WIBU? Confronted after restaurant review.

[CantsitWontsit]

My DH and I ordered a takeaway for delivery Saturday night via JustEat.

We ordered at 7:30pm, the app said restaurant had accepted order and food would be there by 8:20pm.

We use this restaurant a lot when we want convenience. The food is okay, good value, and we occasionally eat in there as my parents love it.

My DH has never rated the place but uses it because it is convenient. Anyway, when the food wasn't with us by 9pm, he checked the app, and it stated it was delivered. He called the restaurant who said it would be leaving in a minute, but no apology or explanation. The restaurant is a 5 minute walk from our house. The food turned up 30 minutes later, and was cold. My DH left a 1.5 star review on JustEat saying he had had a longer than expected wait and it was cold.

Anyway, the next day, I was in hospital having emergency surgery (nothing terrible but very necessary - another thread) and my DH went to get a coffee whilst I was in theatre. The restaurant owner was in the area where you get coffee and things, and walked over to my husband and said: "You left a bad review!" My DH replies to say this was not the time or the place. The restaurant owner raised his voice and said again "You left a bad review and that wasn't fair!" My DH raised his voice back and said again it wasn't the time or the place and walked away.

I felt the review was a bit tough as they know us and because of my parents we are likely to have to go back there, in the near future. But I am surprised the the owner would confront DH this way, in a hospital to boot.

So WIBU?

I think there are several factors here. You placed a food order which is suppose to arrive at 8:20. The restaurant owner/staff ticked the box on the website saying it had been 'delivered' but it actually hadn't been delivered so you phoned them to ask what was going on.

They never should have indicated that it had been delivered when it hadn't actually been delivered (presumably they did that to make themselves look better on Just Eat?). Also, when you phoned, the owner/staff should have said 'So sorry! Having a few issues tonight, will have you food to your soon and we'll reimburse the fee/offer a free bottle of wine/free desert for your inconvenience. Something, anything to keep you happy and coming back again. You are a regular customer who lives down the road, surely they want to keep you happy?

Instead, they deliver cold food extremely late. Again, no apology, no opportunity taken here to make this right with the 'regular' customer who lives down the road.

I think your DH was justified in leaving an honest review. The owner should not have approached your DH at the hospital. Again, an opportunity was missed to apologise and make some sort of gesture to compensate to the regular customer who lives down the road.

Finally, you say the food is 'ok', not 'amazing'. That's too many negatives for me. I wouldn't go back. Start going to one of the other many restaurants in the area. Maybe you'll find an amazing one!

My problem with checkatrade is that the people you are reviewing know where you live - so it is pretty risky to leave a bad (if honest) review.

The same is true of JustEat, they know exactly who you are, and quite frankly what did you expect? You have nothing to gain from leaving a poor review, the restaurant a lot to lose.
I probably, if it were a restaurant I use a lot would mention it when I next went in, or drop them an email. However justified they were never going to be happy with you leaving a bad review. Honestly what did you expect next time you went in?

This might be an unpopular opinion but if your food is generally fine from this place and its an independently run business, its worth ringing to complain before writing a bad review.

I say this because i am a firm believer that you need to give companies (small ones especially) a chance to make it right before writing a review that damages their business.

I also think if you accept a token of apology you should not write a bad review. If the token is not enough for you then decline by all means and write a bad review.

It annoys me when at work we bend over backwards to make something right for someone, with a big expense for a small company and they write a shitty review anyway, might as well not of bothered.

Storm I definitely agree that people should think before they put a bad review up, especially for a small business. A few minutes of public venting can really have a bad effect for them when a private message might be more productive for the complainer anyway.

However effectively harassing somebody in a hospital cafe about a bad review is completely inappropriate and not a sound business decision either!

storm I 100% agree with you and also think that you should give businesses a chance, and some people just can’t be pleased and write a bad review just out of spite.

However, in this case I think OP and her DH gave them ample opportunity to apologise for their error, and from the tone I think a small token would have gone a long way, but neither were forthcoming!

OP, sorry to hear about your health and hope you feel better soon!

