What can be done about a fake yelp review?

[allenk4]

I just did a Google search of: No Limits Mobile Detailing

There are quite a few businesses' with the same name as yours in California

Maybe it is a case of mistaken identity?

[Dogfather]

Interesting that Aaron M who just posted the 5 Star review has three other reviews which he blasts the automotive related businesses with One Star!

I noticed that. He's one tough customer.

[brondondolon]

Yeah Aaron M is a good friend of mine who wrote that review. He did it on his own. Ive asked him to take it down but hes at a car auction right now. However, the Porsche that is detailed in the pictures on there is his porsche that i detailed before i became a business. But its not current and i dont want any fake reviews on my yelp good or bad.

[Kamakaz1961]

By doing that i feel as though id be admitting to doing what he claims. Its clearly a fake review. This is total BS!

My suggestion as this has happened to me before is (I am assuming you have an account with Yelp) to respond to the fake review. You have to be careful in how you respond. Make sure you acknowledge that he was not happy and have a professional response to that. I would in a clever way say that this review could not be yours and that the person must have the wrong detailer.....etc. Again, you have to be very careful.

In my case (for my main business) I let the person know that they were more than welcome to come back at a reduced charge to get the situation taken care of.

Since Yelp will not remove the response it is always good to come back with a response from you.

It will show that you care and in my case, many people realized it was fake after my response. I would assume if you get a couple of Yelp users with a similar response...eventually, they realize the review is fake.

Additionally, get some close friends that use Yelp alot and have them make a great response or great reviews to your service. My fake review was eventually removed as the reviews that I get from everyone is completely different and Yelp must have realized the review was fake.

Yelp will eventually remove a bad review if they determine that it is fake based on all the responses to that negative review as well as more positive reviews from other customers about your business (not responding to the fake review) and actual experience.

I hope this helps

[Tanner Krabill]

Just stay professional. Publicly offer to make it right. Either a refund or revisiting his car.

Even though it's fake, other yelp users like when business owners respond to a complaint for everyone to see.

I know you mentioned business dying out. Have you tried advertising on Facebook? It's free to post in local buy sell trade pages & can get loads of business from them.

Yelp is wack, you visit my yelp page & there are ads for other local detailers... & you get calls from them constantly.

[allenk4]

"So your in NV and you drove all the way to CA to detail his car? (obviously I'm exaggerating, this fake bad review is looking faker and faker) so if Yelp doesn't even acknowledge this, even if you bring it up to them tomorrow, then that is a huge bad customer service of Yelp."

Reno, NV and Truckee, CA are only about 30 miles apart

[allenk4]

Wondering if maybe you should just treat it the same way you would if you know it was a genuinely disappointed customer

[brondondolon]

"So your in NV and you drove all the way to CA to detail his car? (obviously I'm exaggerating, this fake bad review is looking faker and faker) so if Yelp doesn't even acknowledge this, even if you bring it up to them tomorrow, then that is a huge bad customer service of Yelp."

Reno, NV and Truckee, CA are only about 30 miles apart

Yeah they won't take it down... They sent me another email saying that they can't find anything fake about it... So I left a comment on it.

Funny thing is my good frien went and left a review (I didn't ask ) after this whole thing. I have detailed his Porsche but it was long ago. Yelp decided that one wasn't genuine and put it as not recommended... I told them I bet if I was paying for their advertising every month they would delete it. They didn't reply to it though. Such scam artists.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using AG Online

[allenk4]

My point in the post that you quoted was, that the two cities are close and it is likely that you could have a customer from Trukee

It is also possible that the reviewer is the Husband or Brother, etc. of someone who you did the car for.

I read your lengthy reply on YELP (attached below) to the negative review. I have to say it does not come off Professional and likely will do more harm than good. It is not sincere. I would take it down.

If you choose to leave it up...I would:

- Remove the word "Suck"

- Put it into paragraphs

- Shorten it to 30 words or less

- Clean up the grammar and spelling


If you were asking for advice, that is mine

If you were not asking for advice; please disregard



Comment by Brondon D. of No Limits Mobile Detailing:



"That's awful that happened to you. Unfortunately, after reviewing this further we have no receipts of a customer by the name John S., we have not done any work in Truckee CA, we would never treat our customers with such disrespect, and if by chance we did inflict any damage into a vehicle we would promptly correct the issue so there is no inconvenience. Now i'm the owner, and this business is my lively hood. Never would I do something so awful and tarnish my good name. I'm terribly sorry sir and i feel bad that something like this happened to you but i think you have the wrong company. However, i'm willing to take off 30% from any one of my packages for you to get your car looking better then new again. It sucks to be treated so unfair by another company so this is my gift to you to prove our work to you. I have done extensive research on products and many years of experience. I use only the best available so only a swirl free finish is rendered. Many other companies use glazes to hide the swirls but I don't. You could wash your car right after i leave and it would look just as flawless as it was the moment I finished. I'll send you a private message with my contact info if you would like to take me up on my offer. If not, well then i apologize on behalf of the company that did that to you. Its unfortunate that there are companies out there that do more harm then good and treat people like that. I truly am sorry. I wish i would have noticed this message sooner so I could have helped you ASAP."

[Brace1]

Brondon: I would suggest if you have the opportunity to edit your reply to clean up the verbiage, do so. The message is good and you kept it very professional, but the misspellings and typos leave a little to be desired (IMO).