$1M Negative Yelp Review Lawsuit Dismissed

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You guys have been saying this would happen for months since we first heard about this case and it looks like you were right. Common sense prevailed, the lawsuit was thrown out and the petsitter responsible for the lawsuit now has to pay the defendant's attorney fees and court sanctions.

Levy says that by "seeking to silence negative criticism," the petsitters may have ended up risking the future of their entire company. "Not only did the company lose business when customers were disgusted over the non-disparagement lawsuit, it now is responsible to pay attorney fees and sanctions," he explains.
 
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WINNING!!! HAHAHAHA :D

i hope that company closes for good.

maybe they needed some tiger blood and aides.
 
Trying to silence them, regardless of the veracity of the claims, just does not go over well. That said, who actually looks at Yelp reviews? They have always struck me as being overly exagerated, and I have paid them little mind at first, and no mind whatsoever these days.
 
Gorankar said:
Trying to silence them, regardless of the veracity of the claims, just does not go over well. That said, who actually looks at Yelp reviews? They have always struck me as being overly exagerated, and I have paid them little mind at first, and no mind whatsoever these days.
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Uh, no... They are professional food critics that are super valuable with people hanging off their every word.... Didn't you see Southpark?
 
I just posted a negative review on Yelp for a local eatery here in Las Vegas recently. They treated me rather terribly in the establishment so I complained to their comments email address and didn't hear back from them in what I'd consider to be an appropriate time frame so I posted a lengthy review/complaint about the experience. Of course, like an hour after I posted the review (which I said I would post in the complaint email) they did respond and even went so far as to verify the info I posted in the review (specific times, items ordered, etc) against their security footage in the restaurant itself. I was of course proven correct and they ended up sending me a few gift cards for my trouble and I edited the review to say they'd done as such (but left the review standing with slight edits because of the length allowed).

I believe in good service for the prices places are charging nowadays. With one of the gift cards I went back the other day and got a chicken sandwich for my wife ($4.95) that had a piece of chicken barely a half inch thick, wasn't even like a full chicken breast, just a small portion of what that would be (the bun absolutely covered it entirely) and it was overcooked and very hard for her to chew. I got her a milkshake too and that was $6.75 - a milkshake made from a scoop of ice cream they buy in large quantities for a discount plus a little bit of milk and some Oreo cookies cost almost 50% more than a chicken sandwich.

I tell ya, prices are just getting ridiculous in today's world, they really are.

But if you don't tell businesses about bad service or shitty products, they'll just keep right on producing them. For years I kept my mouth shut (except when eating of course) and just decided that my best course of action for shoddy service or terrible food products was simply leaving and never coming back and passing the word to friends and family. But that only goes so far - I'm not saying it's right to intentionally try to destroy a business in some respects but when you do experience bad service or terrible food products (or whatever products you're spending money on) tell the business, either right then and there in person (which was my situation - the Manager on duty simply blew me off in the restaurant which could easily have been handled better) or take it to the next level and reach out to corporate or regional offices and managers if needed.

I'm a good tipper overall, always have been, and I appreciate good service from staff and good food/etc but when it's not up to what it should be then hell yes I'm gonna complain. I'm not looking for freebies, honestly, I just want companies to make sure the people they're paying with the money I'm spending are doing their damned jobs correctly. That's really not too much to ask even in spite of the world becoming shittier by the second. :)
 
Thought this story looked familiar. This pet sitting company is owned by my Brother & sister-in-law.

The lady started slandering their business because her fish died, after being explicitly told they do not feed fish or other animals when walking the customer dog. The rest is situational BS that got twisted into the story to make her look like a victim.

Hope that lady gets hit by a rocket powered cock in the mouth.
 
TheGeekFreek said:
Thought this story looked familiar. This pet sitting company is owned by my Brother & sister-in-law.

The lady started slandering their business because her fish died, after being explicitly told they do not feed fish or other animals when walking the customer dog. The rest is situational BS that got twisted into the story to make her look like a victim.

Hope that lady gets hit by a rocket powered cock in the mouth.
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Your brother and sister-in-law should be right in line behind her then. Their lawsuit was bullshit from the start. It doesn't matter if she twisted something or not. Charge her with slander then. Filing a law suit for a negative post period, which they would have done regardless if true or not based on what they try to force people to agree to is wrong. Top that off that once people got pissed that their fucking shitty methods of getting people to shut up where known outside of the area they then tried to fuck this woman over harder.

