Yelp can either make or break a business. If your restaurant has 1.5 stars and is known for being the culinary equivalent of Applebees with fewer roaches, then you’re probably screwed – but if you can hold onto at least 3-4 stars, most people won’t even bother to read the reviews unless they’re truly on the fence about eating there. And while the reviews are the most important aspect of Yelp, the fact that the restaurant can respond to reviews means that the site can (and occasionally does) devolve into screaming matches between patrons and owners.
Case in point: Aaron H’s review of Afghan Kabob House, a restaurant located in Arlington, Virginia. According to Aaron H’s review he ordered food early on a Sunday morning (Afghan Kabob House’s hours are 11 a.m. – 3 a.m.), however much to his frustration he never received his order, even after calling multiple times:
I want to start out this review by saying that I’ve ordered from here many times, and the delivery has been quick and effortless 9 out of 10 times.
But.
BUT.
This time was god-awful.
I placed an order through grub hub at around 1 a.m. on a Sunday morning and was told the estimated delivery time was about an hour. Long, but okay fair I’m not an impatient person. 90 minutes go by, and I call the restaurant. They say it’s out for delivery…ok. Another 15 go by. I get a call from the delivery driver telling me he’s at the wrong address. Okay fine, Arlington is confusing I get it — BUT THEN HE NEVER SHOWED UP. I am honestly convinced that the delivery driver either bailed and ate my food or gave it to the wrong address without giving a crap. The assistant manager I spoke to, Jaclyn (Jocelyn?), apologized profusely and said the order would be comped and delivered in the morning.
Okay, fine. Stuff happens.
But.
BUT.
I call the next day, 6/5, and the person who picks up the phone says she doesn’t have any delivery notes about the screw-up last night, but that delivering the comped food sounds reasonable and that they’d deliver it shortly, however they were rather busy so it may take a moment. I called at 12:00 and after another NINETY MINUTES I call again and ask what’s going on, because y’know, it’s Sunday and I can’t be sitting around all day waiting for this friggin’ kabob delivery. I get told that the food was delivered to one of my roommates when that was complete BS because I was sitting on the main floor of my house the entire time and no one came and knocked on the door or rang the doorbell. The person I spoke to even started getting HOSTILE on the phone with me, like I’m so desperate for free food that I called and made crap up on the phone last night, today and then again. WTF? And yes, the delivery address was correct (I checked at least 10 times).
Finally, the general manager calls me and says that it’s “unfortunate” and that he’s “going to investigate the drivers to figure out where they went wrong.”
Cool dude, thanks, that’s great to hear — but it’s now 2:30 and I still have no food, and clearly I’m not getting any, ever.
After this experience, I would rate this place with a 0/5 if I could. Never ordering again.(via)
Annoying, yes. Anger-inducing, sure. But according to his update, what happened next is almost un-fucking-believable:
EDIT/UPDATE, 6/5 3:59 PM:
Just got off the phone with the owner of Afghan Kabob, who called me a “liar” and told me to “f*ck off.” That there’s “no way” his drivers messed up and that I’m just trying to scam him and that I should be “ashamed of myself.” I kept trying to explain what happened but all he did was cut me off to say that it’s impossible for his drivers to get lost twice and that one of my roommates took the food, ignoring the fact that I told him that I was on the first floor the entire time and that no one knocked on the door or rang the doorbell.
Oh, and the cherry on top? He told me to either delete my Yelp review or that they’ll never deliver to my house again, which is funny because as of right now they don’t deliver to my house anyway.
Wait, let me repeat that for emphasis — HE TOLD ME TO EITHER DELETE MY YELP REVIEW OR THAT THEY’LL NEVER DELIVER TO MY HOUSE AGAIN.
What a class act.(via)
Have you ever had the owner of a restaurant call you just say you’re a liar and to fuck off? Because I sure haven’t! What an exciting, albeit WTF experience that would be!
The thing is, you never know who’s lying and who’s telling the truth on the Internet…except in this case, the owner responded and basically confirmed exactly what Aaron H had said — that he’d been cussed out over the phone in response to his Yelp review:
As a final edit, Aaron H maintains that he never got any food, and that “for the record, I don’t know Tanya – but considering she also had a horrible experience where the owner cussed her out as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if she too chooses to never order from Afghan Kabob House again either.”
Regardless of whether or not Aaron H is lying (and if it makes any difference, I doubt he is, as putting in all that time and effort for free food is idiotic), it’s ridiculously unprofessional to call customers just to cuss them out, then dub them “liars” underneath their Yelp review.
Completely and utterly fucking bizarre.
[Via Yelp]