iDine/Rewards Network - Censoring bad reviews?

Just curious. Has anyone found that if you write a bad review of a participating restaurant, it does not get posted? I had a terrible experience at a restaurant in New Jersey and wrote a level but honest review, and it never got posted. All other reviews I've written, both before and after, have posted.

Anyone else experience this? I'll have to post a review on yelp instead if this is the case.

Their reviews are worthless

"What a wonderful find!" at places I thought mediocre at best

But, yes, I think they do hide bad ones - go to Yelp for honesty

Yes, I wrote a review where I rated 5 for one restaurant and a review where I rated 2 for another restaurant, and the first review posted and the second never did.

I wonder if it has to do with the rating or the actual review. Maybe someone can do a test by rating a restaurant a 5 but then saying some bad things about them in the review text? :)

Just curious. Has anyone found that if you write a bad review of a participating restaurant, it does not get posted? I had a terrible experience at a restaurant in New Jersey and wrote a level but honest review, and it never got posted. All other reviews I've written, both before and after, have posted.

Anyone else experience this? I'll have to post a review on yelp instead if this is the case.

Frequently. I think they say explicitly somewhere that they are selective about what they publish. :td:

I discovered the worthlessness of the reviews a while ago and now will only write one if there are some bonus miles in it for me.

I always try to find at least one positive thing to say even after an overall negative experience. And I see all my reviews posted -- of course they've been edited for brevity, many quoting just the one positive sentence in the whole review. :D

Yes, this has been discussed on other threads. Some time back (couple years ago) I posted a bad review and it never got published on the site. I also wonder about the numerical ratings -- they mostly seem to cluster around 4 stars out of 5. Hmmmm....

Most of my idine/RN dining experiences have been pretty positive, but every once in a while.... :eek:

I also wonder about the numerical ratings -- they mostly seem to cluster around 4 stars out of 5. Hmmmm....

We had a 2.8 here once

I've only written one truly negative review ever for this program (I've had mostly good experiences and usually just don't bother at all if a restaurant is a little "off") and just checked to discover that it's never been posted. I did receive a pretty nasty email from the restaurant manager in response, however. That was nice.

We had a 2.8 here once

That's the exception that proves the rule. It's very rare for ratings to be that low, so you remember them when they are! ;)

That's the exception that proves the rule. It's very rare for ratings to be that low, so you remember them when they are! ;)
One problem with the ratings is that they're per visit, not per person.

So, of course, even if only a small minority of people actually like the restaurant, they'll account for the majority of visits (and thus raise the votes, compared to if it had been one vote per member rather than one vote per member visit).

To make a rating go down, the members who hated it and rated it badly would have to keep going back and rating it badly again and again. The average diner cannot be convinced to do suffer this much just in the hopes of getting a rating down! :)

I've been known to give varying ratings during those periods of multiple promo visits. I think the most negative comments I can recall reading were references to disappointment in portion sizes, better for dinner (or lunch), or something along the lines of "go early as service gets much slower when it's crowded." I've never left a written comment, figuring it'd be useless.

Morerainplease -- did the manager address your concerns, even if defensively?

....To make a rating go down, the members who hated it and rated it badly would have to keep going back and rating it badly again and again. The average diner cannot be convinced to do suffer this much just in the hopes of getting a rating down! :)

I guess that I'm not the average diner; been there, tried that, didn't work. I peevishly attempted to drive down the rating of a restaurant I disliked by dropping by for a cup of coffee (about the only thing that wasn't likely to result in food poisoning) and then dinging them with ones and twos. It became obvious that low-balling had no impact, so my immaturity went unrewarded.

Morerainplease -- did the manager address your concerns, even if defensively?

She wrote something like, "I'm sorry you had a bad experience for such a trivial reason." And she insisted that they focus on "food, fun, and libation." So if I didn't have fun, then apparently it was my fault. Because they focus on it, after all.

I peevishly attempted to drive down the rating of a restaurant I disliked by dropping by for a cup of coffee (about the only thing that wasn't likely to result in food poisoning) and then dinging them with ones and twos. It became obvious that low-balling had no impact, so my immaturity went unrewarded.

I was back in the city with the restaurant referenced above a couple of weeks ago. I thought long and hard about going back just for a beer so I could write another review. I got the better of my impulses and now I'm glad I didn't waste my time. But it was hard to pass up the opportunity!

She wrote something like, "I'm sorry you had a bad experience for such a trivial reason." And she insisted that they focus on "food, fun, and libation." So if I didn't have fun, then apparently it was my fault. Because they focus on it, after all.

