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

@niugboo 1. She DID approach them at the time. Which you'd know if you read all the OP's posts on the thread, not just the first one.
Two. Several other reviews were left about the receptionist so the OP is not the first to leave a bad review about the receptionist and won't be the last.
Three. The review the OP left was very fair, very understated, and more than sympathetic considering. Her review as others have said is weaker than others would have left and probably too fair.
Maybe you should actually read all the OP's post before commenting.

Hi op I don't think you deserve nasty messages nor should you take down the post as it was accurate.
Hope your dd has not been made worse by the receptionist 's horrible attitude.💐

1. I read a decent chunk and got bored when she became defensive and aggressive.
2. I disagree on every level that the review was balanced. It sounded like a petty he said she said.

@YoYoLife above for you.

@niugboo

1. Your comments are irrelevant to the Opening statement as they are based on the OP’s later comments to posters when she was subjected to unjustified criticism, and do not address the review.
2. How can this be a He Says She Says situation when the Practice Manager did not dispute her allegations and other patients backed her up?

Stand by your review. The manager is damaging his business by employing and upholding someone who, clearly, is not well suited for the job. Yours isn´t the first review that mentions this and it won´t be the last.

I wonder whether the receptionist is related to one of the doctors - it's hard to see why they'd keep her on if there were bad reviews about her.

@Cindie943811A my comments stand regardless. Running to slate people on social media is never my go to. It leaves a permanent trail and gives no opportunity to correct any issues. And I read the review. It wasn’t balanced as originally stated. Far from it. It was personal and designed to upset.

You are absolutely NOT being unreasonable. If they can't employ someone at the front of business to not be a vile human to kids then they shouldn't be in that role. Leave the review where it is. It is there for a purpose.

Well I think practice manager is cheeky calling and asking you, I wouldn't take it down they should learn from the feedback rather than try to ignore that its happening.

Well banning someone for a true comment is going to make them unpopular!

Very hard to sack staff….truly….if they have a contract….

Of course it does! If you leave an honest review….it can be added to by poster and business…business answers the criticism online and says they are doing ABC to tackle this problem, poster replies with thank you. Everybody happy.

That's what my surgery said when I complained about their cow of a receptionist

Not if you are prepared to go through all the steps. Get her on an performance improvement plan and if she doesn't improve start disciplinary. Takes a while but if she is still behaving the same you can sack her. Or even go straight to a disciplinary, I'm sure shouting at children isn't something she's expected to do.

@niugboo everything you have said is wrong.

She didn't 'run' to social media (didn't even go on social media), she spoke to management FIRST.

The review was far too fair, too nice, very mild and referenced what the management said and did not 'hearsay'.

No where has the OP been aggressive.

I conclude you are the vile and hateful child-allergic receptionist.

If not, if you are too lazy and can't actually read more than a 'good chunk' and get your facts right, and instead create a narrative that clearly doesn't even exist, don't reply at all.

@Solonge Not hard at all. In fact, it is very easy. Extremely easy. Three written warnings. She's out.

Done.

Easy.

Hope you left it up.

Hope dc is ok too.

Not hard at all. In fact, it is very easy. Extremely easy. Three written warnings. She's out.

Not unless you've proven the incompetence, given them all the support possible to improve and can evidence that they haven't over a prolonged duration.

@YoYoLife well it’s no wonder with that aggressive and personal response you don’t think there was any issue with the OP’s review 😂😂

…..but considering she is clearly still there after plenty of complaints, there is a management problem.

So what's happened is the receptionist has seen the bad review and has kicked off to her boss about either being told she's unpleasant or has the receptionist has complained herself about 'screaming, crying kids'.

Small business dentist practice knows she's been there more than 2 years, has probably been spoken to about her attitude to clients but refuses to change. Probably has no intention of leaving her job either. Practice manager thinks HR route will be long and stressful even if she gets verbal/written warnings for rudeness to clients.

Having seen 4 dental practices recently for various things (1 I decided not to go to as expensive but was referred to, 2nd I'm using for root canal work, 3rd usual dentist and 4th bridge/implant work dentist) I've noticed that mostly the receptionists/practice managers are fairly professional (one of them had them wearing matching, professional uniforms!) but occasionally (see the uniform ones) you'll get people who to me are quite rude when they speak to clients.

Funnily enough I've found the NHS dental practices to be far politer than the non NHS dental practices which has surprised me. My usual dentist is NHS and whenever I speak to the receptionist/practice manager there, she's mostly busy (understandable) but is always, always polite and helpful. She gets 100% respect from me for that. I've also noticed that in some practices they seem to have new staff, who are sometimes not trained well. When you're dealing with members of the public you have to know how to be polite, balanced, respectful.

I profoundly disagree. Reviewing a product or service is there to inform others

Absolutely. My DH has been dentist phobic for most of his life, when we married I couldn't say dentist to him as he'd get upset. It stems from a childhood dentist who was like Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man so not as ridiculous as it sounds. When looking for a dentist when we moved to this house I looked at reviews because he had got to the point where he had to see a dentist as he couldn't carry on living on pain killers. I needed to find a place that would cope with him. I identified a suitable practice, went a couple of times and then explained the situation. The whole team were wonderful, he got on well with the dentist, his nurse, the hygienist and the receptionist. They all knew he was terrified and went out of their way to put him at ease.

I can't say he likes going to the dentist but he goes without panic attacks and trusts everyone at the practice. A crying child wouldn't worry him, an unpleasant, unkind member of staff definitely would. So yes an honest review is very important.