To think if you’re not happy with a service you’re free to post a review without raising it with the vendor?

You sounds blooming delightful you've called the OP 4 different names and completely missed the point that reviews are a person's opinion. If a business only wants positive review then they should probably not be in business.

Given the wording you use I think I know the pumpkin patch you went to - a family farm where the dad died last year and his two daughters have taken over running it, and expanding the events side to try make a living. They are young women trying to make a living in a tough agri industry and expand the farm into areas it traditionally didn't offer. In this case I'd try to give my feedback privately (I know one of the girls and they are very approachable) - but I work with small business and honestly a few poor online reviews can ruin a new business in a way reviewers don't always comprehend. It is very easy to post a bad review (and I understand you can feel entitled to do so) but it's really good for small business to give them a chance or address things personally. I think it's the same with cafes/ restaurants also.

@PumpkinPatchMismatch People that do this are proper cunts. They should at least give the business owner a chance to make good.

But they would rather damage a business as they are petty & nasty.

People invest so much time and effort in to making a business work for their families and along comes an arsehole actively seeking to damage a business because the car pack was full or something equally pathetic.

Its fucking pumpkin picking - some where the kids can get dirty not always gonna be the Instagram ‘experience’ people are obsessed with.

My friend got a one star review on Google. Apparently it was because they were ringing and ringing all day to book an appointment and no one picked up. They were closed. If the person had bothered to check the times when they were actually open it might have worked out better. When you give some one a very low review on review sites it takes about seven or more - 5 five star reviews to bring it back up again. It does a lot of damage to peoples businesses - so please - give the owner an opportunity to make it good.

I prefer truthful reviews. I ordered something on Ebay that was super past the delivery window and left a negative review- they kept messaging saying they'll give me £1 to remove the negative rating, no thanks.

Do they want you to contact them first if it's a lovely review?

Probably not.
Therefore I think it's fine to leave an honest review in this instance.

Can't just be full of the good reviews.

I think there are instances its right to contact the person/company 1st, to see if they can resolve an issue e.g. broken or wrong item.

If you'd complained on the day the #BeKind crew will be along to tell you off when it wasn't the staff member's fault. So that leaves write a letter/email when you don't necessarily even want a personal response. You just want to inform other people what it's like.

Having said which you should write a balanced review, not just one outlining the bad. It is tough on businesses when they get a ton of bad reviews so I'd potentially try not to pile on. Especially if I want them to keep going.

A review should just be what you liked and didn't, so future customers can make an informed choice.
Personally I'd not slate somewhere if a "shit happens" type of problem arose. But it's not their first day - they know how many people they can fit to give a decent experience for everyone.

The list of things the OP states in their OP should not have been issues and should have been dealt with before!

tbh that would tempt me to post my own (honest) bad review op!

Why does everything these days need a review, it’s mind numbing & tedious. We bought something last week from electrical store & before we got home there was a message, how did we do? I just delete them now We walked into store & bought a new kettle, what else can you put or even why

How do you propose they could have put things right on the day? The OP paid for a specific experience which was ruined by the company becoming greedy and selling tickets beyond their capacity. The experience is already ruined at this point. People don't want a discounted subsequent visit when this is happened as this means spending more money to benefit.

I agree with your comment in a situation such as food not being of certain standard at a restaurant - let them know at the time and give them a chance to fix it.

In this case, OP and anyone else upset by overcrowding were completely entitled to be annoyed and let others know

I think I know which farm this is, and I would recommend the Seven Sisters for a future pumpkin pick which is far less busy and over promoted/under delivering. Assuming this is BF in the north west.

I totally agree, that is the whole point of reviews, that you should write a true and accurate account of your experience. But I would also encourage consistently writing reviews on positive experiences not just negative so that people can take a balanced view.

I'm fed up with this too. Reviews are for other potential customers, not for the business.
I do believe it's important to make a review balanced and fair, especially for a small or new business, but this isn't enough to placate some of them. Recently I posted a review saying that the ambiance and decor of a restaurant were lovely, the staff were friendly and the meat dish was delicious, BUT the veggie option was quite dry and could have done with some kind of sauce. I gave 4/5 stars.
The owners were furious that I'd abused them and wanted me to take it down!

It depends, something wrong with food in the cafe, but otherwise excellent. Speak to staff see if it can be resolved.

Over full car park,massive queues, a charge on everything despite paying an entry fee. That's not a mistake it's providing a sub par experience. And charging for it.

As long as a review is fair the onus is on the provider to up their gain.

