Negative “review” posts on FB - reactions?

[LilyandBaron]

A person recently posted in some of the local area FB horse groups I’m in about a bad experience with a saddlefitter that works in the area. A few others added that they also had bad experiences, ranging from unprofessional behavior to just bad saddle fitting. Comments ranged from some thankful for the warning, recommending other saddle fitters, to some seemingly turned off by the “attack.” I don’t know the OP on FB, but do know others that I trust, which influenced my reaction.

But raised the question in my mind. Assume a stranger posts a negative review, but articulate and not “cray-cray” language: do you tend to believe it, or are you turned off by it? Just curious as it was interesting to see the varied responses.

[Texarkana]

I tend to believe seemingly legitimate negative reviews that are tactfully written.

That is the benefit of public reviews.

However, people receive undeserved negative reviews all the time, so I try to keep an open mind. Heck, I have one left by a petty student back in 2015.

ETA: I realize now you are talking about unsolicited reviews in the form of public posts. Oops, sorry for misreading at first. With those… it depends. If it seems like something that needs to be shared for the sake of others, I appreciate it. But sometimes you just get the feeling there is more to the story no matter how well written. Kind of like here on COTH when someone does it.

[furlong47]

I’m more likely to trust reviews that clearly explain the issues, have decent spelling and grammar, and don’t go off the rails in an emotional rant. Even better if they have supporting evidence like photos, screenshots, or documents. But I also try to keep in mind that every story has two sides and some reviews are really just drama. If I’m using reviews to decide whether I want to patronize a business, I usually seek as many sources of reviews as possible and look for overall patterns. When I leave reviews myself (for any type of business) I usually try to list both good and bad points of my experience… unless it was such a horrible experience that there were no redeeming qualities at all. I also try to leave good reviews for places if I receive exceptional service… I think lots of times people don’t think about leaving a review unless they’re angry.

However, all of that applies to places that are specifically designed for the writing of reviews. I can see if someone asks about a business in a public forum and other people reply with their experiences. But I think it’s kind of weird when someone just comes into a forum or Facebook group or similar site and starts randomly blasting a bad review entirely unprompted. Unless there’s something completely heinous going on that everybody must immediately be warned about, it just seems a bit out of proportion. It also makes it less likely that the business can respond with their side of the story unless someone directs them to the review on this random group or page.

[oldernewbie]

It was a pretty good slagging. Very long and emotional. As someone who has done a LOT of business writing and dealt with a LOT of customer service issues, I have to say that an unsolicited post like that makes me scratch my head. What was the end game? If the poster wanted to get their issues resolved, dragging someone’s business through the mud so publicly just about guarantees that you will be sh*t out of luck trying to get some satisfaction. The saddle fitter responded very professionally and did not get pulled under by the drama.

So the poster got to vent all their many feelings and then???

[Jo]

@oldernewbie

It was a pretty good slagging. Very long and emotional. As someone who has done a LOT of business writing and dealt with a LOT of customer service issues, I have to say that an unsolicited post like that makes me scratch my head. What was the end game? If the poster wanted to get their issues resolved, dragging someone’s business through the mud so publicly just about guarantees that you will be sh*t out of luck trying to get some satisfaction. The saddle fitter responded very professionally and did not get pulled under by the drama.

We need a link!

[Alterration]

Didn’t see the original post, but I tend to take all reviews with a grain of salt. If they are well-written, I’ll consider them a bit more highly than the typical crazy vent post that I see, but it’s usually the aggregation of many reviews that will make me take pause, rather than the odd “imperfect experience” post. What generally I will do with a negative review is dig a little deeper to find others, and if I don’t, I might use it to gently guide my questions (depending on the type of review). Usually there’s a reasonable explanation.

For instance, a recent barn I visited had a terrible review about “almost empty” water troughs. When I was at the barn, I asked about how they managed to fill the water troughs out in the pasture (because I didn’t see pipes on initial glance), and they mentioned their watering system and that they only kept the troughs half full in the summer because of algae growth issues so that they could dump them frequently. If I would have just read the review I would have thought it was a horrible, abusive, place. Upon learning the situation, I realized that it just could have been handled with smaller troughs, but that they wanted to try to keep them clean to the best of their ability and were actually doing a decent thing that an owner didn’t understand.

So - it’s always worth investigating, but taking with a big ol’ grain of salt.

[Arelle]

What was the end game?

That is always my biggest question when I write to a business, and I think it goes a long way. If you’re going to rant or rave, you need to have a point.

[LilyandBaron]

I saw the fitter’s response, and agree it was the classiest option. I think the OP was posting in the groups since there are often posts asking for recommendations on fitters. I don’t know if the original post alone would cause me to agree, but the comments validating it by people I know, did… But I think if someone didn’t know any of the people, the saddle fitters controlled, calm response was her very best PR option.

[beowulf]

My reaction depends on the way the post is presented, and frankly, what the issue is that the client has with their professional.

