Hi, I’m a local guide level 5, I’ve been in the community for a few years. I visited a business two weeks ago, it was a recommendation. I came with my children, it took us 1H10 to arrive there, we were expecting to see local artists’ work and to taste local délices. They probably don’t like families or children, but they looked at us in astonishment, didn’t greet us hello. One of the people in charge hit me as he walked by me and didn’t apologise. We entered the deli and we waited for a good 5 minutes while 2 saleswomen discussed with a client, nobody said hello. We decided to leave, there was nothing to see or buy, it was a waste of time and really the people in charge are very rude. I left a one star review saying that I didn’t recommend this place, the place answered saying that they didn’t agree. End of the story. Today thought, two weeks ago, I was called on my work phone (no idea how this number was available, probably looked me up on Google with my name and last name), the person identified himself as the person responsible for the business in question, I said hello. The voice was authoritarian but that’s the way most people speak here so I gave it a chance, he said “you left a one star review about our business”. Honestly, I could have said “you have no right to call me on my work phone”, but I was taken by surprise, this is the first time such a thing happens. I answered “yes I did”. The person asked “why did you leave a bad review?”, I said “because I had a terrible experience at your business”, “why? what happened?”, he said, so I wanted to explain, I thought there would be an agreement, I started “I drove for approximately an hour to get to your place because it had been recommended by someone…”, he cut me there and asked again “why did you leave a bad review?”, I told him “I don’t like the tone in which you are talking to me so I will hang up, goodbye”. And I hung up. I am still shocked of the nerve this person had, and I don’t think it is allowed for a business to google the name of the guide, find a number and call and try to intimidate the person because of a review they didn’t appreciate. Does anybody know how to proceed in this situation? Thank you in advance.
Hey @cbesouthwestfrance I’m so sorry for hear this.
Based on my experience sometimes I also leave low rating and usually I explain also reason on my review explain about situation and I leave suggest also in the last my sentences review, some times type this my personal experience maybe you have better experience and after this owner improve so much. Of course honest reviews sometimes risk intimidation from owner in the later of day.
My suggest if owner recall you, try to explain the owner in the good situation and you can edit your review.But for report you can tap report buisness in googlre maps application.
So let me tag @ErmesT for better solution.
Thank you.
You can change your name on Google Maps / your Google account to have an alias. This can ensure that business owners will not be able to find you in the future.
Many Local guides have done this to protect themselves / their privacy.
At some point I changed my Google Maps name to MortenCopenhagen which makes it a lot more difficult to find my real name. Before my Google Maps name was my real name.
All the best
Morten
@cbesouthwestfrance the business owner has no right to call you. Even when he did it is impolite to speak to you that way, rather he should have apologized and asked you to revisit and fix the flaw.
I think you can report the business to Google. I’ll tag @InaS to give a better suggestion on what to do.
Thanks for the tag, @Nyainurjanah
Hi @cbesouthwestfrance , I am sorry about your experience, but I think that this post, and your review, can be interesting for a conversation about what a review is.
Of course I agree with @EmekaUlor about the fact that a business owner should NEVER contact privately a customer about a review, and I agree with @MortenCopenhagen that you can better protect your privacy, but of course you can have many reasons (personal and professional) to let other people find your phone number by searching the web.
This said, I would like to go back to the subject of this post (a business contacting you about your review).
I would like to start from a principle: Why we write a review? Because a review, even if negative, can:
- Help other people to choose if visiting a place
- Help the business to improve
You wrote a very detailed description of your experience here in Connect, letting us to understand why you wrote a negative review, but honestly this is not what you wrote in your review. In there you didn’t give to the people, nor to the business, the possibility to understand WHY you gave a negative review, and what was bad in your experience.
Here you said “I left a one star review saying that I didn’t recommend this place, the place answered saying that they didn’t agree”. This is not true. The business said “Bonjour , navré que cette expérience ne vous ai pas convenu , mais aussi étonné car il règne la bonne humeur à LA Cour , mais vous êtes peu être tombé sur la mauvaise personne , la mauvaise journée , car nous restons avant tout des humains” (Hello, sorry that this experience did not suit you, but also surprised because there is good humor at LA Cour, but you may have come across the wrong person, the wrong day, because we remain above all human beings).
The business didn’t said “I don’t agree”. The business said Sorry, and, not having any idea about the reason of the review, added “you may have come across the wrong person, the wrong day, because we remain above all human beings”
So, in my opinion, the business tried to understand, and non having an explanation tried (he should not) to contact you.
What I honestly think is that you should edit your review, giving an explanation of the issue.
Of course you can choose to Report the business in Google my business, but you should have an evidence that the business is intimidating you to remove a bad review".
As I well known, the team cannot report the business on behalf of us, @EmekaUlor , and if we do not have a clear evidence of the intimidation, our report will be a waste of time.
