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I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare
- caiocaiocaio 8y agoYelp doesn't seem to have brought a lot of a joy into anyone's life.
- cableshaft 8y agoPersonally I've discovered quite a few restaurants that I enjoyed quite a bit thanks to Yelp. Google reviews are starting to become more common and comparable, but back then the Google reviews were very sparse and usually only people talking about bad experiences, whereas Yelp was more mixed.
- ggg9990 8y agoIt has for me. It has basically eliminated truly bad restaurant visits for me, and alerted me to some really cool new experiences.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mojowo11 8y agoYelp remains very helpful to me in many ways. Looking up the restaurants in an area, filtering by various things (are they open? do they take reservations? what's the noise level?), making reservations, etc. I know Yelp has a shady underbelly, but pretending that it doesn't have anything to offer is just being intellectually dishonest.
- o_____________o 8y agoBased on what?
- PascLeRasc 8y agoI visited Spain last summer and my family would typically just walk around where we were looking for a restaurant that seemed good, and almost always got stuck in tourist traps with bad Americanized food at high prices. When we started using Yelp to find places to eat we found little hole-in-the-wall tapas places with absolutely no American influence and amazing food that we still talk about to this day.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- retromario 8y agoYes, same here. I used Yelp during a US West Coast trip and always found good too great places to eat near any place we drove through. The highlight was finding an amazing, fresh Vietnamese on a concrete island in some random part of Fresno. Their coverage is not uniform across different countries (Germany is not bad but still occasionally spotty) but it's a great filter of the crap restaurants.
- csomar 8y agoI disagree. Though it is not Yelp, I have seen business develop from customers who would have been out of reach to them if not for the Internet. Particularly in the hospitality business.
- optimuspaul 8y agoI think that we tend to only hear the horror stories. I've never really used yelp, but I know many that have and found it useful as at least a barometer of an area. I'm a contrarian so I find I'm happier if I don't know how others feel about things.
- snowwrestler 8y agoI have found Yelp to be better than Google Maps at telling me what the options are for grabbing a bite to eat nearby. I hardly ever read the reviews. Actually, I used to read the Yelp complaints about the ice cream place near me, which had a famously cranky owner. Those often made me laugh; does that count as joy?
- rootlocus 8y ago> Those often made me laugh; does that count as joy? Yes, yes it does!
- Overtonwindow 8y agoThis almost seems like a Slapp lawsuit.
- ceejayoz 8y agoMaybe, maybe not. A new patient visit and a routine annual aren't necessarily the same thing where insurance is concerned, and it's not the doc's fault if she's got a copay/deductible. That said, if she can prove this bit: > “They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. ... they're about to get smacked really hard.
- yani 8y agoIt does not say where it was posted and why she thinks it was them.
- AdmiralAsshat 8y ago> “They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. That screams HIPAA violation, to me. The practice could (and should) be shut down over it.
- ceejayoz 8y agoIf it happened. The story is in a tabloid, and that's such an insanely egregious breach of HIPAA that I'm a little skeptical that it played out exactly like that.
- Fej 8y agoPerhaps not exactly. But of all the tabloids, the NY Post has to be one of the most reputable.
- blanderman 8y agoI contend that all tabloids are disreputable.
- RandallBrown 8y agoWell technically tabloids are just newspapers of a certain size.
- jastanton 8y agoI was nodding along until this: > They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address,” she said. wow. That violates HIPAA law. The counter-sue is going to be huge. Also, I had a related issue where a doctor threatened to sue based on my yelp review. I cut the review back to verifiable facts instead of opinion and asked if that compromise was ok, he said it wasn't and started claiming it was defamation. I cut off contact and that was that. I wondered if it was possible to be dragged into court by something like this, apparently I may have dodged a bullet. Scary stuff.
- unethical_ban 8y agoThat is awful, and they should be punished severely for that. This reveals a predicament for businesses that have to protect customer privacy. If a restaurant owner thinks a customer is lying, they can call the person out on all kinds of media and say they're a liar. Alamo Drafthouse made a set of videos to play before movies making fun of a customer complaint call, telling her to eff off. If a doctor believe a patient is lying or doing a detriment to their business, they can't call them back out on social media. Their only remediation, if they think the statements are false, is a lawsuit to have the force of law take lies down.