Lets say it is true that this woman twisted things, a simple reply on Yelp would have stopped this from mattering to most people. There actions, no her actions, caused them far more damage. They deserve whatever fallout comes from this. Maybe you can be nice and let them move in if they lose everything and end up living in the streets.
 
TheGeekFreek said:
Thought this story looked familiar. This pet sitting company is owned by my Brother & sister-in-law.

The lady started slandering their business because her fish died, after being explicitly told they do not feed fish or other animals when walking the customer dog. The rest is situational BS that got twisted into the story to make her look like a victim.

Hope that lady gets hit by a rocket powered cock in the mouth.
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It seems at least one judge believed the lady over your family. Hopefully they won't be deadbeats and pony up those lawyer fees.
 
Tiberian said:
I believe in good service for the prices places are charging nowadays.

I tell ya, prices are just getting ridiculous in today's world, they really are.
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So you hold the waiters responsible for supplementing those rising prices with better service? I would think that larger portions or just better quality ingredients would be a more reasonable expectation; it isn't the waiters who raise the prices, they are just trying to earn a living.

Furthermore, "good service" is a relative term.

You could tell the waiter or owner face-to-face, or see the menu and leave if you think the prices are too high rather than holding the waiters accountable. I just get it out and done with on the spot; speak your mind to the people who should hear it in real time, done and dusted. People seem too cowardly to confront each other these days, thus the keyboard warrior is born.

Restaurant owners should create a site where they can give named patron reviews.
 
Just for the record this wasn't a fancy kinda dining establishment, it was fast food basically so there were no 'waiters' per se, just workers doing their jobs - the issue came from the service provided when a problem was discovered (what was explained to me when their corporate office contacted me was at the time I placed my order the receipt printer which spits out my ticket in the back of the house (aka where they prep the food) ran out and had to be replaced so, the kitchen personnel never got my ticket at all (it printed on the bare drum head which had no thermal paper in it).

Nobody bothered to check on the order so I sat there, in plain direct view of all the employees, with a small sign with a number on it - my order number - for 22 minutes and they handled 6 other customer orders complete in the time I was waiting for mine. After 22 minutes I finally went to the counter to ask where my order was, showed my receipt, showed my smartphone clearly showing 22 minutes had passed (one of the employees pulled out his own smartphone just to verify it as though I'd changed mine on purpose or something). One employee asked me if I wanted my food or a refund and I flat out said I'd like both and they were flabbergasted, utterly stunned at my saying that. Another minute passed, no food. One of them finally asked me again what I wanted and I said my food and the Manager.

Another minute passed when the Manager finally came to me, my receipt in her hand, now about 24 minutes into this debacle, and instead of saying what should have been said which was "I'm the Manager, I'm sorry for the delay, we'll have your order up as soon as possible..." and then making that a reality, she - still having not looked up at me face to face but still staring at the receipt in her hand - said "So... you've been waiting over 20 minutes for your order, is that right?" and then she looked up at me as though I was the cause of it all myself.

Now it was my turn to be stunned, I suppose, 'cause I stood there in a state of disbelief that she'd say such a thing instead of immediately apologizing for the error which happened through no fault of my own and making it right. She asked "Do you want your food or your money back?" and I said "I'd like both" to which she flat out replied "You can have the food, or the refund, but I'm not giving you both."

At that point I should have just said refund and walked out but again I hadn't been the cause of this (even though I wasn't aware of the reasons and neither were they in that particular moment) so I said I'd take the food but I'd get it the refund from corporate. She did a "tsk" sound and turned away from me tossing my receipt - NOT LAYING IT ON THE COUNTER OR HANDING IT TO ME DIRECTLY - across the counter in my general direction where it ended up on the floor at my feet. Took the food, went home, the wife liked the shake but even so I filed the complaint because it was necessary at that point.

Heard back the following afternoon from their corporate about the issue, them verifying my story using the video footage and the timing - I went in the following day actually and just asked the worker to tell me what time it was on the POS register and then checked it against my own smartphone again, their POS system is 5 minutes behind the actual real-world time for some reason so my reported waiting time was dead on accurate.

I don't blame the employees, mistakes happen and sometimes shit goes wrong - that's the printer aspect to all this. I wouldn't have complained about the printer had I known about it and that wasn't obviously the reason I was complaining in the first place: it was the discourteous service provided by the Manager on duty in that moment that pushed me to file the complaint. Apparently she'd only been working there for ~2 weeks prior to this and I was assured she'd get some customer service instruction on how such issues should be resolved.