Hi @ErmesT and all the rest. Thank you for commenting my post. I agree with you that this is an interesting discussion to have. I hesitated in asking for advice her or looking for legal assistance, as I felt harassed by the business representative that googled my name, found my work number and called me not to understand what happened during my experience at his establishment, but to scold me because I left a bad review. It is intimidating to call a local guide to complain about a google review, and his number shows on my phone history, but applying the law regarding harassment depends mostly on who you are and if you are using a lawyer or not to defend yourself. Now, specifically about the subject of what is a review, my understanding is that when I have an awesome experience at a place, I leave a detailed review of my awesome experience so that many people feel encouraged to go discover that business. When my experience was good but there is something that could improve, I don’t note the business five stars but four or three, I explain what I appreciated about my experience, and I explain as well what I didn’t appreciate and what I think can improve. Five stars reviews most of the time get thank you messages from the business, that is if they update their page regularly. Four and three star reviews, if they have a community manager or if they have experience handling web pages, will get an apology, an explanation and an invitation to visit them again so that the experience can be improved. Two and one stars (and zero stars sometimes, which maybe should exist), reflect a terrible experience, where a business doesn’t appreciate the customer visiting them, when they sell or serve low quality products and even worse, when you have been offended or attacked by the team at the business. My son got hit once at an indoor park by an employee. My son doesn’t lie and his sister confirmed what happened. They didn’t have a google page yet, I sent a letter of complain to the management, they answered saying that my son was lying, simply. I sent a letter of complaint to the town hall, and a report to the association in charge of children’s rights. They were sanctioned. Now, the business in question, as I mentioned in my initial post, was recommended by someone. I am an active member in my city, I run a parent association and I am always on the look for new business so I can organise activities with the families, that’s why I drove more than an hour to get to this place. One of the employees pushed me as he walked by me, he didn’t apologise. I was quite surprised. He is a big tattooed guy, that didn’t greet us when we arrived, no stereotypes here, my husband is tattooed too, but clearly I didn’t deserve an apology. He owns one of the shops at the entrance, which we obviously didn’t visit. As I mentioned in my post, then we went to the deli, and we waited and waited for at least a “hello, we’ll be there with you in a minute”, which never arrived even though there were two people at the counter. We left and they didn’t care. The atmosphere made us feel that we were not welcome, and I really don’t understand why, is it because I came with children? Or because I don’t look like an artist myself? Then I don’t want other families to visit this place, and as a google guide that I am, that is what I wrote: “I don’t know what it takes to be treated correctly at this place, I don’t recommend it”. The business answered saying, in summary, that they don’t agree. I can answer to that? I don’t think so. Is it possible to answer to a business’ answer? I went to an amazing camping site once and the day we were supposed to leave, we got late checking out so we asked for a late check out (paying, of course), they said it was impossible. I didn’t have time to get everything ready and I had to throw away all the food in the fridge, that was not ok. I wish the business would have proposed something if a late check out was not available. The person that came to check the caravan came and said everything was ok and wished us safe return. My google review said that the camping site is amazing but that it would have been nice helping me find a solution as I needed a late check out. I rated it four stars. The business answered saying that we had left the caravan in such a mess that the cleaning team had spent four hours cleaning it, and they were welcoming other guests afterwards “when you are going to have to spend four hours cleaning a caravan because the guests leave the caravan in such a mess”, (these are not the exact words). I was very upset to be called “dirty” because I did the dishes, emptied the trash, took away the towels, everything that was detailed on their list at the door. And I didn’t have time to pack the food, so I had to threw it away. I was really upset that time and the only solution I found was to edit my review rating them three stars and adding at the beginning “edited to add: the business doesn’t play fair”, or something like that, I don’t remember the exact words. I have a question for the community because this situation worries me a lot, I actually deleted my own Google page because I don’t work for a while as a Zumba instructor (health issues), and I don’t want people finding my number and calling me. Can a business owner unsatisfied with my review google me and contact me privately to intimidate me? Because I didn’t record the phone call to proved it but I I can prove that he called me and I didn’t authorise that call when I decided to become a Google guide. I don’t think that using a pseudonym is an option to me, I am the person leaving that review and I stand by it. And the relationship between me and the business should be limited to the Google space, it cannot enter my private space or work environment. It is inadmissible to me. What are the options? I don’t think I am interested in being a Google guide if every time a leave a negative review I would be afraid to be harassed by the business owners. And I don’t want to disappear from the web because I am a active member of my community and I want to be found online (with my name that is, not my Zumba studio that is closing soon).
Hi @cbesouthwestfrance ,
I see fellow Local Guides shared some great thoughts about your query.
I just want to let you know that I will change the topic of your post to How-tos to keep Connect organized. This is the place where you can ask questions, share tips and feedback about Connect and the Local Guides program.