Psycho-Cyberbully: The Saga Continues?

Did you know that “Repetitious, unwanted computer communication” is a criminal offense under Utah Code 769201? 

We had a bullying seminar for the students the other day, and one of the police officers started the discussion with some interesting information about cyberbullying.  It led me to go up to him after the presentation and ask him some questions.  Here is some of the specific information I got from him:

1. Cyberbullying does not have to be threatening to be criminal.  It can be simply mean, insulting, rude or even “I love you” kind of stuff that is continued after it is made obvious it is unwanted.
2. Generally the FBI investigates these crimes because the internet crosses state lines.
3. tends to be very cooperative with law enforcement when it comes to the identification and prosecution of cyberbullies.

On to the main story, though.  The cyberbullying of Free Wheeler Pizza has hit critical mass and is being systematically dismantled.  The fake reviews have become so obviously personal that the people running those review sites are beginning to remove them as fast as they can be posted (I exaggerate, but you get the idea).  Facebook has removed 2/3 of the personal slams by the main culprit, in some instances eliminating the entire discussion.

One faction of this group of 3 hasn’t been heard from for over a month, the other has been MIA for a few days.

Are they regrouping?  Have they realized that their smear campaign backfired on itself?

I’m not sure what it is, but I’m sure enjoying the cybersilence.

Enquiring Minds Want to Know.

How many innocent people would you be willing to hurt for the sake of a 12 year old grudge?  One?  A couple?  Is it OK to spread lies and use deceit in an attempt to ruin a business if it puts less than 10 innocent people out of a job?  Just to get back at the two you’re pissed at?

Here’s the latest review that has shown up on at least 3 different sites just yesterday: (Feel free to skip most of it, other than the last paragraph it’s basically the same as the ones I previously posted).

Dec 6, 2011

I just had to post this after seeing all these glowing reviews that, if you read very carefully, are obviously posted by employees and friends of this joint. The reason I have to speak out is because I have tried this place and I will NEVER go back there again! Why?

Well, a co-worker at Rocky Mountain Power, recommended this pizza place to me and I decided to give it a shot and took my wife and two kids there in September. My son is 13 and my little girl is 8. We wanted to dine in but that was a huge mistake! First, the service was incredibly slow and 3rd-rate. I cannot believe that this place would offer dine-in because it is so dimly-lit and the atmosphere reminds me of a shed out back on my Uncle's old homestead in Price! The chairs and tables are very cheap and not appealing at all as well as being dirty when we sat down. I really was not too upset until I got the pizza. My kids would not touch it because it was so soggy it looked like soup on cardboard. Seriously, how hard would it have been to drain a bit of juice from our veggie pizza? I guess too hard for this place.

On to the next problem; the employees looked like they had not bathed or showered in weeks and their manners were atrocious! I tried really hard not to take it personally but I finally gave up when some young kid delivery driver started telling dirty jokes within hearing range of my kids. That was enough! We will never go back there again and we would recommend to you that you do not try it. You will be sorry like we are! This is definitely not a place for a family to go. I must say too, that the front of this place is a bit intimidating and dreary. The sign out front looks more apropeaux for a garage sale or a pawn shop!

After our interesting experience, I got on the internet and did some research about this free wheeler place. After a bunch of leads and contacts and about 6 weeks, I got in touch with an original owner of this pizza chain from years ago who told me that free wheeler pizza was started by potheads and druggies because they could not get a delivery pizza back in the 70's or so. This guy wanted his name left out but told me he owned several of these shops and since he knows a friend of mine, he revealed to me that they used to use free wheeler pizza shops as a front to sell dope and other drugs! Great! This place is the descendent of a drug ring! Need I say more!

We get it, you’re still bitter over the ending of your employment there.  But by your own accounts on the Facebook pages of the people you blame for it, it had no long term financial effects on you.  You’re doing great now, you’ve bragged about college grades and your financial success.  You’re happy in the new State you’re living in.

