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I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

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Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#161
post #117
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yelp's customers are the business owners.

Yelp exists only because people trust it.

This 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.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#163
This 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.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious, and depressing, answer. They don't. This is why plea bargaining is rampant in America. It isn't necessarily very fair, because for many people this ends up ruining their lives. But facing the choice of POTENTIALLY going to prison for a number of years, and to jail for weeks awaiting trial, or pleading guilty to something that does not put them jail at all, they choose the latter (since a few weeks of absence…

This is a civil case obviously, so all that jail stuff won't apply to this, but just curious... If cheap litigation is 20K, and "battling out with a judge" is 100K how come the first time I'm hearing about this is in a HN comment? Seems like no one is going up to bat against this stuff until it affects them. Reminds me of that famous poem "First they came for the ..."

Peter Thiel got a lot of flak for this comment: "If you’re middle class, if you’re upper middle class, if you’re a single digit millionaire like Hulk Hogan, you have no effective access to our legal system. It costs too much. This was the modus operandi of Gawker in large part, to go after people who had no chance of fighting back."

It's somewhat hard to square with "litigious culture" criticisms of some parts of the country. But the details matter. Filing & defending in small-claims court is pretty cheap without a lawyer (and even with one is "only" in the small thousands) and person-vs-person cases won't be too terrible compared to companies-vs-individuals...

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#165
She’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.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#166

Yelp 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.

That's a really good point. By displaying the first names & last initials of the reviewers, Yelp is revealing a lot about the reviewers. I personally wouldn't want to have to create a fake account every time I write a 1-star review

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#167
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HIPAA allows health care providers to disclose medical records in response to a court order as long as the order specifies the scope of the records required to be disclosed and is signed by a judge.

Court order != Filing Suit

The docket persists beyond the filing and can have records attached to it under seal by order. Nadya did not draw the equivalence you are correcting.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#168
post #132
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 400$, in my country, I paid (well not me, my job but that is not the point) for private health insurance for a WHOLE YEAR. It covers all the basic stuff, pregnancy costs, some surgery costs, etc.. Aside from that we are all covered by the state and are not billed for anything apart from some medications. Yeah, hospitals are not that great of a place and there is a lot to be improved, but at least you know that ev…

You are paying for private supplemental health insurance in a low cost region. I'm sure lawyers charge much less there than ones in New York as well.

Of course. But if I roughly compare medical and/or litigation costs between my region and US, taking into account average wage, US is still whey pricier. Our law also does not require you to have a lawyer if you don`t want it. Also if you are poor you can have free legal counseling (but not to be represented in the court).

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#169

I 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?

"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.

Re: I wrote a negative Yelp review and it made my life a nightmare

#170
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, 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.

You cant veil an accusation under a single adjective, come on.. It might happen to many others, but her accusation is baseless and she is responsible for it. Suing for libel is an appropriate right.

How is it baseless?
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