You're in SEA - was it Jillians???? I've never been there.

Our RN joints seem a lot different than other cities, but I'm glad to see the Ethiopian buffet I sometimes go to (Habesha) is on the plan.

You're in SEA - was it Jillians???? I've never been there.

It was actually in Madison, WI. A place called Jac's. It used to be called Monroe Street something or other. They're trying to do a french-style restaurant and I've had some good meals there. And some lackluster. But they mainly come across as really uptight to me. Why did I keep going back? Well, at first it was because I wanted to think my earlier experience was an anomaly (it wasn't). Then I noticed the name change and thought the new management would be better (it wasn't). So after 3 bad experiences, I finally wrote a negative review. And subsequently received the nasty email from the manager.

Since I know that they skew the rating higher than the actual comments, I will not even consider a restaurant with a rating under 4.5.

I'm a bit more generous - thinking twice about less than a 4.0

I will not even consider a restaurant with a rating under 4.5.

That's exactly my threshold.

Since I know that they skew the rating higher than the actual comments, I will not even consider a restaurant with a rating under 4.5.

:rolleyes:

You'd be missing out on some good eating, though. Also, you'd be depriving yourself of points/miles! :eek:

Ratings (any ratings, anywhere, not just RN/idine ratings) have to be taken with a grain of salt, because of the "different strokes"/YMMV factor.

Also, you can always check other online reviews/ratings, such as Chowhound, Yelp, Zagat, etc.

I note that I just entered a scathing review of one of our local eateries (that used to be decent but was gawd-awful this last time) and it, along with my 1/5 rating, did appear both on the sidebar of Most Recent Reviews and subsequently in the See All Member Reviews list.

^

There's one restaurant (actually a bar/restaurant) that has been a member of RN for many years, got a bunch of bad reviews, and ever since has been listed as too new to have any reviews - it's been too new to have any reviews for at least a couple of years now!

Truth in advertising - I've never eaten there, so the bad reviews that I saw a couple of years ago might have been inaccurate. It might be a perfectly good place. However, the lack of ANY reviews for a couple of years now makes me suspicious.

Since I've never eaten there, I won't name the restaurant, as I have no first hand knowledge of their quality.

I posted a very disappointing experience in this Forum not long ago - and rated the dum- er, property - accordingly. The rating and review appeared, and a couple of ratings afterward actually were attempts to discount my review. To give credit where it is due, RN posted my low-rating review in its entirety.

I'd not darken the door of this greasy spoon ever again, regardless; it is important to remember the phrase "à chacun son goût" as we read reviews (and indeed, important to remember a review or two could even be glitter posted by relatives, friends, interested parties, etc.)

I posted a very disappointing experience in this Forum not long ago - and rated the dum- er, property - accordingly. The rating and review appeared, and a couple of ratings afterward actually were attempts to discount my review. To give credit where it is due, RN posted my low-rating review in its entirety.

I'd not darken the door of this greasy spoon ever again, regardless; it is important to remember the phrase "à chacun son goût" as we read reviews (and indeed, important to remember a review or two could even be glitter posted by relatives, friends, interested parties, etc.)

Just like the shill reviews in places like Yelp!, Google ,etc., a good amount of them are fairly easy to spot. While I still read the reviews on the RN site, if I have the time or have important guests, I make the effort to visit as many other sites as possible for other reviews of the restaurant.

I think that's a good idea. I always read "between the lines" to see what people are really saying , and possibly their motives. Then, verify elsewhere. I tend to trust restaurant reviews in this Forum pretty well.

Just like the shill reviews in places like Yelp!, Google ,etc., a good amount of them are fairly easy to spot. While I still read the reviews on the RN site, if I have the time or have important guests, I make the effort to visit as many other sites as possible for other reviews of the restaurant.

Agreed about reviewing. It's pointless unless you earn double miles during a special promotion, because AA only posts the reviews that they deem worthy of publishing. Yelp.com is the BEST place to vent about any restaurant. Good or bad thoughts.

A local place here in Tampa modified what I entered once. I go there often, mentioned the employee in a specific way (inside joke but printable). The owner changed the wording.

I do the ratings to make sure I get the extra miles and never have to think if there is a special.

I can not think of a time I have not seen anything post, but I don't pay much attention. If I do not like them, low score, rarely a comment. And I don't look back at it. If I like it, I just check to see that they are still there for the next visit.

Agreed about reviewing. It's pointless unless you earn double miles during a special promotion, because AA only posts the reviews that they deem worthy of publishing. Yelp.com is the BEST place to vent about any restaurant. Good or bad thoughts.

