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Humanitarian Diner Award
By: Patrick Maguire
Book Chapter: Customer Hall of Shame
Posted: 02/11/2017
Because you can’t make this shit up. This week’s Humanitarian Diner Award goes to amateur ‘reviewer,’ “TM58” who awarded one of the Boston area’s top restaurants 1 star on Open Table after being inconvenienced because of a fire at a business NEXT DOOR!! Without inquiring about the safety of the fire victims, “TM58” was last seen ‘fuming’ in Newton Centre seeking a safer place to dine and whine… For those who actually do care, there were no injuries.
2 Responses to “Humanitarian Diner Award”
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Permalink | Posted in Customer Hall of Shame | 2 Comments »
This underscores everything I hate about the “me” generation; persons who’re either Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or who were so coddled by their parents that they weren’t ready to experience the real world.
Yelp aids and abets these new members of the “me” generation. And, we’re discovering, it’s not really that great a device to find a place that’s good unless you’re traveling and want to spend the time reading other posts by posters you’re interested in to see if their criticism is reasonable or not.
I’ve said this before to you, Patrick; but it bears repeating for your audience: my bar was panned by a person whose “review” was based on lies and entitlement. It turns out, if one reads all of this person’s Yelps, they include a one-star “pan” of a funeral home — yes, a funeral home — the reason they hated it was “management should have made the line of mourners move more quickly.” Go figure.
Karma will visit “TM58” in due time. Karma’s unpredictable – it could result in a broken nail or stained clothes for poor TM58, or it could be as dramatic as their own apartment/house being rendered uninhabitable by a fire — in a neighboring building.
What TM58 doesn’t understand, is that *every* municipality’s fire marshal is bound by the rules promulgated by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) which happens to be located in Framingham, MA. While the NFPA cannot prevent lapses of due diligence on the part of the inspectors, the overwhelming majority of the nation’s public assembly permits no longer experience the fire disasters we became familiar with in the ’70s and ’80s. TM58 should thank their lucky stars they endured only a venture out into the cold, and being left hungry. It could have been much, much worse.
The owner of the establishment which was evacuated should reply politely but firmly that safety (pardon the term) trumps *everything else.* And said owner should then petition Yelp to have the post taken down because it was unreasonable and beyond the restaurant’s control.
I think the entire industry has become conscious of the two-edged sword that Yelp is, and so has most of the public who dine out frequently and don’t look for trouble by way of perhaps garnering a comp (as do many Yelpers).
Patrick, thanks again for a much-needed reiteration of a nagging problem that I don’t think is going away any time soon.
self absorbed uber entitled douchebag (mike dropped)…