Menupages.ie - negative reviews are removed

AARRRGH

Bluetonic wrote: »

Come on admit it, you've all the pages printed out and stuck to your wall.

Just like in the Happiness postcard scene! :pac: :pac: :pac:

(It's on youtube)

Cicero

AARRRGH wrote: »

It seems to come down to two things:

1. If Menupages think there is any chance the review could get them in trouble they don't post the review. This basically means most negative reviews.
2. If restaurants ask for negative reviews to be taken down, they comply.

Menupages are now saying they have stopped doing 2, but I suspect this means they'll just do more of 1.

As many others have pointed out, Menupages rely on restaurants for their income; this means they cannot be impartial. "You don't bite the hand that feeds you".

If true (and from experience, I suspect it is true) then this makes menu pages worthless as a service- none of the reviews can be trusted as balance does not apply- with sites like trip advisor, you are able to determine overall, if the hotel etc has merit or not- you weigh-up some of the more trivial or once-off complaints/experiences and ratings with the more insightful reviews/higher ratings, and you make your decision. I wouldn't like to see this site get popular as it's not a fair reflection of what service restaurants provide.
I know we should 'all get out more' and there's much bigger problems than menupages.ie right now, but isn't that what boards is about..keeping the outside world in check? besides, can't think of anything else to moan about right now

LolaDub

Has anyone tried re posting a review? I wrote a review about a bad experience in a restaurant and surprise it was never posted.

ntlbell

LolaDub wrote: »

Has anyone tried re posting a review? I wrote a review about a bad experience in a restaurant and surprise it was never posted.

Hey lola did you contact them to ask why?

be nice to hear their response to this

Dennis the Stone

Tried to post my negative review again and again.. Not accepted. Completely worthless website

LolaDub

I haven't. I've contacted them a few times in the past and rarely received a response. For the sake of this thread i'll give it a go, but i'm sure they're keeping an eye on this anyway.

boopolo

I for one think that taking a bribe (free meal) from a restaraunt in turn for the original reviewer removing his honest opinion is ridiculous.

If the restaraunt does want to contact the person who was not satisfied with their service, fine. If they want to compensate them for their bad experience, fine, but not so they can cheat other readers out of what should be an unbiased set of reviews.

If the reviewer accepts the compensation, he/she should be able to add this as a footnote/addition or an ammended review. This would not be bribe.

Sandra (is she gone?), I have no faith whatsoever in your website. Your feeble attempt to dampen the situation, as I see it, is scattered with untruths.

Boo

carbsy

Menupages.ie is a total farce, I suggest naming and shaming the establishments in question in threads here instead.It might wake them up! :rolleyes:

olaola

carbsy wrote: »

Menupages.ie is a total farce, I suggest naming and shaming the establishments in question in threads here instead.It might wake them up! :rolleyes:

I agree - especially in this economic climate, they should working hard to keep customers coming back!

Darragh29

boopolo wrote: »

I for one think that taking a bribe (free meal) from a restaraunt in turn for the original reviewer removing his honest opinion is ridiculous.

If the restaraunt does want to contact the person who was not satisfied with their service, fine. If they want to compensate them for their bad experience, fine, but not so they can cheat other readers out of what should be an unbiased set of reviews.

If the reviewer accepts the compensation, he/she should be able to add this as a footnote/addition or an ammended review. This would not be bribe.

Sandra (is she gone?), I have no faith whatsoever in your website. Your feeble attempt to dampen the situation, as I see it, is scattered with untruths.

Boo

This is the most ridiculous aspect of what has emerged on this thread. It's so completely stupid it's laughable, coming from a website that claims to give you unbiased information. You certainly know what country you are living in when you see this type of absolute nonsense going on...

boopolo

Darragh29 wrote: »

This is the most ridiculous aspect of what has emerged on this thread. It's so completely stupid it's laughable, coming from a website that claims to give you unbiased information. You certainly know what country you are living in when you see this type of absolute nonsense going on...

