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

[PumpkinPatchMismatch]

I went pumpkin picking at the weekend. The place we went to was posting on social media the day before about having expanded their capacity and released extra last minute tickets. When we got there the car park was so full I felt it was unsafe and the whole venue was packed, there was very little to see, the farm animals for the children to look at were clearly fed up and hiding away and all the ‘extras’ seemed very expensive. I wouldn’t go back but didn’t leave a review.

I’ve just seen tonight that the business has posted on social media today about how they have had “heavy criticism on our online reviews… Please message us first before you take to Google… please be kind before posting online.”

As far as I can see they have a total of three one star reviews from yesterday with similar criticisms to what I experienced. Since they posted they’ve had an “outpouring of support” on social media in which their supporters are mentioning “online trolls” and how they “cannot believe people would do this” and numerous positive Google reviews in the past hour.

AIBU to think that if people have a bad experience they’re allowed to leave a negative review without consulting the vendor? And to think the business is cynically using a small number of negative but factual reviews to rile up their online supporters to get positive comments, reviews, shares etc?

There's not much they can do about being greedy and selling too many tickets.

I agree with you OP and I'd post a negative review of the day, including my thoughts about their manipulating criticism to garner support.

So in this particular case, how exactly should the farm have fixed it? Asked half the paying customers to go home so it was no longer overcrowded? Created more attractions on the day so the ones they had were not so busy?

Instead of going on about 'bekind' on social media, a simple apology that they misjudged how busy it would get and are adjusting things going forward would have had a much better impact. This would have encouraged many to go anyway even after reading the reviews

We ALL work to put food on the table for our families and when spending hard earned cash, people are not unreasonable to have expectations for a certain service. I agree some people are unreasonably difficult but the good thing about reviews is that businesses can respond to them and their manner in handling these responses speaks volumes about customer service

If you had let them know what would they have done? Send a bunch of people back so that isn’t too crowded? They made a poor decision and they should know about it; looks like a lot of people felt the same way as you.
there’s a difference between ‘don’t call us out’ and ‘thank you for the feedback we will be reviewing our capacity policy (or something of that sort).

Damaging someone’s business for pettiness and a moment of self righteousness is horrible.

THEY damaged their own business by fucking up. Why is taking responsibility so unfashionable these days?

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

If they want to use social media to promote their business, they also need to be prepared for social media to be used for fair criticism.

Why did they fuck up? Many people might have actually enjoyed it. There was literally no facts in the review only opinion.

Plus the original post was reviewing with out contacting the business first in general.

and actually many business would LOVE the opportunity to take accountability and FIX it but people are determined to ruin businesses and then go watch TV with out a second thought. Small business are massively effected by this.

@Gulbekian Live by the sword, die by the sword?

You know you’re talking about someone’s livelyhood?

Imagine ( if you have a job) that where you worked you were individually reviewed by each customer or work colleague. If you didn’t receive a 5 star review on each interaction your wages would be docked. Would that be ok?

I can eat hot food, cooked to my taste and served cheerfully at home. If I'm going to go out and pay a premium to have it cooked and served by others then I expect it to be a pleasurable experience or else why bother.

I don't enjoy complaining and unless it's something easy (oops I dropped my fork, have you forgotten the chips etc) it isn't going to help me in any way.

I had a meal out recently in a popular, trendy place. Prices to match. The food was excellent but served not much above room temperature. The waiting staff were very friendly but they only came over if asked, so we went a long time between drinks. What would be the point of complaining? I'm hungry now, I don't want it recooked. Nor do I want the young staff to get a bollocking when it's not their fault they have been poorly trained or they're understaffed.

I'd rather just leave an honest review. It's not up to me to tell restaurant owners how to provide hot food and attentive service, any reasonable person would expect that as a given.

Reviews are meant to be subjective! They give a snapshot opinion. I read reviews when I book hotels etc and I really value the range of good and bad. Businesses need to accept both the positive and negative. Surely you should decide does the customer have a point and try to improve if you think they do.

You fail to grasp that reviews are all opinions - that is why they exist. The facts are there on the business website/social media, whole point of reviews is for people to give their opinion on the experience itself.

