thing.  I was disappointed and quickly cancelled my subscription.   Then recently an ad popped up on my Facebook page for their stuff.  So I left a 'buyer beware' type review on their ad.  They deleted my post and blocked me from ever being able to post on their Facebook page ever again.  I sent a letter to the owner saying it wasn't cool what he was doing.  He cussed me out...  I dropped it at this point, as I knew the guy wasn't doing well - how could he be with this business model anyway?

I wish there was a way to really warn people (because I believe he's stealing from people, myself included).  I thought about posting a YouTube video or reviews on a few forums regarding the subject matter, but I know the owner is a lawyer (because he told me so) in his day job and I worried about a 'slander' suit.

Whatever.

[RobFIRE]

On the original point, I think I'd agree to update the review to report that there were originally issues which the company then made the effort to fix.