The review was accurate. There was nothing ‘unfair’ about it. The restaurant owner was being inappropriate to confront your husband in a hospital. And if he knows you well enough to recognise your names and faces then he’s an idiot to treat your order so casually. He could have offered you half off or a free meal next time - whining that the review wasn’t fair is ridiculous.

Don’t worry about going back, sounds like it won’t be open much longer anyway if that’s their attitude.

OP I hope all is well with you and dh after the OP.

I agree with storm but also, it isn't just about giving a company a chance, it is about being fair. If the review had said what you had said in your OP, that you had been going there for years and your parents love it, and generally all is fine, not amazing not fine, but that this one time they messed up and let you down, that might have been fairer. Also if the stars had reflected the years of fine service as well as the one night of letting you down. People use reviews when deciding on whether to use restaurants and hotels and most people would prefer to know the full story. I am sure you wouldn't want this business to start to do less well or fail, just because of one mismanaged situation?

I think that leaving a bad review when you've had mainly good experiences, and especially if you didn't complain to the restaurant first, is out of order.
If you had complained to them and they were really rude, or if you'd had multiple bad experiences, it would be fair enough. Obviously not on to confront in a hospital, but if it's someone you know well enough for them to recognise you out of context, they probably felt hugely betrayed - bad reviews have a huge effect on businesses. Far better to write them an angry letter first off rather than go public as a first option.

So all the times you have had good service do you leave a positive review? This is this first time you have a problem and you leave a bad review? Why on earth would you go back?

Just eat automatically says it has delivered not the take away themselves

I wouldn't be eating from there again, seems the owner might hold a grudge.

My DH left the review, I stated in my OP that it was a bit tough.

We have not left a review every time we ate from there. This does not mean it has been great every time either. Thus my DH not being over keen. The issue was whether it was right for the restaurant owner to directly confront my DH the next day, after bumping into him, at a hospital.

At the end of the day, it wasn't great service. We weren't offered an apology or explanation. If you sign your restaurant up to a site with a massive star rating review section like JustEat and you cock up a bit, you know you are vulnerable to disgruntlement in reviews. It was avoidable.

There's nothing really you can do. The owners a wanker, the service is shite and it'll be far too awkward if you go back. Just move on and forget about it.

If the owner had any sense, he would respond to the review apologising and explaining what they will do to prevent a recurrence.

How did he know the review was by your DH?

in future, if you are going to leave bad reviews, be anonymous

If the owner knows your DP well enough that he recognises him at an 'out of context' place like a hospital and already knew he'd written a bad review even though DH had only used his first name, then he knew that two very regular customers got shit service and did nothing to fix it at the time. He could have been much, much more proactive. So the bad review is justified imo.

Of course he shouldn't have brought it up in the hospital and DH was right not to engage, but it's likely restaurant owner was in a stressful situation too, which makes people do funny things sometimes.

Sorry if you've addressed this but I can't see if you have:

Did you go to the restaurant with your gripe before your DH left the bad review? I would hesitate to leave a bad review in this case unless I had called the restaurant and complained first.

I don't like to leave bad reviews for small businesses unless they're given a chance to rectify the situation.

You gave a bad review to a small business, of course the owner would confront given that you were regular customers and didn't give them the benefit of the doubt. The timing was very poor, but this shows that your review could seriously harm this business and he's worried. Surely, leaving a bad review was over the top after one problem? You should have told them that it was a problem and that you were disappointed, instead you complained that your food wasn't there and then didn't contact them again.

It doesn't sound as if it's a consistently poor place since you and your family choose to eat there regularly. I'm not sure what response you'd expect from the business owner! Did you seriously expect them to want you as a customer after doing that to them?

He shouldn't have confronted your DH in hospital, that was very wrong.

Seems like your DH had good reasons to leave a bad review, although if you're regulars couldn't you have contacted the restaurant directly?
Out of interest, have you given them good reviews in the past?
It always seems like people are very quick to say something negative about a service, but very rarely praise good service.

Did your DH leave a review every time he had a good experience at the restaurant also? ...It’s really bugs me when people run to leave bad reviews (but rarely leave good reviews) without trying to reaching out to the business first.

I would say this also irked the owner, but he was out of line for approaching ur DH in the hospital like that.

But I hope your feeling better OP