- dm319 8y agoThis is why, at least in the UK, there are several pathways to resolve disputes - both in the hospital trust and above it, which is in part to avoid this kind of scenario. If that doesn't resolve it the patient usually approaches a lawyer to seek compensation, and most times this is settled out of court and in private. When patients and family hit social media, the hospital/doctors are not able to publicly talk about the grievances, or can only put out a very limited public statement with permission (like the recent Alfie case). I had a friend of mine who refused a request by a patient out of the country, while on-call one weekend. I'll leave out the details apart from it involved shipping a large quantity of a very expensive medication to another country - as the hospital did not have this medication available. He had already sent enough of this medication to cover for at least a week (at huge cost to the NHS, as the medication had to be couriered by plane) when a second request was received 2 days later. A huge internet hate-mob appeared on Facebook saying all sorts of things about this doctor by name, to which he had no ability to respond. I'm for making healthcare more transparent, but I wonder if, as a doctor, we'd be pressurised into pleasing the patient more than treating the patients correctly, with the threat of negative yelp reviews, though that's obviously a risk with any sort of profession and review system.
- CodeSheikh 8y agoHis Yelp page is getting very active: https://www.yelp.com/biz/joon-song-md-new-york-2 https://www.yelp.com/biz/joon-song-md-new-york-2
- mattnewton 8y agoStreisand effect all over again[0] [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- beegeezuz 8y agoYou should put a lawsuit on your flag as a coat of arms.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- teliskr 8y agoThe Yelp episode of South Park is one of the best. "I'm a food critic with Yelp.com... umkay." http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s19e04-youre-not-yelping http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s19e04-youre-not-yelpi...
- rootlocus 8y agoI didn't get the feeling that this woman was the kind of Yelp reviewer South Park were shaming.
- flippyhead 8y agoI love seeing bullies like this get called out and end up worse off than if they'd done nothing.
- rootlocus 8y agoWhich party do you see as the bully here?
- mschuster91 8y agoA variation of this scam is also endemic in the German mandatory insurance system (e.g. http://www.ln-online.de/Lokales/Luebeck/Krankenkassen-betrogen-Luebecker-Sonderdezernat-ermittelt http://www.ln-online.de/Lokales/Luebeck/Krankenkassen-betrog...). In contrast to privately insured people (basically, public servants, company founders, rich and ultra rich) who get to see the bills of the medical provider, they can bill the "common" insurance providers (GKV, Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung) directly without the customer seeing anything of the bill. This is, of course, ripe for abuse as no one will look if a doctor really did a specific billed procedure on a patient, especially not something in the 20-50€ range...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Semaphor 8y ago> In contrast to privately insured people (basically, public servants, company founders, rich and ultra rich) And many self-employed people and also some middle class people. Private insurance isn't that rare here. PS: Interesting to see LN linked ;)
- jchw 8y agoThink of how many people this business has bullied into silence before someone with enough resources to make the news came along. For most people (unfortunately,) $20k of expenses is bankruptcy.
- hycaria 8y agoPatients are by far the worst kind of customer to deal with. So maybe if the costs were disclosed upfront ("I can perform an ultrasound if you have pelvic pain, but it will cost you/your insurance xxx") we wouldn't come to such he-said-she-said extremities. But I guess it's pure fantasy in the USA where I've heard medical costs can be negotiated... How could they announce full price / insurance coverage when you're about to get the exam done if it's not even settled yet ?
- mynameisvlad 8y agoWhy can't the costs be disclosed upfront? Whenever I go to the dentist and I need to have some work done, I get an estimate telling me how much it costs and how much they expect the insurance company to cover. This isn't rocket science, it can easily be calculated, and should be, as you said, for the benefit of everyone.
- hycaria 8y agoAs I said, I don't live in the US but I've heard that there, bills are negociated by insurances afterwards. It's a shame that the patient has an unexpected bill to pay (and I think a good part of trouble/resentment stems from there). Here it seems like they were not warned about it (whereas we are where I live) and that's the only reasonable explanation I could think of. But maybe someone from there can shed light on why the exam the patient agreed upon came back as an unexpected bill, instead of incomprehensible downvotes ?
