I’ve seen more than one business in this situation- a bad review on some online service from a disgruntled former employee or maybe someone that has them confused with someone else. In the case of Yelp, they use bad reviews as leverage to sell ads and it appears that they may be manipulating the reviews as a sales tactic.
Review systems from Yelp to Amazon seem to be broken. Even asking for recommendations on Facebook comes up with a flurry of contradicting views. Can you really trust them anymore? Maybe it’s time for a new system or a new way to get trusted opinions on products and services.
Davide Cerretini of Botto Bistro was fed up with Yelp’s tactics and took matters into his own hands.
“I came from Italy, and know exactly what mafia extortion looks like,” he says. “Yelp was manipulating reviews and hoping I would pay a protection fee. I didn’t come to America and work for 25 years to be extorted by some idiot in Silicon Valley.”
His story is at the link below.
Link: Hustle – The restaurant owner who asked for 1-star Yelp reviews
Photo by Jodie Morgan on Unsplash