Menupages.ie - negative reviews are removed

Gran Hermano · 21-10-2008 8:09pm

Many thanks all, this thread has ensured I'll never use menupages. I'll look for reviews somewhere impartial and without a conflict of interest.

dahamsta · 21-10-2008 8:31pm

KhanTheMan wrote: »

Forgot to mention. When he calls them there is a little hint about sueing them thrown in too You know, like the you are responsible for what appears on your website as if you yourself had written and so are liable for any damages i may have to claim in the future, kind of thing.

I run a popular forum and get this all the time. Solicitor's letter threats every second month. I've never actually received one, never mind had someone act on the threat.

As wyndham says, there's no excuse for it. You're either running an impartial review site or you're not. This crowd obviously aren't, and that means the website is effectively useless to consumers.

adam

aidan_walsh · 21-10-2008 10:03pm

When he calls them there is a little hint about sueing them thrown in too

Nullifies your point.

KhanTheMan · 22-10-2008 9:27am

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Nullifies your point.

How so. 1 phonecall and its removed was my point.

aidan_walsh · 22-10-2008 9:55am

KhanTheMan wrote: »

How so. 1 phonecall and its removed was my point.

Which you made sound like it was a standard practice - even going so far as to call out the Menupages rep to explain herself over it, not because your brother acted the prick on the phone, threw his toys out of his pram and threatened to sue over a bad review. Wonder if he would take the same stance if he was poorly reviewed in a newspaper rather than a website?

AARRRGH · 22-10-2008 10:40am

A compromise to this might be to replace removed reviews with "This review was removed at the request of restaurant name". It's not ideal, but it should be fairly obvious the restaurant is asking for negative reviews to be removed.

faceman · 22-10-2008 11:29am

KhanTheMan wrote: »

Forgot to mention. When he calls them there is a little hint about sueing them thrown in too You know, like the you are responsible for what appears on your website as if you yourself had written and so are liable for any damages i may have to claim in the future, kind of thing.

Whats his restaurant's name? Must add that to the list of "kips never to visit"

aidan_walsh · 22-10-2008 12:00pm

faceman wrote: »

Whats his restaurant's name? Must add that to the list of "kips never to visit"

Or, visit once and throw the plate against the wall threatening legal action because there wasn't enough dressing on the salad.

AARRRGH · 22-10-2008 12:06pm

faceman wrote: »

Whats his restaurant's name? Must add that to the list of "kips never to visit"

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Or, visit once and throw the plate against the wall threatening legal action because there wasn't enough dressing on the salad.

You're both being a bit harsh. I think his point is valid: it is easy to get negative reviews removed.

LolaDub · 22-10-2008 12:26pm

AARRRGH wrote: »

You're both being a bit harsh. I think his point is valid: it is easy to get negative reviews removed.

I'd agree, either the restaurants can remove the negative reviews themselves or they can't. They obviously can, showing this site to be a farce

shinny · 22-10-2008 12:32pm

Thanks for putting the word out there. I submitted a negative review on a local restaurant here a while back and it didn't even get acknowledged.

Makes this site a complete joke and it'll only be a matter of time before everyone knows. I'll be sure to pass this on to all of my friends, that's for sure.

Oryx · 22-10-2008 12:58pm

It is interesting that the spokesperson for menupages, who was very vocal at first, has not returned to address any of the further points made here.

KhanTheMan · 22-10-2008 9:03pm

Oryx wrote: »

It is interesting that the spokesperson for menupages, who was very vocal at first, has not returned to address any of the further points made here.

Probably just gave a free meal to faceman and aidan_walsh and sent them in

faceman · 23-10-2008 11:43am

KhanTheMan wrote: »

Probably just gave a free meal to faceman and aidan_walsh and sent them in

No comment...

Climate Expert · 23-10-2008 11:46am

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Which you made sound like it was a standard practice - even going so far as to call out the Menupages rep to explain herself over it, not because your brother acted the prick on the phone, threw his toys out of his pram and threatened to sue over a bad review. Wonder if he would take the same stance if he was poorly reviewed in a newspaper rather than a website?

Thats what they all probably do. Menupages should have a bit of backbone and keep the reviews.

Oryx · 23-10-2008 11:55am

This whole problem is the same reason you never see restaurant reviews in smaller local papers. You dont bite the hand that feeds you (badumtish) as in, you dont offend your advertisers. You cannot be a promotion tool and still be impartial. You cannot take peoples advertising and then say bad things about them. So menupages simply cannot work as it states it does. They also have that awful irish state of affairs where someone can sue even if whats said is effectively true. So again, it just cant work.

And it bugs me that a restauranteur would phone them up and threaten them with the law over a bad review, rather than thinking 'Hey, we gave sh1t service. We ought to fix that'. A good business is not one that has no customer service problems. A good business is one that handles its customers' problems well.

