If you want to see a person's true character--take a look at their yelp account
I once had a customer who got in a verbal altercation with my father at the restaurant and threatened to go write a bad yelp review. A few hours later, there it was. It read "Since when do you call a restaurant that delivered your WRONG order to tell them it was wrong, and they give you an attitude like it's not a big deal? You're not getting anymore money over on this side! Learn customer appreciation and respect!" Alongside the review he gave us the lowest possible rating, a 1 star.
And you know what? The review was pretty much on point. My father gave him a BIG attitude--for a mistake that we did indeed make. My father also acted like it was not a big deal, you know why? Because it wasn't. But from many tiresome past encounters with this customer, my father suspected this man purposely made a spectacle of a minor mistake (on our part), in an attempt to receive free food. However if there's one thing I learned in life, there is always more than one side to a story. If there is another thing I learned, appreciation and respect are a two way street. This was the final straw.
This yelper expected respect and appreciation from us, meanwhile he had none. Moreover, he didn't seem to take into consideration all the times he disrespected us. On numerous occasions we delivered food to his house and when we showed up to this man's front door--he wouldn't open the door. When we tried calling his phone, he wouldn't answer. And when we finally got a hold of him after standing in the cold, he didn't even care, not even an apology. It's 0 degrees out, and you’re neglecting your delivery driver--how do you not have the slightest amount of sympathy? Although this kept happening, we still let it slide. What is ironic though--other times we would tell him his delivery order would take roughly 45 minutes, and if it didn't show up in exactly 45 minutes, he would call on the 46th minute yelling about his delivery. Last time we showed up on time, he was nowhere to be found. Now he's staring at his watch for 45 minutes straight? Secondly, he could have easily politely asked for a status on his delivery, but he chose to belittle and yell at us instead. This same guy also had me on the phone for an unnecessary 15-20 minutes EVERY TIME he ordered asking me a 101 questions only to end up ordering 1 item. Meanwhile I simultaneously have a restaurant full of people that I am catering to as well. Every time this person called in for food, I had to mentally prepare for some sort an ordeal. Most times at the restaurant I go days, even weeks with no major complaints about anything. That's pretty impressive considering how busy I am on a daily basis, but every time guys called there was some sort of fiasco. So tell me now is it us, or is it him? I swear, sometimes I feel like I am in an abusive relationship with some customers.
For this particular customer it was the final straw, and my father naturally unleashed his old school, Greek style aggression towards him. If you go read yelp reviews regarding Greek owned diners, I bet you will find at least a couple reviews of the "rude, old greek guy" giving an attitude to the customer (lol). You have to understand one thing though--if you are a nice person my dad will reciprocate with 20 times more kindness, but if you are a jerk he will reciprocate with 20 times more meanness. And even though my dad handled this in an extremely unprofessional way (I would have handled this completely different), I will admit this guy deserved attitude.
To make things more interesting,I proceeded to look at this customer's other reviews on yelp and couldn't help but giggle. First off, over half of the places he reviewed were 3 star reviews or under, and many were written in extremely poor taste. How is it you only go to bad places? Or maybe you are the reason they are bad? To top things off, he reviewed places like a movie theater, a club, and the best one I saw---KFC....KFC? Some of the reviews are below, you can make your own judgements:
*review on movie theater: "Crap crap crap crap. Did I say crap? Over priced for no reason. Bunch of dumb little kids working with no management. Uncomfortable seating and OVER PRICED FOR NO REASON"
*a club: "Place sucks. Horrible management. Too many gays and not enough focus on the rest of society."
*KFC: "Absolutely disgusting. Unclean. Last time I ordered they made me wait 10 mins for fried chicken. They also included a discount which I was pleased for. When I got home I noticed how soggy the chicken was. I called back and was offered a refund. Upon returning the food the manager said the employees didn't drain the oil. That's disgusting. Oil infested soggy chicken."
As a restaurant owner, any 1 star review hurts your ego and even your heart just a little bit, regardless of the situation. Thankfully we haven't dealt with many of these in the past. But when I think of this particular 1 star yelp reviewer and the places he visited, the things he had to say, and his mostly negative reviews, I just laugh it off. Seriously, If you want to see a person’s true character go look at their yelp account, you can tell a lot about that person from yelp.
Last but not least, this customer ironically wrote in his 1 star review: "NEVER AGAIN" about returning to our restaurant; I can confirm he has at least come back once since writing this, sounds a little hypocritical to me, if you are going to come back at least leave a 3 star review :)
*On another note I really dislike yelp as a business, and they call/harass me every month trying to make us pay them to advertise. If anyone from yelp is ever reads this, I WILL NEVER advertise with you, EVER.