Nearly everyone is aware that online reviews have become the new word of mouth. Whether you want to get a new haircut, fix up your bike, or check out that Italian restaurant your friends go on and on about, often the first thing you'll do is look the place up.
But when anyone with an internet connection can twist the truth with the sole purpose of taking revenge or tearing down the business, there’s a myriad of fake evaluations. Luckily, we sometimes get a taste of sweet justice when the business owners themselves stumble upon these falsehoods and choose to do everyone a public service by rightfully calling them out.
To celebrate their clap-back replies, members of the Quit Your BS subreddit decided to document their attempts to protect their reputation and share screenshots with the whole community. Below, you’ll find some of the best responses Bored Panda has collected from the page, so continue scrolling and upvote the ones you enjoyed reading the most!
This post may include affiliate links.
A link to the business would be nice. This company deserves support for the stance they have taken. If you are gonna profit (BoredPanda) then the least you can do is state who the company is.
The barber's response was civil and to the point. I hope prospective customers take this customer's review with a grain of salt.
Can someone explain why people like this dickweenie lie about experiences and then tag someone who could expose them? I just don't get it.
now, here me out. maybe a look alike went around atlanta and pretended to be ryan reynolds, and the guy in the post didnt know, nor did the staff.
Load More Replies...
I just love it when celebrities call people out for saying things like that
Why did this guy lie about Ryan Reynolds being in the coffee shop ?
People will lie about the most obvious things. It's not just children, it's adults too
Load More Replies...
He went into my Whataburger I worked in once and dudes! He's such a crazy and nice dude! I told him he looked like the guy who plays Deadpool (I didn't realize it was Ryan Reynolds) and he just looked at me and said "you know, I haven't heard that in a while!" His manager was not pleased with his antics lmao
I still remember his first show: 2 guys, a girl and a pizza place. Didn’t last long, but I thought it was funny
I LOVED that show 😍. Everyone looks at me like I'm crazy when I talk about it and act like I made it up lol. I'm frustrated that none of the streaming apps have added it. I will literally watch anything that has Ryan Reynolds in it 😍.
Load More Replies...
They should have expected that when they tagged Mr Reynolds in their comment.. dude has less of a filter than im accussed of having and with all the humor i dont have and I'm here for it...
To learn more about this false review phenomenon and the questionable tactics some raters and commenters use today, we reached out to Curtis Boyd, founder of The Transparency Company. They strive to help consumers work with higher quality businesses with real feedback by predicting whether a business has earned their reviews or paid for them.
"A bad review can make or break a business," he told Bored Panda. "They can have a profound impact, especially if they are detailed and describe a terrible first-person consumer experience."
"People read online reviews because they know what they want, but are shopping for experiences that they want for themselves. When they read experiences that don't align with their wishes, they will easily search elsewhere," he added.
In theory, online reviews should be forthcoming and provide real information about the places people wish to visit, services they want to try, or products they plan to buy. But just like the internet can be an endless source of wonder, it's a pretty shady place as well.
The yearly Local Consumer Review Survey analyzes how consumers use online reviews to select, trust, and understand companies offering services or products in their local area. It found that 49% trust consumer reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. Considering that this number was much higher in 2020 (79% to be exact), it reveals the public’s trust in online reviews has significantly dropped, and fake reviews seem to be one of the leading causes of their doubts.
More than half of consumers, 62%, believe they've seen a fake review for a local business last year. The top three reasons that make them believe the posted feedback might be false are when it is over-the-top in its praise, it is anonymous or uses an obvious pseudonym, and when there are many other evaluations similar in content. So curiously, this shows that potential clients are probably more cautious of positive fake reviews than negative ones.
It reminds me of the surge of Yankee Candle reviewers complaining the candles suddenly have no smell.
Boyd told Bored Panda that people normally leave fake reviews because they were hired to. "In 2019, Google removed 55 million fake reviews. In 2020, Google removed 75 million fake reviews. In 2021, Google removed 95 million fake reviews (that's 260,000 per day) — in my opinion, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Most of them were positive, that violated their 'TOS' [Terms of Service]," he revealed. "Buying fake reviews is a multi-billion dollar industry that most people are completely unaware of."