Climate Expert · 23-10-2008 11:56am

someone can sue even if whats said is effectively true.

You can sue but it doesn't mean it will be succesful.

Oryx · 23-10-2008 11:58am

Climate Expert wrote: »

You can sue but it doesn't mean it will be succesful.

Have a gander at defamation law here. Its a huge risk to a defendant to let a case proceed.

Climate Expert · 23-10-2008 12:01pm

Oryx wrote: »

Have a gander at defamation law here. Its a huge risk to a defendant to let a case proceed.

I'm not sure about it. The amount awarded is usually fairly miniscule. You would see very few restaraunteurs actually pursuing a legal case.

Oryx · 23-10-2008 12:05pm

Climate Expert wrote: »

I'm not sure about it. The amount awarded is usually fairly miniscule. You would see very few restaraunteurs actually pursuing a legal case.

I dont want this to slide waaaay off topic, I can just see why people try to be careful in not allowing negative comments on a website. Ahem. This site in particular is aware of the problems when that situation occurs. (Note the stickies on every single forum). But enough. I wouldnt risk it, and I can see why others dont either.

Climate Expert · 23-10-2008 12:09pm

Oryx wrote: »

I dont want this to slide waaaay off topic, I can just see why people try to be careful in not allowing negative comments on a website. Ahem. This site in particular is aware of the problems when that situation occurs. (Note the stickies on every single forum). But enough. I wouldnt risk it, and I can see why others dont either.

I can see their side but if thats the case then why bother with the charade of saying you are a review site. A bit of transparency is needed.

AARRRGH · 23-10-2008 12:22pm

Climate Expert wrote: »

A bit of transparency is needed.

That's the problem, and why I suggested a compromise where they can edit the negative reviews to state the restaurant asked for the review to be removed.

Simply removing the reviews and assuming the public is too dumb to notice is retarded arrogance.

Darragh29 · 23-10-2008 10:55pm

Oryx wrote: »

I dont want this to slide waaaay off topic, I can just see why people try to be careful in not allowing negative comments on a website. Ahem. This site in particular is aware of the problems when that situation occurs. (Note the stickies on every single forum). But enough. I wouldnt risk it, and I can see why others dont either.

Grand, so don't set up a web site claiming to give impartial advice on restaurants.

LolaDub · 23-10-2008 11:38pm

I checked back on menupages and my emails. I'd say a fair bunch of my reviews are over 300 days but a few negative ones since then have still been deleted. I got an email from menupages over one saying they weren't sure if they could publish and the girl was waiting on a decision from her manager. I replied saying the restaurant was appalling and i haven't said anything abusive but gave a good account of what happened when i was there and told people not to bother going, i thanked the girl for letting me know and i'd like to know what it was that they couldn't publish and said i looked forward to hearing from her again, which i never did and my review is not there. I was never offered a free meal or an explanation etc

Also a lot of my points were deleted, when i emailed asking about this i was told they would go back up but never did....

admiralofthefleet · 24-10-2008 3:32pm

i regularly check it as my place had 1 review with 4 stars. i checked today and the stars had been reduced to 3 yet the comment didnt change, strange

ChickCool · 24-10-2008 3:40pm

email them about it.sounds like there doing the restaurants a dis service to.

Go to the second page of this restaurant, the third review left is one saying their shocked to read such a bad review but the reviews before it are nice so they must have deleted one bad one

http://www.menupages.ie/Restaurants/Valparaiso.aspx

seraphimvc · 24-10-2008 3:47pm

i heard they charge about 2000euro a year or something.of course one of the restaurant i know turned them down :pac:sad to hear that news,OP,they r gonna disappear soon if they keep doing that

AARRRGH · 24-10-2008 4:30pm

I think it is now fair to say menupages delete negative reviews, and their marketing manager was stretching the truth somewhat, to put it kindly!

Sandra, if you are reading this: are you going to stop removing negative reviews, or is it going to be business as usual for menupages?

boardsie08 · 24-10-2008 4:52pm

I too would also love to hear back from Sandra regarding all of this seeing as new evidence of more deletions has come to light.

In fairness, she was very vocal at the start, but now that more damning evidence has come to light, not a peep!

This really doesn't look good for menupages at all.. I know that I shall never be using that site again now unless changes are made. I will also be informing friends of mine who are regular users of the site how it's ran, I doubt they'll be so eager to use it in future now either.

Sandra, if you still are still reading these comments we'd love to hear back from you. The "bury your head in the sand" approach really isn't the best way to entice people back to your site nor give it any credibility. The silence is deafening.

ChickCool · 24-10-2008 4:59pm

The silense is deafaning because she was so vocal at the start, even tracking a user down on his blog and calling another member out here with i know who you are etc, thats not a way for a professional person to behave

Menupages.ie - negative reviews are removed

Comments