Final resolution: I went back in yesterday (Monday) to get the wife another milkshake using the gift cards they sent me - took 8 minutes because they were busy but the remarkable thing was the Manager (yes, the same person I had issues with the week prior) saw me sitting out front waiting, went over and checked to see what my order was (by the order number on the little sign), took the shake from the worker's hand and delivered it to me herself and she apologized for the incident the week prior which I thought was pretty damned awesome. Considering how many people that place serves in a day (in downtown Las Vegas) I was somewhat surprised she remembered me on sight but thanked her for the apology and told her we're still happy to do business with that establishment so, it all worked out in the end I suppose.

As for being a "keyboard warrior," you're damned right I am, been typing like mad on 'puters since the 1970s and ain't gonna stop anytime soon but, what's right is right and there's no getting past that or rationalizing it into some level of non-existence. If I'm paying for good service and a product, I expect to get good service and a product - if either one fails to live up to my expectations then yes I'll file a complaint depending on the overall severity of the experience. This one turned out to be over my threshold so, that's why I filed the complaint.
 
Yeah, well, I wouldn't go back there for a while if I were you. All I have to say is that you don't want to have people who don't like you prepping your food (see my previous post).

Hope you enjoyed that 8-minute "milkshake". ;)
 
Anonymous reviews are worthless. Too many long-winded weirdos and people with an axe to grind.
 
Gorankar said:
I tell them by never going back.
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I used to do that. But realized that unless the manager/owner realizes how crappy their product is turning out, they don't have a chance to fix the problem. Most food places churn out so much that they don't have much of a chance to see how it turns out most of the time. Feedback lets them know if it's quality, price, service, or just a bad location.

I read yelp or other reviews but take it all with a grain of salt. Often you can tell if a reviewer is an asshole just by how the review is written. I write yelp reviews to let others know what an establishment is like, and I always list when I ate there, because busy times can generate very different quality food than off hour can.

FWIW: Never order seafood on Saturday, Sunday, Monday (or Tuesday if the restaurant is closed on Monday). Why? The fish markets only open Monday through Friday. Saturday you're getting one day old fish, etc.. By the beginning of the week, you could be getting leftover fish from Friday.
 
Exavior said:
Your brother and sister-in-law should be right in line behind her then. Their lawsuit was bullshit from the start. It doesn't matter if she twisted something or not. Charge her with slander then. Filing a law suit for a negative post period, which they would have done regardless if true or not based on what they try to force people to agree to is wrong. Top that off that once people got pissed that their fucking shitty methods of getting people to shut up where known outside of the area they then tried to fuck this woman over harder.

Lets say it is true that this woman twisted things, a simple reply on Yelp would have stopped this from mattering to most people. There actions, no her actions, caused them far more damage. They deserve whatever fallout comes from this. Maybe you can be nice and let them move in if they lose everything and end up living in the streets.
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Looks like thats how it started.. went from a personal/slander 6700$ lawsuit some some fancy ass lawyer on the defendant side making it a high visibility high claims case because it had YELP's name on it.
Just like lawyers do. Im glad the lawyers lost in this as well.. but they still win more than the people that are affected by this.. Such a scam.. If humans werent such overly-dramatic vaginas about their feelings, this could have been settled out of court without guns drawn.
 
TheGeekFreek said:
Looks like thats how it started.. went from a personal/slander 6700$ lawsuit some some fancy ass lawyer on the defendant side making it a high visibility high claims case because it had YELP's name on it.
Just like lawyers do. Im glad the lawyers lost in this as well.. but they still win more than the people that are affected by this.. Such a scam.. If humans werent such overly-dramatic vaginas about their feelings, this could have been settled out of court without guns drawn.
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No, this started as a $6700 your contracted clearly stated you can't say anything negative about us to anyone via any method after you use our service otherwise we can sue you law suit. Slander and negative reviews are two different things.
 
Gorankar said:
I tell them by never going back.
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if that was the case every time, i'd be fucking rich....with nowhere to spend it all! :p

just like people, every business has a bad day now and again, because well....businesses are run by people, and people have bad days. as such, i won't condemn an establishment over one bad experience (in most cases, unless it's GROSSLY negligence or something).

a whie back, my gf & i went out to eat some sushi, and we had the absolute worst service i've ever seen in my life; i've still yet to ever see such bad service again. we'd eaten there a few times before and the gf was familiar with the owner because she used to work at another sushi place before heading out on her own. so the gf wrote the owner a note detailing the level of shitty service we received. i shit you not, we went back again later, and one of the other waiters there who we knew somewhat well told us that the owner made that other waiter cry because of that note. we never expected it, but over the next year or so, the owner gave us a free order of edamame almost every time we went in there. so complaining does work if the people in management actually give a shit.

it's when bad service becomes the norm that you start voting with your wallet.
 
