Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews • Hacker News Board

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#61

Post by baddox » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:09 PM UTC

droithomme wrote: post #6

Isn't this a protection-money racket (extortion) from a legal perspective? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_racket > "Extortion is a criminal offense of unlawfully obtaining money, property, or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion." > "In the United States, extortion may also be committed as a federal crime across a computer system, phone, by m…

Does that act that's being threatened have to itself be illegal in order for the threat to qualify as extortion? Yelp reviews aren't illegal.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#62

Post by obstacle1 » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:10 PM UTC

ulisesrmzroche wrote: post #57

nwh wrote: post #9

Mirrors for when the original content inexplicably disappears. Facebook post (OP's link): http://archive.is/lIFF5 Negative reviews left: http://archive.is/js6nY and http://archive.is/hnMmA The attackers reviews on Yelp: http://archive.is/Itdbw

Dang, they actually ARE carrying with that threat and giving them bad reviews? That's so messed up. I didn't think that'd actually happen. Hope this gets quelled quickly,but I'm bringing the popcorn and the lawnchair just in case.

To be fair, it doesn't look like they are doing much. Rather this Andy Johnston guy is going on a rampage to exact revenge for a perceived personal slight.

I'd imagine Andy's actions expose his employer to many liabilities, but there's no indication that Groupon condones these actions thus far.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#63

Post by BlakePetersen » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:13 PM UTC

Anyone who goes to Berkeley and majors in American Studies obviously has never heard 'No' before. Talk about a wasted opportunity. This guy has douche stink all over his various profiles.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#64

Post by ulisesrmzroche » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:14 PM UTC

obstacle1 wrote: post #62

ulisesrmzroche wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang, they actually ARE carrying with that threat and giving them bad reviews? That's so messed up. I didn't think that'd actually happen. Hope this gets quelled quickly,but I'm bringing the popcorn and the lawnchair just in case.

To be fair, it doesn't look like they are doing much. Rather this Andy Johnston guy is going on a rampage to exact revenge for a perceived personal slight. I'd imagine Andy's actions expose his employer to many liabilities, but there's no indication that Groupon condones these actions thus far.

I totally agree with ya'll. I'm not blaming Groupon, I should have been more specific when I said 'they'. I mean the kid and his (real?) buddies. I don't even think Groupon know what's going on right now since this is getting worse by the minute.

I'm just saying they gotta hurry up because their customers are not blaming this dude, they're blaming them directly, and it seems to be spreading really fast. Some of those facebook comments have some real vitriol.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#65

Post by trimbo » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:15 PM UTC

Irishsteve wrote: post #5

usaphp wrote: post #4

http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=hnH6RaPkJ2Tfw9ZkKMfL... see how many bad reviews he already wrote for Sause! I think his profile should be flagged, you can't trust a person who does this kind of things. Edit: He just changed his name to West C. what a guy :) Another Edit: Just look at his reviews date - they all are written on July 29-30 - why would anybody write so many reviews unless you receive a commissio…

So I guess Negative reviews = No sale Positive review = Sale Indifferent review = ???

Other than sauce, his reviews seem good to me (I've been to most of the places in his reviews... coincidentally, while I worked for Groupon and had to travel to Chicago)

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#66

Post by trimbo » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:21 PM UTC

awjr wrote: post #18

The more interesting thing is, has any restaurant had a good experience with Groupon?

Yes. The owner of Cafe Riace in Palo Alto once raved to me about how he has done Groupons multiple times at all of his restaurants and it worked out great for him.

Generally it has taken a savvy owner to make it work for them. Non-savvy owners would get over-sold by the deals sales reps. At the height of the deals craze, small business owners were getting 5 calls a day from various deals sites.

What Groupon never figured out is how to make a sales organization that wouldn't burn out merchants. So now they're pivoting into being Woot.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#67

Post by ulisesrmzroche » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:22 PM UTC

jusben1369 wrote: post #59

He's not saying "Use Groupon or I'll trash your business" he's saying "You treated me poorly and now I'll get my revenge" This guy's a goofball for putting it in writing but social media has definitely changed how businesses have to treat whacky, unreasonable prospect's and customers. (The Groupon angle is a red herring)

I don't think the prospect was unreasonable at all. Hanging up happens all the time. It's whatever. The problem for Groupon is that this guy reps them. They need to explain to their customers fast what happened because this looks viral to me.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#68

Post by fnordfnordfnord » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:27 PM UTC

jeremybencken wrote: post #16

droithomme wrote: post #6

Isn't this a protection-money racket (extortion) from a legal perspective? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_racket > "Extortion is a criminal offense of unlawfully obtaining money, property, or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion." > "In the United States, extortion may also be committed as a federal crime across a computer system, phone, by m…

This isn't a story about Groupon except insofar as they hire unprofessional, immature sales reps. The sales punk didn't like how he was treated, so he gets revenge by (threatening) to leverage his own personal network. It's pretty unlikely this is some organized practice at Groupon.

Title says "Groupon Sales Rep..." Was it changed?

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#69

Post by ChuckMcM » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:28 PM UTC

And this is why there is a high turn over rate in sales, seriously.

The salesguy is clearly over the top aggressive and likely new to the business. He will get let go, if he hasn't been already, and some other person will replace him. If you deal with sales folks you will find the ones who have had the most success in their career seem to push right up to the line and don't cross it. This guy will no doubt re-calibrate and head back in selling windows or something.

I expect it is the nature of sales, you measure someone on their completed sales, period. You don't measure anything else and they will experiment with different ways of maximizing that number, some of them illegal (see the behavior of the Google sales guys in Africa [1] as an example) Businesses fire the ones that generate ill will and keep the ones that don't.

[1] http://memeburn.com/2012/01/mocality-scandal-mortified-googl...

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#70

Post by takeda64 » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 6:34 PM UTC

nwh wrote: post #9

Mirrors for when the original content inexplicably disappears. Facebook post (OP's link): http://archive.is/lIFF5 Negative reviews left: http://archive.is/js6nY and http://archive.is/hnMmA The attackers reviews on Yelp: http://archive.is/Itdbw

According to LinkedIn, he just started working there this month. I guess he is just dumb, inexperienced, and maybe it was first time someone hang up on him.