- dfsegoat 8y agoI too wonder why the MD side of healthcare doesn't work more like this in the US. I was actually very taken aback recently when I needed to get dental work and was presented with costing info about 10 mins after my visit started. It did feel a bit greasy, I must admit - but I get that the point is for everyone to be on the same page before the procedure. edit: I now recall that I did use Urgent Care for awhile for healthcare while uninsured - in the US - these are basically "fixed menu" clinics. They have a menu of services / costs for cash.
- dqv 8y agoThe case is available online through WebCivil Supreme [0] if you want to read more about the case. [0] https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASSearch?param=P https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASSearch?param=P
- mcguire 8y agoThe case name is "GREAT WALL MEDICAL P.C. vs. LEVINE, MICHELLE". https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASCaseInfo?parm=CaseInfo&index=EQ%2FcE1kqRZ1_PLUS_y5dbxSBFQA%3D%3D&county=hK5AdsEWZTBWkrxZV7J3Bg%3D%3D&motion=M&docs=&adate=06/21/2018&civilCaseId=4DfkdU4iElJ1RJmL3_PLUS_5btw%3D%3D https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASCaseInfo?parm=...
- danieltillett 8y agoHaving read the case I suspect the defendant is going to lose big time.
- mattsoldo 8y agoCountersue the doctor. Unfortunately without a suit to conterweight theirs, they only have upside. And file a suit against Yelp.
- p3llin0r3 8y agoDr. Joon Song has never heard of the Streisand effect apparently
- jimrandomh 8y agoThe author claimed that the provider in this case committed billing fraud, by charging the insurance for procedures that were not performed. She should write the NY attorney general; an investigation by the State would make the civil case a lot easier to deal with.
- yani 8y agoIt is good to hear the other side of the story. I find it impossible for a lawyer company to post medical records of someone else publicly since they are supposed to know what they are doing. I am all for give power to the people but I have seen this being abused a lot nowadays.
- csomar 8y ago> They posted my entire medical record, including notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license, birth date and home address If this is indeed true I'm not really interested to hear the other party story. Remember that the other party started the lawsuit and online reviews are something to get over with (unless the woman is backed by some entity that is going after that business)
- yani 8y agoYes. But that sentence is too obfuscated... posted where? I am a bit sceptic because of the way the article is written around the important parts.
- mcguire 8y agoThis, I hope, is the list of documents filed in the case. No. 36 records a motion sealing some for containing her confidential information. I can't cut and paste here, but it says that in one of her affidavits, she included private information and in a response the plaintiff also included private information. There are charitable interpretations on either side. https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASeFiledDocsDetail?county_code=hK5AdsEWZTBWkrxZV7J3Bg%3D%3D&txtIndexNo=EQ%2FcE1kqRZ1_PLUS_y5dbxSBFQA%3D%3D&showMenu=no&isPreRji=N&civilCase=4DfkdU4iElJ1RJmL3_PLUS_5btw%3D%3D https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASeFiledDocsDeta...
- megy 8y ago> I find it impossible for a lawyer company to post medical records of someone else publicly Where do people here think the medical records were posted? On yelp? On the lawyers website? It is so weird people are just thinking that this stuff is posted publicly.
- wccrawford 8y agoI know someone who left a bad review and the owner of the restaurant stalked her for years afterwards. She ended up leaving Yelp because of it. Yelp doesn't do nearly as much as they should to protect their users.
- forgot-my-pw 8y agoDidn't Yelp use to coerce businesses too to pay to get their bad reviews "hidden"?
- turc1656 8y agoYes, yes they did/do. It's a move straight out of the mobster playbook. It's the modern day equivalent of paying for "protection". Yelp has also been sued by investor's for allegedly misleading them into believing that Yelp was filtering out everything that wasn't reliable, first-hand reviews from people who actually went to those businesses and paid for services. On a similar note, I believe business owners have alleged numerous times that when they refuse to pay the extortion fees to have bad reviews removed, they suddenly get a bunch of bad reviews all at once. Also, Yelp has seemingly had a habit of allowing competitor's post bullshit reviews on businesses who haven't paid them for that "service". I don't what currently goes on, though. Maybe they have cleaned it up? But I doubt it.
