Beat me to the same point. There are so many self-proclaimed “foodies” out there who will ding you if their pho isn’t “authentic enough” for their suburban sensibilities.

Agreed, and that’s why I never leave a low-star review until some time has gone by. Much like with email, angry Yelping isn’t healthy for either side.

Ya, from the start you easily outline the flaw of Yelp. People are quicker to bitch about being wronged than to express gratitude for good service.

People are way too quick to give a one-star review for dumb reasons. I’ve seen them given because the place wasn’t open at a time convenient for the reviewer, or a steakhouse didn’t have enough vegetarian options. Or one that criticized an ethnic restaurant for cooking food exactly how they cook it in that country…

Nope! This guy didn’t even bother to get the details of the job or what went wrong. The way I understand the whole thing goes something like this: his social media person (also maybe his lawyer? he said something like, “we have a lawyer who handles these social media things” so I was a little baffled by what even…

Thorin, did your conversation include any discussion regarding what seems to be your legitimate gripes against his business? I’m curious to hear what explanations he might have had for the bad work done.

Agreed, but there’s a difference between a one star review for “My drink took 10 minutes” and one star review for “I’m out $1000 and this contractor did a shit job I have to pay even more money to fix.” One is overkill, the other is probably not.

It was my sad revenge as a consumer who felt duped. I might have felt altruistic when I pressed that publish button, but it was a selfish decision meant only to make myself feel a little better.