Originally Posted by
Kensterfly
Suppose the OP been able to speak with the owner, at the time of his departure, to express his dissatisfaction. Suppose the owner apologized and offered to refund X amount of money as compensation for the poor experience. I'm sure the OP would gladly have taken the offer. Is it considered a bribe if the business offers some sort of compensation/service recovery in exchange for your good will? Or is it only a bribe if the business expects something in return?
The thing is, I believe in communicating with the manager/owner directly, giving them a chance to make things right even when I am not seeking compensation of any sort, merely pointing out some deficiencies that need some attention. They can't fix it if they don't know that it's broken. I don't typically write a bad review unless I've communicated with them and didn't like the response- or didn't get one.
This is where I came down on it. The owners were not there (that was REALLY the heart of the problems). Their terrible substitute manager was not around when we left. And I assumed that any email communication sent would be deleted by the terrible manager. Had I had the opportunity to express my dissatisfaction directly to the owner then likely my review would have been different or not posted at all.
For example, last night we went to our favorite local hot pot for dinner. We go there regularly and service is usually good. Last night it was TERRIBLE. On the way out I pulled the host aside and let him know how disappointed we were and he apologized profusely, said he would talk to the staff and that it would never happen again. That was good enough for me and I won't be writing a bad review based on that (hopefully) one-off experience.