- ssijak 8y agoOne thing that sticks to me when I read such articles (I am not from US) is how ridiculously pricey medical services are. Common, 1k$ for a regular exam that costs like 20euros in my country in private clinics?! And I read about this ridiculous prices US so often that I am dumbstruck that people are cool with it. Another thing that struck me is that if you don`t have money, evil people can just silence you by suing you (look at those court costs, 20k and counting?!)
- danans 8y ago> am dumbstruck that people are cool with it. Huge numbers, perhaps a majority, are not cool with it. We've had national elections fueled by the discontent. But at least so far the political configuration of that discontent, not the magnitude of it, has prevented progress on lowering the cost of health care.
- DoreenMichele 8y agoBut at least so far the political configuration of that discontent, not the magnitude of it, has prevented progress on lowering the cost of health care. Health insurance in this country suffers from kind of a legacy situation. It is sort of like how the qwerty keyboard is terribly inefficient, but most people continue to use it. From what I have read, at some point health insurance was offered as a means to beef up compensation in a way that was tax friendly for employees, thus helping to entice better employees to come work for your company. This became kind of the standard default and typically covered the family, not just the employee. This was considered a perk in a situation where most people whipped out their check book to pay for medical care because it was relatively reasonably priced. Then health insurance became kind of the default and it adds overhead and complexity. Obomacare was passed as the only politically viable solution and it's a terrible solution. Health insurance coverage for basic services doesn't really make sense. Insurance only makes sense as a bet to defray unexpected expenses. When you use it cover annual exams and other basics that you know are guaranteed to happen, it essentially creates an unnecessary middleman, pushing prices higher without providing any real benefit for the cost involved. This is where we are now and most people don't know how to get out of this mess. It doesn't help that Obamacare puts a gun to your head and insists that most people participate in this charade or be fined at tax time, in essence. Ugh.
- JumpCrisscross 8y agoCounterfactual: Dr. Soong is well-rated on ZocDoc. Curious to see how the judge rules.
- DenisM 8y agoPerson who threatens bad review writers has mostly good reviews? Hardly counterfactual.
- hitekker 8y agoZocDoc explicitly limits critical reviews, implicitly removes negative ones, and otherwise enables faking/rating-inflation: https://www.zocdoc.com/about/blog/for-patients/the-zocdoc-doctor-rating-policy/ https://www.zocdoc.com/about/blog/for-patients/the-zocdoc-do... > Please note that we can’t publish claims about the accuracy of a practitioner’s treatment and diagnosis. Those are factual matters, and to verify them would require extensive medical studies. https://nycdatascience.com/blog/student-works/web-scraping/analyzing-zoc-doc-doctors/ https://nycdatascience.com/blog/student-works/web-scraping/a... And so forth.
- draw_down 8y agoAny negative review meant to be shown publicly is more hassle than it's worth. Airbnb, Yelp, etc. Don't give a review at all unless you must, and if you must, keep it breezy and positive. One nice thing about this is you don't need to think about it too hard. Some generic compliments, five stars on everything, and you're done!
- newshorts 8y agoYang to the yin of doctors being sued by patients.
- jhowell 8y agoIf you wrote a restaurant review 30 years ago and it was seen by millions, likely the same number who saw your post on yelp, and attached your photo along with your text, you would have been impacted. Yelp is a saw you held the wrong way. Do we need instructional videos for saws?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ktosobcy 8y agoOne thing that annoys me about Yelp is that they pulled my information and put this info on their site. I have absolutely no intention of being there (working remotely, had to establish legal entity for 'freelance' work that is already 7 years with same company). And they refuse to take down my details (including my address) from their page…
- eggy 8y agoI believe in free speech online, Yelp included, however, I would be factual and concise when writing a review. The article quotes she wrote "crooked", which means dishonest, or illegal. I am not saying there are not scammers and bad doctors, but it's best to keep your language objective and answer after you have emoted offline, or the legal issues have been resolved. She could have stated that she was billed for X, but thinks she did not receive X as defined, and did not receive sufficient clarification or verification from the doctor. She states the doctor's office were aggressive on the phone when she called. Per her allegation they stated she complained of pelvic pain and this required an ultrasound. Did she complain of having pelvic pain and was given an ultrasound? Is this covered in the annual checkup for free? I have a bill from my daughter's pediatrician, which on first look appears to be a double charge for a developmental evaluation (filling out 3 pages of questions on her). I am not going to jump on Yelp and write the pediatrician is crooked or otherwise, until I am convinced it is either a clerical error, includes another form she had us fill out that I am unaware of is a separate, standard billable practice, or is plain dishonest, and trying to get more money out of my insurance company. I will admit my first reaction upon opening the bill, hungry, late, and overworked was "This is bullshit! They are trying to rob me!" I have been overseas for the past 8 out of 9-1/2 years, so I am going to tread lightly until I can ascertain the doctor's intentions. I think many people use Yelp or other online reviews as a forum for knee-jerk, emotional reactions.