A business can easily take accountability by responding to the review and apologising. Crying the reviews are not fair when they’ve made the mistake and someone is calling them out is anything but taking responsibility

Should they apologise if they havnt made a mistake though? Because the customer - regardless what they believe isn’t always right.

Imagine ( if you have a job) that where you worked you were individually reviewed by each customer or work colleague. If you didn’t receive a 5 star review on each interaction your wages would be docked. Would that be ok?

I think you should give the vendor a chance to make amends before posting a bad review.

Agree with the majority that it’s fine to review a day out like that negatively but that it’s not really fair to post a poor review about something the business could have rectified at the time if you’d told them about it.

I’m also suspicious of places that only have 5 star reviews. I also think it says a lot about a business when they respond politely and constructively to a negative review. It would have been far better for the business owner in the OP to have responded to say, thanks for taking the time to review, this is our first year of operating and we will take all feedback on board we’ve got lots of plans for how to improve our customers experience, hope you’ll come and see us again etc etc….

Our local farm shop put out a plea on social media yesterday due to the horrendous amount of poor reviews they've had this week at their pumpkin fields. Most were along the lines of "it was muddy and ruined all our white trainers". So they asked that people brought wellies or waterproof shoes and that being a farm, there was mud and rather a lot of it.

I felt so sorry for them, it's a fantastic place and the staff do brilliantly coping with the volume of visitors they get.

It’s not about the customer being right - some customers are absolute shits but this comes across clearly when a business responds to reviews professionally instead of being defensive.

In this case, the business put profit over experience, sold too many tickets and damn well should apologise to those that couldn’t access what they’d paid for. But in other cases, ‘I’m sorry you feel that way, we made this decision because…’ is adequate and comes across much better than a sob story complaining people shouldn’t have voiced they were unhappy

“Determined to ruin businesses” 🙄🙄🙄 Talk about a drama overdose.

It's not petty to leave a truthful review! I can wish the two young women running the farm all the best and still believe that customers have a right to know what to expect and to get a decent experience. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Of course reviews are subjective. Most prospective customers know this and apply some common sense when reading them. I neither want nor expect businesses to have only positive reviews across the board. I do expect reviews to be honest reflections of people's experiences. Otherwise they are completely pointless and you may as well not bother with them in the first place.

For better or for worse, being directly accountable to your customers is part of running a business. You can't compare it to my office job (which has other downsides).

So what are you suggesting - nobody ever should give negative feedback in any circumstances?

Have you never heard of performance reviews? They might not involve systematic wage docking based on individual pieces of feedback, but consistently negative feedback and performance issues will more than likely mean you don’t get a pay rise.

Every job I’ve ever had has involved performance reviews. I wish I’d known they weren’t “OK”. I could have just had a pay rise every year, no questions, whether I did any work or not.

No I mean EVERY piece of work you do, EVERY interaction you have gets reviewed in real time and it you don’t achieve 4 stars of above you get your wage docked - would that be ok?

. What if someone come across was in a really shitty mood and was looking for issues and you’d tried really hard and they still pulled on you?

Would that be ok?

And I’ve never said people shouldn’t leave negative reviews but give the business owner a chance to rectify it before dragging on a local business- that is someone’s livelihood.

No I mean EVERY piece of work you do, EVERY interaction you have gets reviewed in real time and it you don’t achieve 4 stars of above you get your wage docked - would that be ok?

That isn't remotely what happens when a business gets a 3* review so why are you asking?

And I’ve never said people shouldn’t leave negative reviews but give the business owner a chance to rectify it before dragging on a local business- that is someone’s livelihood

The business owner and/or their staff saw the overcrowding and did nothing. That was their chance to fix it.

You’re inventing a ridiculous scenario that doesn’t even work as a comparison to customer reviews. It’s deranged.

I think for me it’s about the end goal - you would probably achieve more by talking to them directly than just an online review somewhere. But I guess posting is easier than perhaps having a proper discussion about any issues - the same for any negative feedback really.

Yeah you wouldn’t like that would you… because it’s actually the same.

Every time you review a business negatively you turn potential customers away - effecting the business. So please make sure when you really have to do you public duty - it’s actually justified and the owner couldn’t do anything to rectify it.

Do you have shoulder pain from reaching that far?

I give your logic 1*. Would not return.