If you’re wondering how to spot them online, Boyd explained it can be easily done on sites like Google and Yelp by clicking on the profile. Then, it's time to put our thinking caps on and raise a couple of questions: "I ask myself, is there a nice diversity of businesses they have written reviews for (cafe, shoe stores, etc.)? Or are they all home service businesses?" He added that the lack of category diversity shows an "agenda".
Boyd also looks at where these people are writing reviews for businesses. "Does it look normal? Are others writing reviews for the sample businesses? Are others hiding their reviews using Google's anonymous feature?" If any of the answers to these questions are positive, he warned that it's a huge red flag.
Same thing happened at a pho shop near me. I was having lunch with a friend there and this tourist from California started yelling at the server "This isn't real pho!! I'm from San Francisco and I know REAL pho!!" Needless to say this pho shop has been around for decades and is still run by the Vietnamese family that started it using their families unique recipe (brought over from Vietnam). She got dirty looks from all the regulars and one guy told her to go back to Cali. She paid and stormed off and everyone's day went on. I tipped a bit extra that day. Nobody deserves to be treated like that.
As you’re scrolling through this compilation of screenshots, you’ll notice there are plenty of vengeful people online ready to leave bogus customer reviews. Such feedback might shatter the reputation a business has worked so hard to achieve. So no wonder when someone gives a restaurant or a shop a 1-star rating, some owners feel this irresistible impulse to react and fill everyone in on the big picture.
"Responses are important, and yes, it is important to call them out and say that the experience described isn't real," Boyd explained. "Responses give the owner a chance to brag about the typical customer experience they've been delivering for X number of years."
Unfortunately, the Local Consumer Review Survey found that only 26% of respondents would believe business owners who reply to reviews to call out any false accusations. So while responding to bogus claims is meaningful, it might not be enough. Owners should still go through the proper available channels to get fake reviews reported and removed.
When asked whether there are any other things businesses could do to fight false customer reviews, Boyd suggested visiting online forums like Local Search Forum, and Google Business Profile Support. He also advised you, dear readers, not to take reviews at face value. Remember that when it comes to this place we call the internet, it’s best to take everything with a little pinch of salt.
That's a good bartender right there. Some would have kept serving; I used to wait tables so I know.
I would have given up on "S" after the 2nd attempt, the owner was being really nice to that person.
I don't know why, but something about "I won't stand for it" made me laugh
Many pets can't handle even the best care if left. You can't explain to them you are coming back as they don't understand you! They can pine, and not eat anyway despite the kennel's best efforts. Sad but true. You should start kenneling your pet on a regular basis from when it is very young, from short periods (even for1day) then build up, even for no reason and it's not needed.Then, when you do go on holiday later, the pet knows you will return. Don't get a pet then put it in care after having it years and expect it not to feel abandoned. Your fault.
Note: this post originally had 107 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
Someone left an angry one star review for my work because we had a trans person working in the gift shop. We don't have a gift shop... And even if we did, we would be 100% in support of any trans person who wanted to work in it.
Can I post a reverse story? was looking for a dermatologist in my neighbourhood and checked the reviews of one that was responding very very rude and all the reviews were horrible! My favourite: you said that my daughter had chicken pox instead of simple allergy and you were rude and not explaining anything! Response: "better to overdiagnose than misdiagnose! Behaviour has to do with who you are talking to and i cannot explain medicine in someone that hasn't studied medicine!"
The trouble with a lot of review websites is that the person who wrote the original review can't respond to the reply by the business. I understand why but there's also nothing to stop business owners bad mouthing or lying about reviewers who leave a bad review, knowing they can't respond.
It appears that claiming the reviewer is a disgruntled former employee is a pretty common tactic.
Load More Replies...
In my humble but honest opinion, in some of these examples, it's the business owner who's lying.
exactly. it's hard to know the truth, since all we have is the words they said about each other
Load More Replies...