Is the post emotionally charged with unrealistic expectations? Is the person under “attack” a trusted or reasonable person in the industry? Is it a post tactfully written by a disgruntled customer? Are they looking for a resolution or are they just flagging the world with a big fat caveat emptor?

Not to encourage public posts bashing professionals, but it sure would be nice if (horse) people were a bit more forthcoming with their poor experiences with an individual. The reasonable and sensible horse-person isn’t interested in causing drama, and will just quietly file their unfortunate experience away without much of a ruckus. We rarely see those folks complain. Sometimes, the cuckoo-complainer is the only legitimate source of information that someone is doing something shady.

I’ve mentioned it on forum a few times, but I really had a saddle “fitter” send me through the wringer. The TLDR was that I had a fitter convince me to sell my saddle for a custom saddle that would fit my horse better. The end result was that I was left with a 5k saddle that didn’t fit my horse, vet-bills to reverse the damage the saddle did to his back, and sundry “examination fee” and “farm call visits” to attempt to rectify the issue before the fitter ghosted me. Even the brand (Stubben) ghosted me when I tried to get some sort of resolution. What really surprised me about this was the first time I mentioned this on COTH, someone DM’d me guessing exactly who it was… Where shady people are concerned, if they’re doing it to you, they’re doing it to other people too.

Now, my horse can’t write a review, but I could. Only thing is, my end goal wouldn’t be resolution because that ship sailed: it would be raising awareness so other people don’t go through the same thing. I can certainly understand when people take these types of problems to social media for that reason.

[Mulligan314]

I had a recent review reading experience that was quite interesting. I was looking at review of RV lots. This particular RV lot had some mixed reviews, most of the not great reviews said things along the lines of ‘the owner is childish and unpleasant to work with’ - they didn’t have anything too terrible to say about the lot itself, only about the owner, and it wasn’t really that terrible. This was on multiple posts from various people. What was comical about it was the owner of the RV lot responding to every. single. negative. review. Ranting and calling the reviewers names and claiming they were asked to leave because they(the reviewers) were so terrible.

Needless to say, Owner dude made it VERY clear as to what was accurate.

[oldernewbie]

I will leave that up to the OP. I happen to know everyone involved and am easy for them to identify so I would rather stay out of it. Plus, I don’t want to inadvertently contribute to even more slagging. I only posted to make a larger point - which I thought was important.

[MissAriel]

If I see a review by someone I don’t know, but is “articulate and not cray-cray” I add it as another data point.

I had a recent bad experience with a brand rep /fitter recently. Young horse was outgrowing his “baby” saddle and I started shopping. Rep had previously done adjustments on the old saddle and knew my horse, so I had her bring some saddles to try. I had heard a few snarky comments about her not doing a good job, but she still had lots of talented and successful clients, so I ignored the snark. One of the saddles worked well, both for him and for me. It only needed some minor flocking adjustments, which she did. She came back a few months later for another check and a small adjustment. I had her back a few more times when we (myself and trainer) noticed the saddle shifting to the side. More adjustments, more $$. Little change.

Then horse starts struggling under saddle. Not lame, but definite decrease in performance. Vet calls, supplements, body scan, treatments, saddle fitter added shims to pad…all.the.things…no improvement. Called in another vet (also a dressage rider). Took one look at the saddle and said the saddle doesn’t fit. Recommended another independent fitter, who came out and pulled the panels, took out all of the extra flocking Rep had been jamming in for two years, narrowed the tree (which should have been done at purchase) and made final adjustments. The difference has been night and day.

I won’t go out and slag this Rep on social media, but I will tell friends what happened if it comes up. For the sake of other horses people should know that even a trained brand rep with top level clients can really drop the ball. I wish some of those snarky comments had been less snark and more facts - I might have given them more weight earlier.

[LilyandBaron]

I think when you are “fooled” by a professional with seemingly good credentials, you want to warn others. But it’s hard to warn “strangers” without sounding tacky.

[Weezer]

As a rule, I do not provide a negative review based on one bad experience because we all make mistakes and have bad days. Thankfully, I work in a job that is not subject to public reviews so I can address and correct my mistakes with relative privacy. So I don’t give too much weight to the occasional bad review. If there are several negative reviews that touch on the same sore spots, I would be inclined to shy away from that service. If that was the only option for the service in my area, I would engage the service with eyes wide open.

[trubandloki]

Reviews are so tough.

I had a very bad experience with a fencing company that lots of people locally love. I have no idea why they did such crappy work for me, yet for others they do amazing work, but in the end I paid good money and got a really crappy quality job.

I am always very torn when there is a post asking about fencing contractors and this company’s name is mentioned as a good one to use. I have sent private messages to a couple of people and I always include that I know they have done good work for others but the attached photos are what they did for me.

[quietann]

I don’t leave a lot of reviews, and I check reviews before I buy something, but look for the quality of the review.

I have only left a negative review when I’ve been outright deceived. That’s hardly ever happened, but the one that has happened a couple of times was buying clothing on Ebay that was listed as “my size–Petite” and arrived as “my size-Regular”, with a chop job done to make it shorter.