In not removing review

[onanothertrain]

Contacted a tradesperson for urgent repair, was told no problem, they would check the diary and phone me back within an hour. 4 hours later, no phone call so I sent a text. Another 4 hours later still nothing. I will admit to being annoyed so I left a Google review stating the above. An hour later I got a text asking me to remove the review as they hadn't actually done any work for me and they were working hard to maintain their business. I didnt respond and have now had 2 more texts asking me to remove the review. Im now considering either ignoring the texts and blocking, removing my review but leaving another one explaining why or just removing it all together. Although my stubborn side is not leaning towards the third option. So Aibu not to remove it?

YABU

Frankly if your first action in experiencing a minor disatisfaction is to enter the classic MN-Land "report them!" mode, I wouldn't want to take your job on anyway. You'd have already alienated me & forfeited any goodwill gesture I might have offered by way of apology for the failed ring-back.

What happened to people talking to each other, finding out what's going on, & coming up with acceptable solutions? Is that so hard all of a sudden?

It's all a bit Lady of the Manor, ripping the serfs a new one because they made a small error which Put One To Considerable Inconvenience ...

Sorry sandytoes if your phone is your only means of contacting customers you make sure it is kept charged (extra battery pack of out and about) or deal with the consequences. No sympathy if you drop that ball. And pulling the “he’s a brave fireman” card won’t work either. Have some professional standards!

@Watchingthyme i don't know any retailer or service provider that gets back to its customers in a couple of hours . I wouldn't class not getting back to someone right away as worthy enough of a bad review . If I were to leave a negative review of anyone's business , I'd make sure I'd explored all avenues to rectify the issue first .

Good grief life's hard enough. Definitely YABU. Remove it.

Please explain how leaving a review stating a promised return call within an hour never happened despite reminders and waiting for 8 hours is spiteful rather than factual?

As I've said repeatedly, it's the star rating. If OP had just left a text review then fine, people would read it and most would think she was a bit of an idiot (and a bit of a cow) for leaving a review of a service she hadn't used. But it's a google rating, so she clearly also gave one star, and that's going to damage the whole rating considerably unless he has 100s of ratings.

@sandytoes84
I might politely suggest that your dh does some simple things any good business owner should do.

Take a phone charger

Take a portable phone charger - in fact have 2 always fully charged.

Have a second phone (any business owner must have 2)

Have a message on their answer phone stating they are a retained fire fighter and at some times may not be available to reply to messages as they might be out on call.

Communicate with their customers when they take on the job, that as they have multiple jobs they might not always be available.

And I presume your DH wouldn’t tell a customer they would call back within an hour if he was about to start a 21 hour shift as a retained fire fighter. Which correct me if I’m wrong is highly unlikely to involve 21 hours of solid work. Unless of course there had been local call outs back to back for 21 hours solid.

Good point @cstaff made - on page 4 - about how he got in touch quick enough when he wanted her to remove the review, but could not be arsed to ring her in 8 hours, despite several messages from her.

However, I would still remove it. Wouldn't want to do anything to try and ruin someone's business tbh. It does seem petty and mean, and rather childish to do this, and (especially as these reviews are for the quality of the WORK.) This does not reflect good on you OP. I'm sure you are better than that.

I would not use him anyway though. If he so unreliable that he cannot ring back in 8 hours (after promising to ring within an hour,) I would not trust him with doing the job I wanted. He is clearly rather flaky.

If you DON'T remove the review, I really look forward to seeing you on Judge Rinder, (along with the tradesman,) where he is suing you for trying to ruin his reputation, and making him lose custom!

New vets I was using, couldn’t get me an appointment for 14 days were plain rude and unprofessional ( went back to my old vets) I left a review under my ex husbands google name, (different last names) within 30 minutes, I had a phone call saying could they discuss my dissatisfaction. Couldn’t find me appointment but plenty to find time to figure out who left a review. I wouldn’t remove it

Edit it to add that he had no time to ring you back but has plenty to harass you into removing the negative review.