Yelp! is a payola site. While it isn't perfect, I'd rather just do a Google review search as part of my assessment of the place.

They don't even censor 1.0 (poor) reviews any more, but I'm not sure how they compute the average. I fear it's over all time, with no weighting towards more recent reviews, because look at this restaurant (where I'm the "S D" who gave a 2.0 review this week):

https://aa.rewardsnetwork.com/details.htm?reward=true&merchantId=102928

They get a 3.9 out of 5 based on 94 responses, but the last reviews are 2.0, 3.0, 2.0, 4.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, and 1.0! Note that the start date of the awful reviews coincides with the start of the AA 500-mile bonus for trying new restaurants in early August, so probably the reviews before that were from people who were either familiar with the restaurant or not that critical, while the reviews since have been from people who spent $25+ and given that were going to be very critical (and IMHO rightly so, given how big a mess this restaurant is as an actual restaurant, as opposed to a bar or whatever).

Or perhaps that's the date when they stopped censoring bad reviews?

If they censored bad reviews in the past, shouldn't the overall score give low weight to that period, and more weight to the period since when reviews have not been censored because of rating?

SD:

I found your post especially interesting because I reviewed this particular restaurant on 5/24 under TC-Newport Beach and gave it a 4.0. It was a first time visit so I had no particular expectations. (I posted on the UA board and I just now realized that a review is published under all airlines---doh!)

In reading through the various reviews after my visit it seems that there may have been a change in management at some point in between so the drop off in ratings may have nothing to do with the AA 500 mile bonus nor with censoring reviews.

I've learned to take websites with a grain of salt but, generally, they can be pretty helpful. Again, maybe it has to do with a management change. I compared the menu (a printed place mat that I took with me) to the menu on the website and, at that time they were the same except for any 'specials'.

Bummer about this particular restaurant. I don't get to Garden Grove much but, except for some service problems, I had a great meal and had thoughts of returning. Based on your comments (as well as others) I think I'll put that thought on hold.

Reviews skew upwards because the writers of reviews READ reviews. In DC and NVa area I read AADvantage, Zagat, Yelp, Washingtonian, the Washington Post.

They seldom agree 100%. But preponderance of evidence applies. I seldom write a bad review because I seldom go to a inferior beanery. (Exception for Jaleo in DC, where crummy service seems part of the ambiance.)

Statisticians call this self-selection bias.

One strategy to combat self-selection is to look for "super reviewers." Individuals with the most reviews anr ones who review everything, not just joints for which they have an axe to grind. Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide for DC comes to mind.

I added a review after getting food poisoning at Weiland Brewery on Flower in downtown LA. Needless to say, that review didn't get posted.

I added a review after getting food poisoning at Weiland Brewery on Flower in downtown LA. Needless to say, that review didn't get posted.
The topic of 'disappearing' negative reviews has come up before. One way to get around it is to rate the restaurant average to high on the survey, but letting it rip on the 'comment' section.
I'm sorry to hear about your experience at the Weiland Brewery, that place has always been good to me.

I added a review after getting food poisoning at Weiland Brewery on Flower in downtown LA. Needless to say, that review didn't get posted.

Actually, unless you have scientific proof that your 'food poisoning' did, in fact, happen and that it was caused, in fact, by the named restaurant, I can understand the review being removed.

Unless it is a 'proveable' act, claiming that a restuarant/business did something that is hazzardous it is on shakey legal ground. In todays' litigious society I can understand why Rewards Network would like to distance themselves for any liability.

I'm sorry for your illness and I don't have an answer for alerting the public to what you perceive as the cause but I can understand why RN took the action that they apparently did.

Agreed about reviewing. It's pointless unless you earn double miles during a special promotion, because AA only posts the reviews that they deem worthy of publishing. Yelp.com is the BEST place to vent about any restaurant. Good or bad thoughts.

Boycotting YELP since they started demanding access to my contact list on Android.

I added a review after getting food poisoning at Weiland Brewery on Flower in downtown LA. Needless to say, that review didn't get posted.

If you get this, can you please let us know what you ate? Just finished a marathon medical session for a friend who ate there Thursday evening, woke up 1am Friday, non-stop evacuation of fluids (all orfices) until noon, medical attention and just now finally recovering (Saturday).

I added a review after getting food poisoning at Weiland Brewery on Flower in downtown LA. Needless to say, that review didn't get posted.

I never liked that location. Crowded, difficult to park. I prefer their location near Little Tokyo much more (I don't think they're on iDine right now though).

Boycotting YELP since they started demanding access to my contact list on Android.

That.
Also, isn't Yelp still a payola site anyway?