I had to read your post 3 times (brain is getting slow these days). At first i thought you saying my post was ridiculous, as it was after my quote. I presume you mean you agree with what I said about bribing people to get a bad review removed.
Anyway if 50 people visit a restaraunt ond 2 people get bad service/food out of 50, if all reviews stay you will have a 1 in 25 chance of having a bad experience in the that restaraunt. People need to know this. It is useful to know that the two people with a bad experience got compensated. But no compensation should be made to recant an honest review.


Boo

Dannyboy83

Not read the entire thread but it sounds like an Online protection racket - not the first of its kind.

Cough up the cash or we'll slate your restaurant, could be effective if the site has a big following

heggie

maybe you should read more of the thread then if you think that.

griffdaddy

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

Not read the entire thread but it sounds like an Online protection racket - not the first of its kind.

Cough up the cash or we'll slate your restaurant, could be effective if the site has a big following

Yeah, Scorsese's bringing out a film in the Q3 2009 called 'I.T. fellas' that deals with similar online crime groups in post dot-com boom America. It's being touted for its incredible likeness to several real life high-profile online protection rackets, as well it's harsh depictions of the gritty world of biased forum moderation. In one scene which tips its hat to a recent controversy on the Irish website 'boards.ie,' a restaraunt reviewer has his review removed in cold blood after spending 20 minutes thinking of witty puns and double entendres. The reason you ask? He simply mentioned MacBeth, the name of the popular pre-theatre eatery. This is definitely one to watch for next year, and it's certain that Hollywood -and not to mention Silicon Valley- will be watching too.

Jaysoose

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

Not read the entire thread but it sounds like an Online protection racket - not the first of its kind.

Cough up the cash or we'll slate your restaurant, could be effective if the site has a big following

Read the thread, its pretty much the exact opposite and the restaraunts are calling the shots.

ntlbell

did anyone get word back from menupages on why their review was removed yet?

Cicero

OK - January- new year- new approach..eh.....let's see...I'm really interested to know the outcome and if menupages will come and share their thoughts with us- they have a good site but some obvious flaws- shame to let such a site go to waste.

Have had no communication by mail with menupages.ie- also, while i have X amount of menupages points, there is nowhere to spend them
Posted a negative review of a restaurant a few days ago for more than the 1st time but haven't heard anything yet...would like to see this thread going for a while more...it's becoming a nice distraction from the real world...:o

boxplayer1973

I have been posting reviews on Menupages (don't think any have been turned down, to be honest I just jot them down quickly and never really check), and one thing that I did notice was that there are suspicious reviews...

Story in question - the restaurant I am writing about is the top rated one in my area for food. I've been several times and it has never been better than average, and it has sometimes been bad. Anyway, wrote a negative review, thought nothing of it, and then checked back a while later, to see a five star review from a first-timer whose nickname was obviously a direct response to mine. Three of their reviews (all five stars) are from first-timers who have never reviewed anything else - and as they don't have a lot of reviews, then this might have a big impact on their score!

Anyone else notice things like this?

Oh, and to keep up the disappearing review theme, checked something, and one of my reviews for a local resaurant has disappeared sometime in the last few months. I think in the future I'll keep the review and check back, and then resubmit again and again...

ntlbell

boxplayer1973 wrote: »

I have been posting reviews on Menupages (don't think any have been turned down, to be honest I just jot them down quickly and never really check), and one thing that I did notice was that there are suspicious reviews...

Story in question - the restaurant I am writing about is the top rated one in my area for food. I've been several times and it has never been better than average, and it has sometimes been bad. Anyway, wrote a negative review, thought nothing of it, and then checked back a while later, to see a five star review from a first-timer whose nickname was obviously a direct response to mine. Three of their reviews (all five stars) are from first-timers who have never reviewed anything else - and as they don't have a lot of reviews, then this might have a big impact on their score!

Anyone else notice things like this?