@inmyfeelings
He said he would get back within an hour. He hadn’t after 8
But that’s ok. Because his dog ate his phone and he’s busy innit

Really should have had a poll here @onanothertrain

Omg!! I am actually shocked by this, and all the people agreeing with what the OP has done. You seriously left a public review that could damage his business, reputation and livelihood because he didn't message you back within an hour? When it is the middle of the week, during working hours?!

Would you have also left a bad review had he been texting while on the job for you?

YABVVVVVVVU

reviews should be on quality of work

Nope, don’t buy tat. From the minute you have a problem at home and start ringing around to find someone to deal with it, you want to know who will be responsive, turn up when they say they will, give you a sensible quote etc etc- the whole experience starts way before the actual work is done. I have had trades do a really good job but would still not recommend them because they kept cancelling on me, or the quote missed of points we’d discussed etc. One roofer who came round to quote for me was a pompous arse who asked me loads of weird personal questions- I have told my mates to steer clear of him for that reason alone.

One of the things people complain about most about tradespeople is their unreliability - they don't call back and they don't come when they say they will.

I don't think the OP has been unfair at all. If someone promises to call back within an hour, and can't be bothered to do it within 8 hours, they need to look at their customer service skills.

Yes I want to know that a job will be done well when I look at reviews, but I also want to know that the person doing it will be communicative.

I've got it now, dripping tap, under warranty, plumber knows about it. Last week he was on holiday but hasn't been in touch since he got back. And I know he's back because I saw his van out and about this morning. It is massively irritating.

And because it's under warranty he needs to do it, I can't get someone else to (unless I want to pay again, and it's beginning to look like I will have to).

You seriously left a public review that could damage his business, reputation and livelihood because he didn't message you back within an hour?

Nope, that is not what happened. Read the OP again.

YAnbu . He didnt come back to you. You've stated this in review. Feel you frustration @onanothertrain. Away to whatsapp a trades person I've been stalking for weeks now. If they dont want work just say so

People want:

Reliability
Honesty
Good work

He failed on 2 out of three

@Watchingthyme sorry, probably wasn’t clear - overnight call out, followed immediately by a full day of self-employed work. Anyway, pretty exceptional circumstances and doesn’t happen often, but it can happen and that’s why I’d always give the benefit of the doubt.

Ironically I spend a lot of time in my job chasing tradespeople and I completely understand how frustrating it is, but I think it’s a petty thing to do without chasing up yourself first. Imagine leaving a negative review every time someone forgets to return a call!

This thread makes me glad not to be a tradesperson!

YABVU and should take the review down!!!

You seem to be in need of some patience here. You can't always have the required attention at all times.

He deserved everything he got for being stupid enough to promise a call back when he was not in a position to guarantee that he could call back.

@ArgumentativeAardvaark would go as far as brave, pretty sure he spent the whole night sat around just in case 😂

My only point is that there are sometimes exceptional circumstances and no out of office reply or a colleague to pick up the slack when they happen, which is why I think it is a harsh reaction to not having a call returned.

but it’s not unfair to say you’ll call back in an hour and then still not have called back 8 hours later?

Of course it is unfair @ArgumentativeAardvaark - but the OP didn't give the any opportunity to put the matter right. For all she knows they are a brilliant supplier & this is a one-off error. Conversely, they might be a steaming pile of pants, service-wise, but rather than make a chasing call (surely this is normal?!), she assumed the worst, then used that assumption to post a pass-agg vindictive review.

Sure, I'm not impressed either that their 1st pro-active contact to her was only after they'd seen the review & wanted it pulled - but until someone's had a fair chance to explain, why cut your nose off to spite your face? She might have been rewarded for a chase-up call by a friendly voice followed by a good repair. Now she's got to start all over again instead ...

@sandytoes84
You did make yourself clear. Doesn’t change what I think. I genuinely can’t believe a business owner lets their business mobile run out of battery. But as you say, an exceptional circumstance which I am sure he was easily able to deal with. Very different from the ops scenario

And if you spend your day chasing tradespeople then don’t you think that perhaps if you’d seen on a review that someone was unreliable at getting back to you, you’d give them a swerve. Why is your time worth less than there’s? Honest question? Your employer is paying you to chase unreliable people. Buts that’s ok. Because the poor diddums work so hard. No one else does obviously