- benburleson 8y agoIt might be a case of the current American President devaluing the word. Seems like it would be easy to explain away the use of "crooked" in court these days.
- baxtr 8y agoAnonymous reviews are a sort of a good thing, viewed from that end
- duked 8y agoI just went on their yelp page and was noticed a huge spike in negative review (talk about the streisand effect...). but what surprised me was the yelp notification: "Active Cleanup Alert This business recently made waves in the news, which often means that people come to this page to post their views on the news. While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to these news events, we do work to remove both positive and negative posts that appear to be motivated more by the news coverage itself than the reviewer’s personal consumer experience with the business. As a result, your posts to this page may be removed as part of our cleanup process beginning Tuesday, May 29, 2018, but you should feel free to post your thoughts about the recent media coverage for this business on Yelp Talk at any time. " So is it like the news coverage never happened ? seems kind of disingenuous to remove everything during that period (whatever time frame they will decide on is interesting too)
- lazyasciiart 8y agoThat doesn't say "everything during that period". It sounds like they're going to remove all the stuff like "I've never been here but they sound evil 1 star!"
- dominotw 8y agoI am suprised zocdoc even allowed negative reviews. They rejected my slightly negative review. I think reviews have to to be approved by the doctors themselves to be posted on zocdoc since doctor knew what I wrote( without it being published) and hounded me to resubmit a positive review.
- pseudolus 8y agoApparently (and per the terms of the stipulation electronically filed) the parties were close to settling and in the interim she agreed to take down her reviews that had been posted during the pendency of the action and not make any more "disparaging" statements. I'm guessing the settlement talks fell through. The issues are, unsurprisingly, not as black and white as the original story makes out.
- pasbesoin 8y ago$20,000 as an opener. Civil as well as criminal proceedings. I worry it's more about the money you have to spend, especially when this differs significantly between the opposing sides, than justice. And, charging $1300 a visit, that doctor's going to have the spend. Maybe, in this case, the chance of media coverage will produce a settlement before things hit the stratosphere. At the same time, going onto social media and using words like "crook", etc. is... not the best approach. Stick to facts and more neutral language, and let the reader draw their own conclusion. But then again, more and more often, any criticism seems to provoke nuclear escalation. Not to mention the pre-emptive strike of non-disparagement language in service contracts. Ours is called a "knowledge economy". But a lot of self-serving interests are bent on shutting down the knowledge. P.S. If medical records were shared, state licensing should be looking at pulling the doctor's license. There's a purpose to regulation, that includes shutting down the most egregious behavior. Also, prosecutors should be investigating medical and insurance fraud. Back with the wind up of our "war on terror", a lot of law enforcement resources got directed away from domestic crime including white-collar crime, to chasing needles in the ever-bigger haystack that was being built. Even a rich society faces limits to its resources. Especially when there are arguments and initiatives to reduce them. (The "tyranny of big government" -- unless it's law enforcement and the military, or is that law enforcement as the military?) In part, current domestic problems are exacerbated by the pressure and actions to focus our resources abroad. And not in "economic aid", but in power politics. No one's been tending the shop. And the worst and pushiest have been taking advantage.
