Restaurant opened up in town, we went in the first week, service was horrible, like unbelievably so, and not just to me. It’s a long story.

I get it, new business has growing pains. But it was bad enough I needed to leave a bad review. My plan was to update it if/when we came back and it was better. Or if the business commented on it apologizing for the way we were treated.

Instead, I watched that place get like 30 5 star reviews in an hour flat. And I don’t mean several good reviews, with a mix of stars and praise. I mean 30 solid 5 stars, with ALL the subcategories lit up with solid 5 stars as well, and glowing, wordy reviews.

No way. Absolutely no way could that be the case. I talked to other friends who went on different days, they had better experiences than me, but they all had different issues, nobody was giving a glowing review. One other buddy also got snubbed the same way I did and left a 1 star as well.

Funny thing? All the one star reviews had hearts on them, almost like people were trying to boost them up in the sea of 5 star reviews.

It was the craziest thing I’d ever seen. That company saw the 1 stars rolling in, and instead of replying to them, or training their staff, they just… Bought reviews, to keep their ratio high and weather the storm.

Just insane.