Let's review Yelp and Yelp Reviewers!! (A bit of a rant)

Subject: Let's review Yelp and Yelp Reviewers!! (A bit of a rant)

Okay, so yelp has become the go to for many people who want to get opinions about businesses. It has also become the go to for people who are too scared to contact business management and/or owners directly when they have an issue. Since yelp won't let me review yelp or the individual reviewers on their site, I thought I would go ahead and do it here.

Yelp, for the must part, has provided yet another outlet for hypersensitive people to share their limited insights - kind of like me and what I'm doing right now. You have the 5 star gal, who gives everything 5 stars. "My jacket came back from the cleaners with a huge cigarette burn in the lapel, and we don't even smoke in my house. Well, at least the collar was crisply pressed. 5 stars!!!" And then you have the whiny guy, "Ohhhhh. Poor me! I had to wait in line for an extra minute to get my coffee because the counterperson had the nerve to go and help an old lady with a walker out of the store while I was standing right there at the counter! The service sucks! AND, I usually order the bran muffin, but they were all sold out by the time that I got there so I had to have an oatmeal muffin instead. How can you run out of bran muffins???? The owner really needs to go to business school and get a clue! I wish I could give zero stars, but I can't!!!!!!!!!!" Ugghhh!

To be fair, yes, there are a lot of semi-sane well intentioned people in between who try to write thoughtful reviews. Sadly, I emphasize try. "I ordered a glass of 'Zinfindel' (sp.?) with my dinner. To my chagrin, the waiter brought me a glass of "RED WINE" instead. He seemed so overwhelmed, so I didn't bother to send it back. I just drank it and it was okay. Also, I asked for my steak to be cooked medium but when it got to the table, I could still see pink inside. But no worries! I did go ahead and send that back to the kitchen and after a few minutes, it come back medium, with no pink, just like I like it! All in all, everything was tasty, so I will give this restaurant 3 stars. They still have to work out some kinks with the bar and the kitchen, but they do try very hard."

There are insightful reviews, but many times one has to wade through the clutter of either mean spirited or utterly vapid people who shouldn't be reviewing anything (probably like I shouldn't be doing right now). Anyway, I give yelp 2 1/2 stars (can I do that?). It's free. It provides information about businesses in our city that I may not have been aware of yet. There are some good reviews. (please note, I do not classify "good" as meaning "positive", but as meaning well written and thoughtful).

The downsides include reviews written by venom spewers, people who think everything should taste like their grandmother made it, people who actually join yelp for the sole purpose of writing a nasty review because they were angry about something but didn't even approach a manager to get help, people who love EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING no matter what it is - even though that's impossible, and lastly, let me not forget the people who have worked in an industry "before" (for like a month) and therefore consider themselves the expert on every facet of that industry/business.

Soapbox time -
I guess I'm just kind of ticked off because I see how hard it is to run a small business. I also know how important it is to maintain our small businesses. I see friends busting their humps to provide services to people who take these services for granted. I don't mean to say that people should take whatever kind of lousy treatment that they get, but really, there has got to be a better way. It's one thing to go to a hair salon and have the hair burned off of your head, and another thing to just end up not liking the style that "YOU" asked for. Don't bad mouth a place online just because you can. We need to support our small businesses not try to take them down over too little milk in your coffee. Man up people and stop acting so chickensh*t. Tell management or the owner directly when you have and issue that needs resolving. But, don't be a whiny baby! Also, if you have a business that you particularly like, let management and the owner know how you feel. I'm sure everyone needs a warm fuzzy from time to time, especially after dealing with all of the miserable cold pricklies.
Off the Soapbox.

Sorry for any typos. Thanks for letting me get my rant on so I could vent.