Oh, and to keep up the disappearing review theme, checked something, and one of my reviews for a local resaurant has disappeared sometime in the last few months. I think in the future I'll keep the review and check back, and then resubmit again and again...

have you had any bad reviews rejected?

LiamD

boxplayer1973 wrote: »

Oh, and to keep up the disappearing review theme, checked something, and one of my reviews for a local resaurant has disappeared sometime in the last few months. I think in the future I'll keep the review and check back, and then resubmit again and again...

From MenuPages FAQ: Reviews over 300 days old are removed from the site. They still remain on your "My MenuPages" membership area, should you wish to repost the review or amend it. This is to ensure that when a user is searching for dining advice, the information is as recent and up to date as possible.


Also, re the suspect reviews, I'm sure some unscrupulous restauranteurs exploit MenuPages by posting glowing reviews of their own restaurant. I'd imagine this would be very hard to catch though, so if you suspect something about a review why not email MenuPages?

boxplayer1973

The review was not 300 days old (that is a crazy policy, and only increases my growing disillusionment with the site), and was negative, so I can only presume that the thing was taken down without asking.

LolaDub

I put up two negative reviews a while ago. Both were taken down, i emailed asking why and they said one was because my visit to the restaurant was x amount of time ago-it was in april and was one of the worst restaurants i've ever been to. The other was recent but they didn't answer me on that one. I sent three emails asking why and they weren't responded to

Mr E

The 300 day review lifespan is a good idea, in my opinion. I think the most recent reviews are always the most relevant. Reviews from 2 years ago could pertain to different menus, different chefs, even different owners.

dahamsta

Content should never be removed from a website unless it's offensive, abusive or genuinely and completely irrelevant. Historical reviews aren't irrelevant, they give people an overview of what's happening. If the comment is old, mark it as old.

TripAdvisor is one of the best example of this. They have reviews going back years, and the old ones often give very good examples or how hotels have gotten their act together since establishment. They also show how establishments operate: if there's a lot of complaints about a refurbishment, for example, it shows that the hotel doesn't plan very well; if there's a consistent reply rate from the hotel, it demonstrates active customer service.

MenuPages don't underand UGC, in fact they give the impression that they don't understand the web fullstop. They could learn a lot from TripAdvisor. However their record suggests that they'd learn more from Boo.com: shutter it and find another trade. Preferably in another country.

adam

boxplayer1973

Mr E wrote: »

The 300 day review lifespan is a good idea, in my opinion. I think the most recent reviews are always the most relevant. Reviews from 2 years ago could pertain to different menus, different chefs, even different owners.

Ehm, 300 days - less than one year!!

AARRRGH

Btw, the owner of East restaurant (or someone who works for East) replied to my review here. His posts were vile and borderline crazy. He has since removed them.

I advise people to avoid eating there...

dudara

AARRRGH - I saw the thread get locked in Food/Drink. Please don't start it up in this forum.

dudara

Cicero

I've been researching hotels to stay in Paris on Tripadvisor- It's
really funny to read the defensive responses of the hotel owners to some of the genuine customer reviews posted- some of these responses are to pretty average reviews, not scathing reviews- I think it shows how clueless business/hotel/restaurant owners are when they respond to customer reviews in such a manner...better to put your energies into a customer centric quality business than bothering with trying to justify bad service/food etc.

Will be very interesting to see what restaurants survive over the coming year..hopefully some of the trash food and rotton service flushes itself down the waste disposal...but as always, it will be down to the customer to decide....

grizzly

Thanks, it's good to know about this shameful site. I read the whole thread and couldn't believe menupages considered the offer of a free meal to be promoting an objective view of the restaurant standards.

It's a pity that menupages stooped to this level as if you lose your integrity what have you got?

RantorRave

I posted a review months ago in relation to a restaurant in dundrum and made a point about how a staff member (no names) was placing his finger in his nose. The review was never posted. Rest my case. I would rather see honesty in their offering as I indirectly have a vested interest in review based websites.