Gorankar said:
Trying to silence them, regardless of the veracity of the claims, just does not go over well. That said, who actually looks at Yelp reviews? They have always struck me as being overly exagerated, and I have paid them little mind at first, and no mind whatsoever these days.
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I'll look at them because like you said, you can tell which ones are legit or not. So, as long as you don't look at just the top two, there is SOME value in reading there.
 
Yeah, when the courts actually rule, these things tend to work out right.

The problem is, many of them never get there, as the defendant may not have the money or time to mount a proper legal defense.

They might have had the court order that the plaintiff pay their legal expenses, but who knows how quickly that will be forthcoming (or if they'll need to file a motion to garnish wages or anything like that), and imagine the time and heartache invested in bullshit like this.
 
OEM said:
I'll look at them because like you said, you can tell which ones are legit or not. So, as long as you don't look at just the top two, there is SOME value in reading there.
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Yeah, ignoring reviews from users who have only written a few (because they might be fake) is a good idea. Also looking at the overal breadht of reviews, just not the top few is also a good idea.

You can usually pick up a bogus review just by reading it too.

Real reviews tend to use passive language, like:

"Went here with some friends, really enjoyed the experience"

Fake reviews tend to overuse personal references and active voice:

"I went here with my wife and kids after my brothers wedding, and it was the best restaurant on earth!"

None of this is perfect, but once you apply some finesse to reading them, the law of averages tend to work out pretty OK.

Same thing for Amazon reviews, and Newegg reviews, etc. etc.
 
TheGeekFreek said:
Looks like thats how it started.. went from a personal/slander 6700$ lawsuit some some fancy ass lawyer on the defendant side making it a high visibility high claims case because it had YELP's name on it.
Just like lawyers do. Im glad the lawyers lost in this as well.. but they still win more than the people that are affected by this.. Such a scam.. If humans werent such overly-dramatic vaginas about their feelings, this could have been settled out of court without guns drawn.
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"They shouldn't have made a high profile case out of this! Fuck that lawyer!" You know, this all could have been avoided if your brother and sister in-law hadn't run off crying to a lawyer like over-dramatic humans with sand in their vaginas (essentially your words). I'm sure you love your brother and I have to respect that you're defending him, but they're in the wrong on this one. Sorry.
 
Fix Me said:
"They shouldn't have made a high profile case out of this! Fuck that lawyer!" You know, this all could have been avoided if your brother and sister in-law hadn't run off crying to a lawyer like over-dramatic humans with sand in their vaginas (essentially your words). I'm sure you love your brother and I have to respect that you're defending him, but they're in the wrong on this one. Sorry.
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I think the whole group is retarded.

Lady gets shitty over a service they don't provide.

They get shitty about it and haul in a lawyer.

Vulture lawyers jump on it like flies to shit hoping for a payday.

The judge throwing it out makes sense to me.. I'm just saying had the lady not been retarded in the first place, none of his would have happened.
 
TheGeekFreek said:
Thought this story looked familiar. This pet sitting company is owned by my Brother & sister-in-law.

The lady started slandering their business because her fish died, after being explicitly told they do not feed fish or other animals when walking the customer dog. The rest is situational BS that got twisted into the story to make her look like a victim.

Hope that lady gets hit by a rocket powered cock in the mouth.
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And you think its okay for your brother and sister in law to sue for $1M? The courts should have awarded the lady $1M to be paid by your brother just because they thought it was okay to sue for $1M over free speech.
 
They didn't originally..
That's the retarded lawyer uptalk that made that BS happen.

I imagine it was sold as 'sending a message' to YELP which was not their problem.
 
TheGeekFreek said:
Thought this story looked familiar. This pet sitting company is owned by my Brother & sister-in-law.

The lady started slandering their business because her fish died, after being explicitly told they do not feed fish or other animals when walking the customer dog. The rest is situational BS that got twisted into the story to make her look like a victim.

Hope that lady gets hit by a rocket powered cock in the mouth.
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I feel the need to post a shitty Yelp review of your entire family.
 
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