Google reviews are always stupid. At my old job, we used to read them all the time and laugh. The type of people motivated to write bad reviews are usually pretty stupid. With Covid, a lot of negative reviews are basically people mad that we enforced the rules, as per the law, like sorry Karen it's not my fault you don't know the rules.
I volunteer at a dog training place. It has a 4.8 star rating based on hundreds of reviews and has won awards etc. "Someone" left a comment saying we abuse dogs and kick them. That "person" has only left reviews for the place I am at and a dog training place that had not opened yet down the street (5 stars obviously) owned by someone who had a personal vendetta against the owner of the dog training place I'm at. The accusation was not only ridiculous but also horrible to the point that students who would inform us it was online.
Back in the lockdown in my country we could only help our customers if they made an appointment. Two women came to our store walked in and asked if they could look around. My collegue politely said no and explained that it was because of the covid regulations. They said okay and left so we thought it was all fine. One hour later we get a 1 star review saying we refused service because they didn't speak Dutch and heavily implied that we were racist. I still have no idea what their goal was with that review :')
You can have a bad experience with a good business, that happens. If there are several good to great reviews, and just a couple bad, I figure it's probably a decent place.
There are millions of tutorials, wikipedia articles, games, newsfeeds and social media accounts begging for your attention. I will never get it , how someone gonna wake up, get some coffee and decide to fake review places that even aren't open yet. If you want to feel mighty slay dragons in games, dislike influencers life hacks or learn how to construct cool funny defence systems against rude trick or treat puns on halloween ( got a hint you got them often)
Someone left an angry one star review for my work because we had a trans person working in the gift shop. We don't have a gift shop... And even if we did, we would be 100% in support of any trans person who wanted to work in it.
Can I post a reverse story? was looking for a dermatologist in my neighbourhood and checked the reviews of one that was responding very very rude and all the reviews were horrible! My favourite: you said that my daughter had chicken pox instead of simple allergy and you were rude and not explaining anything! Response: "better to overdiagnose than misdiagnose! Behaviour has to do with who you are talking to and i cannot explain medicine in someone that hasn't studied medicine!"
The trouble with a lot of review websites is that the person who wrote the original review can't respond to the reply by the business. I understand why but there's also nothing to stop business owners bad mouthing or lying about reviewers who leave a bad review, knowing they can't respond.
It appears that claiming the reviewer is a disgruntled former employee is a pretty common tactic.
Load More Replies... In my humble but honest opinion, in some of these examples, it's the business owner who's lying.
exactly. it's hard to know the truth, since all we have is the words they said about each other
Load More Replies... Google reviews are always stupid. At my old job, we used to read them all the time and laugh. The type of people motivated to write bad reviews are usually pretty stupid. With Covid, a lot of negative reviews are basically people mad that we enforced the rules, as per the law, like sorry Karen it's not my fault you don't know the rules.
I volunteer at a dog training place. It has a 4.8 star rating based on hundreds of reviews and has won awards etc. "Someone" left a comment saying we abuse dogs and kick them. That "person" has only left reviews for the place I am at and a dog training place that had not opened yet down the street (5 stars obviously) owned by someone who had a personal vendetta against the owner of the dog training place I'm at. The accusation was not only ridiculous but also horrible to the point that students who would inform us it was online.
Back in the lockdown in my country we could only help our customers if they made an appointment. Two women came to our store walked in and asked if they could look around. My collegue politely said no and explained that it was because of the covid regulations. They said okay and left so we thought it was all fine. One hour later we get a 1 star review saying we refused service because they didn't speak Dutch and heavily implied that we were racist. I still have no idea what their goal was with that review :')
You can have a bad experience with a good business, that happens. If there are several good to great reviews, and just a couple bad, I figure it's probably a decent place.
There are millions of tutorials, wikipedia articles, games, newsfeeds and social media accounts begging for your attention. I will never get it , how someone gonna wake up, get some coffee and decide to fake review places that even aren't open yet. If you want to feel mighty slay dragons in games, dislike influencers life hacks or learn how to construct cool funny defence systems against rude trick or treat puns on halloween ( got a hint you got them often)