YANBU. In this instance for example, what could they have done to solve the issue… Gone back in time and been less greedy? Revoked some of the tickets you’d already sold? Given you a free ticket to go back and enjoy their oversubscribed event to further compound the issue?

No. Reviews are there to help other consumers make informed choices. If the event organisers don’t like the reviews then they can make changes to their future events, but that doesn’t improve on the experience already had by previous customers.

Yes, going by what the OP has said, I think the poor reviews are deserved in this case. They seem to think reviews exist as a form of promotion

I think the problem with a lot of small businesses is that the owners take criticism very personally; it’s “their baby” and any knock at the business is a knock at them (hence the “be kind” crap).

In the end these people are doing themselves no favours. A business can never be a success if its owners cannot separate the personal from the professional. If you only want people to say lovely things about what you do, you need to make sure you’re 100% on top of everything - either that or stick to doing things on a hobby or voluntary basis.

“Does the customer care?” should always be the mantra. A small business owner might have to work really really hard for long hours, skip holidays, “put their heart and soul” into making it a success - but none of these things are relevant to the customer. They’re not your mates - they’re paying for a service.

As someone said, it depends

But this vendor was selling tickets so they knew full well it would be packed so should have planned logistics accordingly. The reviews are valid because they already knew crowd numbers based on tickets sold.

they could have just said we take the reviews and board and will try and address the situation rather than play the sympathy card.

As a customer I value honest reviews. I do take negative reviews with a pinch of salt. If it sounds like a one-off issue or something that wouldn't bother me, I disregard them. But if multiple people have mentioned a specific issue that is likely to negatively affect my experience, I want to know in advance.

What I find really annoying is when a place has hundreds of rave reviews and then turns out to be mediocre at best. Sure, people have different tastes and expectations, but I refuse to believe that an indifferent, overpriced tourist-trap café has sent hundreds of people into genuine raptures. It's got to the point where a five-star average can make me feel more suspicious rather than less (depending on the total number of reviews).

As for raising issues directly, it depends. If it's an item that I can return and buy something more suitable instead, sure. If it's a rubbish manicure or an experience that felt like a waste of time, then no, an apology or money off a repeat experience won't make me feel any better about it. I can't be bothered with the hassle and I don't like confrontation. I think many other people are the same.

I agree OP. If it's a simple mistake like being brought the wrong food or something being broken, then yes you complain to the business and give them a chance to put it right (although I still think it's ok to mention it in a review as it has affected your experience, but fairness would also say you would mention if they were helpful and friendly in sorting it out).

But if it is that the whole experience is not good, eg somewhere being overbooked so you can't enjoy the activities, then that's not something they can sort for you on your visit, so why waste your time in the day, probably complaining to a member of staff who can't do anything about it? After all, in OPs example staff and management should be able to see the problems with their own eyes!

As a consumer who has to really watch my pennies and for whom these kind of days out are a treat I have to decide whether to spend the budget on, I do want honest reviews.

And I would respect a business much more for using their social media to say 'we are listening and will try and make some changes for next time using your feedback ' than for complaining about mean people being negative and manipulating them into leaving good reviews!

My point was the ride availability, not that it's generally busy. Closing the coasters for an hour, opening them, then closing another can only be to save money on staff and power. They weren't broken.

I think it depends on what it is and if there is a possibility for the business to address it. In the case the OP describes it is perfectly read to leave a negative review.

For restaurants and hotels (depending on the issue) there might be the chance to rectify something if you let them know straight away eg if food is over cooked or undercooked it makes sense to complain at the time.

No, I’m sick of businesses insisting you rate them highly for their products and services when it hasn’t been up to scratch. I’m also sick of having to give everyone time to correct it - mistakes happen, but too often it’s the customer who has to compromise.

I rated a business poorly for an item that arrived a week late, I’d had to contact them and ask where it was and remind them I’d paid for next day delivery, and all they could give was “we didn’t send it on time, sorry for the inconvenience”. I leave the review and all of a sudden it’s have a refund on postage, here’s a discount for next time (there won’t be one), now amend your review and give a better rating.

There's no way a vendor can resolve the type of issues OP observed. It's not like getting the order wrong at dinner.

I think a y service provider has to be prepared for negative reviews. It isn't the customer's job to protect them.

I run two businesses can understand there businesses concerns a 1 star review can be really damaging. You can have 100s of 5 or 4 starts and a few 1 stars drag your rating right down. What you described was rubbish, but it sounds like they were overwhelmed and overpriced. I would have given a 3 star. I save 1 start reviews for really terrible customer service, awful products and dangerous practice. However, they would do better apologising and replying under the reviews.