So absurd, it might as well be an April Fools joke

[Ericandblueboy]

Chowhound thread. (oops link now dead, must've been deleted from CH).

Executive Summary - a woman says to pay cash if you plan on writing a bad review.

Long version - a woman wrote a Yelp review for Lagniappe On the Bayou (a restaurant in Manassas, VA). The restaurant owner finds her address, sends her a ludicrous letter yakking about small businesses providing employment, blah, blah, and tells her not to return. Other chowhounders debate whether the restaurant owner is a stalker.

[porcupine]

^Actually I had something similar happen many years ago; after posting on a different site someone did a little detctive work (not enough) and sent threatening emails to me and several other participants. That site was set up by people who know how the internet really works. We figured out who it was. We still have all the records. You know, just in case.

There are legitimate reasons to post under a pseudonym.

[lperry]

It's very interesting to me how these things pan out. If I see a negative review about a restaurant, I take it into account along with everything else I can find. If I see that the owner or someone otherwise affiliated has been rude in response, I dismiss the venue and don't go. People in the business seem to have a steep learning curve that the only good response is, we're so sorry, let us try again.

[monavano]

Retaliation from a restaurant is jut bad PR. It's going to come back to bite you.

The patron also worked hard for her money and didn't think she got value for putting it in the restaurant's pocket.

That restaurant that tracked down someone who used the bathroom without paying looked petty. The PR backlash was bad. I'm sure the taxpayers didn't appreciate spending their law enforcement's money on this silly infraction.

[johnb]

That restaurant that tracked down someone who used the bathroom without paying looked petty. The PR backlash was bad. I'm sure the taxpayers didn't appreciate spending their law enforcement's money on this silly infraction.

Boy, I sure hope Cracker Barrel isn't into that, even if it did happen on April 1. My sweetie and I are on the interstates a lot, and she has learned that their rest rooms are cleaner than most others out there. So we "patronize" them quite a lot, tho seldom the actual restaurant part (I use the term loosley) or the tchotchke part. Certainly don't want any of those oversized southern deppity sherfs chasing after us.

Kohl's are even better, but harder to find. They do have better tchotchkies though.

[SeanMike]

Personally, I think almost 99% of the time any restaurant response to reports of bad service should only be "How can we fix it?" - not "this person is lying" or "you should help small businesses" or "you suck". I hate seeing on Twitter (for instance) industry folks responding vitriolically to critics, whether or not the critic was being fair.

On the other hand, if you're going to say something, I think you shouldn't hide behind a screen. That's why I try to be very careful about what I say (and more so all the time, I know I've made mistakes in the past and that I'll make them in the future).