Called me and asked me to take down bad review

[TotalTired]

Just has a slightly intimidating call, disguised as finding out more facts, regarding a very honest review I wrote for my dentist which involved my kids. An incident happened yesterday and I wrote about it. I mentioned a lot of positives along with the incident.

practice manager just called me saying they will speak to the person. She then said will I please take it down as it doesn’t look good on the clinic. I told her it was 100% the truth and I stand by it. She said she wants me to take it down as it affects the surgery, I told her I will think about it.

aibu - take it down - yes
not being unreasonable don’t take down - no

I won't vote without knowing what happened and what you said. I'd also want to know what you did to resolve the issue before you posted the public review.

But will you have a dentist if you don't? Dentists are like hen's teeth, even private, and they do not have to accept anyone on their lists. So you could be banned from the practice.

If it were purely factual it can remain but you may find yourself looking for another dentist

Well taking to social media or posting a review on the practice site is really the nuclear option you go to AFTER you've raised your complaint to the practice in person and they've failed to apologise and resolve it.

If they are addressing your complaint and taking you seriously, then I'd take the review down until it's resolved.

Did you complain to the clinic in the first instance and let them try to address what happened or did you just go straight online to slate them? If it was the latter, is you sharing the incident online justified to bring about change or is just malicious to make a point?

Where did you write the review?

Depends if its a genuine complaint or you being strange. How does a dentist provide bad service? Did they call you an arseface and said your kids are crap? Unlikely. Did they tell you to brush more often and cut the sugary drinks, and you've taken offence? Unreasonable to leave a bad review. DD you want to take extra long in the appointment to get out tablets and colouring books, creating delays for other customers, and they told you not to? Unreasonable to leave a bad review.

But if it's genuine, then sure. Though they may kick you off the books.

And yes, don't be surprised if they remove you from their patient list.

Depends on whether you gave them the opportunity to solve the issue before you wrote the review, IMO.

I do think people are too quick to jump to one-sided public shaming via social media when businesses haven’t even been advised that there’s a problem that needs addressing.

It’s different if this is your last resort, but it shouldn’t be your first resort.

Depends what it was. Did you raise the issue with them at the time and was it not resolved to your satisfaction?

Did you raise your complaint with them at the time and give them a chance to rectify it?

Did you complain to surgery first and get a response before writing a review?

Another who's wondering what steps you took with them to address the issue before posting the review.

Impossible to say without knowing what went on.

I do think though that every attempt should be made to resolve matters privately first. And if this only happened yesterday, I suspect this didn’t happen.

My dentist always asks me to write a review after appointments, it's an automated email I think. Where it goes I don't know as I've never been minded to write one. That might backfire on them if someone wasn't happy though.

I don’t think you necessarily have to raise a complaint to write a not completely glowing review. E.g I think it’s fair to say the dentist was very good but we had to wait 30 mins past our appointment time to be seen. What would have complaining done in that situation? It’s still fine to let others know your experience wasn’t completely satisfactory without rising to the level of a complaint. Depending on the issue I wouldn’t necessarily take it down, if they don’t want their clinic to look bad, be better.

What happened?

I agree that you should have addressed it with them first, whatever happened.

And just rememberhing how hard it actually is in the UK to even find a dentist...is it really worth it?

Perhaps call them and discuss with them?

No the first time it happened but first time I posted. She had no recollection even though I’ve spoken to her before regarding this matter which is even more annoying/slightly concerning

Exactly! I wrote my dentist good things about the actual dentist but gave my disappointment about a particular thing. It wasn’t even that bad, it was advice for other parents.

Only wrote it yesterday but have had 3 helpful hands up from other people on the Google review.

My ex dentist was like this - desperate to keep Google reviews up to 4.9 or 5 and removed anyone who marked him down. He was so focussed on the excellent review status that he lost loads of long standing patients when one of his associates left. When one of those gave him a 2 star review (admittedly a bit harsh) because the patient hadn't been told his usual dentist had left he went ballistic!

The incident happened. OP not posting a review would not have turned the clock back, so she is entitled to leave a review.

’We will speak to the staff member’ does not cut it, it’s a cop out.

Do you want to stay with the dentist? If so, probably take down.

I would ask to meet the practice manager in person. If your review is truthful, and I believe it is, then you have nothing to hide or be embarrassed about. Ask them what they plan to rectify the situation and then say you will update th e review (rather than remove).

So your experience was largely positive, but you've decided to be public spirited and issue online advice for other parents?!
Wtf?

If it's sort of stuff like "Little Yasmine had wobbly tooth and dentist refused to see us straightaway", then YABU. Really hard to say without knowing what happened. There's a reason why ebay sometimes removes negative comments from seller account, people can be ridiculous.