- shanecleveland 8y agoI had a terrible experience with a vacation rental, so I left a brutally honest review. Was aggressively met with verbal lawsuit threats. I ended up talking with the owner quite a bit about how disappointing of an experience it was for us. I agreed to remove the original review in replace of a less "colorful" one. He at least said he understood some points and agreed to make some changes. But I got the feeling it was common for him to use these scare tactics to prevent bad reviews. And it worked. Not worth it to me to fight this battle, so I chose not to provide another review. I just wanted to prevent others from going through the same thing. The rental site was of no help and said they don't get involved. In this case, the doctors bigger concern may be insurance fraud , if overcharging and/or performing unnecessary procedures.
- win_ini 8y agoSlightly related - but gives me a chance to tell this story. Recently, I stayed at an AirbNb with many great reviews. The guy asked me to NOT leave a review ("We already have lots of good ones"). His issue - the reviews are used by the county to see how often their place is being rented out.
- zoltaan 8y ago"the doctors bigger concern may be insurance fraud" Less serious but immediate is the bad publicity of the fact that they aggressively sue unsatisfied patients. I may think twice going to such a person instead of other alternatives.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- hitekker 8y agoYelp ought to stick up for the reviewers, at least in some small capacity. I mean, if people feel like they can't be honest in Yelp reviews without getting sued, doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of Yelp? I'd hate to see it become another ZocDoc, where five stars reviews are copypasted ad infinitum.
- skj 8y agoYelp's customers are the business owners.
- 4ad 8y agoYelp exists only because people trust it.
- DiabloD3 8y agoGiven how many times "Google is evil because it destroyed Yelp (not because Yelp is a trainwreck)" headlines cross the HN front page, arguably, no one trusts Yelp.
- 4ad 8y agoHackers News titles are not a reflection of the society at large.
- skj 8y agoThis isn't a counterpoint, but I absolutely don't trust it. I've heard too many stories about them removing bad reviews for businesses who buy ads.
- XR0CSWV3h3kZWg 8y agoI've only found yelp to be trust worthy in some cities, not universally.
- 4ad 8y ago
- pwaai 8y agoI submitted a complaint to BBB once and the business owner sent me a letter threatening to sue. That was the day I realized we as consumers are truly vulnerable.
- Legogris 8y agoSlightly related: There is an ongoing process of redditors being targeted in a defamation suit by a mental health counselor in Tokyo for writing about their experiences on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/7resct/update_official_gofundme_update_current_status_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/7resct/update_offici...
- pliftkl 8y agoA better headline might read "I wrote a review on Yelp in which I accused a doctor of committing insurance fraud on other patients that I had no actual knowledge of, and it made my life a nightmare". Courts have established that you can write negative reviews and that they fall well within rights to freedom of speech. She isn't being sued for giving the guy a one-star review and saying "This place sucks". There's one sentence she wrote that has cost her $20k: "I suspect that this doctor gives unnecessary procedure to a lot of people and then charges the insurance sky high prices and no one knows the difference."
- grimgrin 8y agoHold on, you cut the title short. It'd end with a comma, then "and they posted my entire medical record, bills, insurance info, home address, etc"
- megy 8y agoWhere did they post them though? They didn't post them to Yelp, you can't do that. They didn't post them on their own website. Where would they have posted them?
- oliv__ 8y agoWell, if it happens to one patient, how likely is it that this is common practice? Also, she started the sentence with "I suspect", which is very different from a plain accusation.
- OliverJones 8y agoYelp is basically bad news for everybody. The subjects of negative reviews often attack the reviewers. And, Yelp itself attacks the subjects of positive reviews. Their sales people call positively-reviewed small businesses and use hard-sell tactics to try to sell them advertising. So, for your own sake don't post negative reviews. And, for the sake of the businesses you like don't post positive reviews.
- jayess 8y agoCall your home/renter's insurance agent and ask them to add a "personal injury" rider. Increase your liability limit to $1m. You'll be insured against suits for libel/slander (assuming you aren't doing so maliciously). It'll probably cost you another $50 a year. It's a life saver. I have a friend to was sued, wrongfully, for defaming someone online and his insurance covered the entire defense.
- dawnerd 8y agoJust mentioned it above, but my insurance actually bills it as libel insurance, so might have to ask for that as well.
- ndesaulniers 8y agoI posted a civilized negative review and it got taken down for "not meeting guidelines." I wonder how many other negative reviews have been taken down on Yelp? I also wonder that's a paid feature that businesses can use?
- OnMyPhone 8y ago"I also wonder that's a paid feature that businesses can use?" I swear that I've heard about several different people paying Yelp to "remove" (or whatever term they called it) negative reviews on their site. This was a few years ago, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was still a thing.
- bobthechef 8y agoThis particular case aside, I'm fairly certain that doctors in the United States perform unnecessary procedures all the time so that they can charge more, or drag out consultations across multiple visits to be able to charge independently for each visit. So I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened here because it is so common. Medicine is a corrupt field full of overpaid doctors. Look at how much doctors make in, say, the UK. At the same time, wait times in the UK is pretty terrible from what I hear.
- OnMyPhone 8y agoSeveral of the Dr's and specialists in the US write down different procedures than what is done. I don't think it's malicious (at least to the patient), but I think it's mainly to avoid issues with insurance companies not covering stuff. I can see how this isn't kosher with many people though. I have some weird issues that no one can seem to figure out, so when I go to the Dr's, they'll sometimes take the shotgun approach. If they know that the insurance company is going to give me flak for something, the Dr's put down whatever is needed for insurance to cover it. One example was when I felt a pop in my jaw after eating something. Within a few minutes it hurt so bad that I passed out from the pain, and woke up an hour or so later. I went to the Dr's and had them do what they do. They did a bunch of tests and the Dr told me that he had to put down that I have "head pains" instead of "jaw pains" otherwise insurance wouldn't cover it. I'm not huge on the idea and I'm sure I'm paying for it in one way or another. It is much better than paying thousands out of pocket 5+ times a year.
- himom 8y agoShe’s already won in the court of public opinion, I hope she recovers a reasonable amount of fees and damages if her story is legit. Always post reviews anonymously using an anonymous email address over Tor or free WiFi. It seems bad business to go after disgruntled customers punitively rather than trying to correct the situation positively. There’s always some crazy customers out there, but either way: going after them just lends them credibility and a platform.
- hi41 8y agoIsn't a negative Yelp review protected by Freedom of speech? Inspite of that the lady had spent a fortune defending herself.
- mullen 8y agoEven if you are right, people can still sue you. Also, she has to put facts in her review since if she puts in lies or opinions, that can be seen as slander or libel. I think that is where she is getting into trouble.
- danso 8y agoShe isn't being sued for a negative Yelp review. She's being sued for alleged libel in the form of a negative Yelp review.
- tomohawk 8y agoYelp is pretty bad with the negative reviews, and is sometimes used by groups to target businesses for non business reasons. Here's some examples of veterinarians who have have run ins with Yelp (leading to suicide in one case), and some of the mitigations they try: http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/negative-reviews-yelp-and-your-veterinary-clinic http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/negative-reviews-yelp-and-y...
- jessaustin 8y agoLots of good advice there. When in doubt, apologize.
- sunstone 8y agoYeah well Yelp considers negative reviews to be their own exclusive revenue stream.
- danso 8y agoGoogle cache of the defendant's now-deleted GoFundMe page: http://archive.is/xm4Ce http://archive.is/xm4Ce Has some more details, from her side, about the alleged HIPAA violation: > As if that was not enough, in the very early stages of the lawsuit Dr. Joon Song had my medical record posted online in it's entirety. My complete medical record was available publicly on the internet. My mental health, the details of my body even though i never took the gown off, my bills, my insurance details, my photo, my name, my birthday, my address and my phone number. All of this was posted. > Dr. Joon Song and his lawyers claim that because i shared the details of my positive blood test privately with the court (which i was forced to do to defend myself) I waived all rights to my privacy and there is no HIPPA violation and I am further a liar in stating that he had violated my HIPPA rights by publishing my records. > In addition to posting my medical records Dr. Joon Song refuses any amendment request . His office staff says my medical record is locked because he is using it to sue me. He maintains false information on my record to date. Sounds like she's claiming that her medical info was posted as documents pertaining to the lawsuit. edit: Others have posted the case filing, in which you can find the exhibits and affidavits. The alleged posting of medical records was not to the public Internet, but as part of a case filing. And only after, the plaintiff asserts, the defendant posted her own records: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17179942 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17179942
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