So why are you so intent on damaging a business that has been in the Salt Lake Valley for almost 35 years, your time there being just over 1/10 of it’s existence?  What about Tim, Adam, Kody and the rest that weren’t even there when it all came about?  Are you willing to sacrifice their livelihood, at a job they seem to like - having been there 3 or 4 years now, for the sake of revenge on the two?  What about the regular customers (myself and extended family included, and we’re not the only ones) who are used to having their occasional pizza?

I will continue to point out the inconsistencies of these kinds of reviews, on every site I find them.  Because the company you are attacking has been a part of my life for over half of it.  Because everything you say is either irrelevant, false or vastly exaggerated.  Because I still live in the same city and am down there at least every couple of weeks and know what their practices are like, and know that 98% of the time they serve a quality pizza.

So please, I’m appealing to your sense of fair play.  If you must exact revenge on the parties that you see as wronging you, please limit it to them.  Don’t continue this review charade that could end up hurting people that had nothing to do with what happened 12 years ago.

Thanks.

A Conspiracy of Three

A lot of you know about my 30+ year relationship with the very local Free Wheeler Pizza.  A few of you might have also read my post a while ago about a group of people who have been holding a 10 year grudge over their dismissal, and their harassment of the main people at Free Wheeler over the last year.  Up until now, other than that one post, I’ve stayed out of the fray since I have no first hand knowledge of what happened back then and, frankly, it’s none of my business.

Until I found out that someone has been orchestrating an effort to ruin the reputation of this business that has been a part of my life since I was a teenager.

You probably read the reviews I posted here last month.  I was seriously curious as to whether or not they were as obviously fake to someone on the outside as they are to me.

Well, I didn’t get my answer, but I’ll make my pitch anyway:

BEWARE THE VINDICTIVE REVIEW

Online review sites.  Any schlub, under the darkness of anonymity and ‘usernames’, can post a review on a whole plethora of things.  If you can name it, you can probably find a site to review it.

Problem is that if someone is really ticked off at you, they can sign up under multiple usernames and pass off a diatribe of personal vindictiveness as authentic reviews of your business. 

This is what’s happening to Free Wheeler Pizza, and after reading a slew of these reviews on a dozen different sites I’ve decided there are some definite signs that a group of reviews (positive or negative) are, for the lack of a better word, a conspiracy.

• Are these the reviewer’s only reviews? In all of the reviews I identified, this was their first and only review. Individually, this means nothing, every reviewer has to start somewhere. But when all of them are first-time reviewers (with newly created pseudonyms), you have to wonder.
• Do the reviewers fixate on a common theme? Again, by itself this could just be caused by a problem that everyone is noticing. But, are they problems that most businesses would work to correct? Like in the case of a restaurant, are they the kind of problems the Board of Health would easily notice and close you down for? Such as rotting food in the cold tables and enough mice scurrying around that customers can see them.
• Do they comment on the same petty things, things that are more of a pet-peeve than a serious problem? Things that most people wouldn’t harp on, such as a lack of uniforms and dirty clothing in a kitchen. (Food service is a messy business, you wouldn’t expect the same level of cleanliness in a kitchen as you would in a shoe store.)
• Does the review come to a reasonable conclusion, or do they admit to reacting irrationally? Did they take just one bite of the food and then throw it out the window, or did they bring it back and demand a refund? Did they get a case of explosive diarrhea and call the Board of Health to report it, or just write a review?
• Finally, do the reviews have a similar ‘voice’?  Could you tell where one ends and the next one starts if there were no breaks in the writing?

The main thing to ask yourself when reading any review is “Does this sound like the person is simply trying to inform me or do they sound like they need you to believe the way they do?  Do they sound angry or simply unhappy; fawning or just satisfied by the product?”  And if ever in doubt, go check it out for yourself.

Once again, thank you for listening to my venting.

Real or retaliation? What’s your opinion?

Here’s the scenario: You’re checking out the reviews on a local restaurant on three different review sites..

On the first site, the 10 reviews average out to 3½ stars out of 5, the same was true for the 7 reviews at the second site.  Over at  the third site, 46 people voted and 84% liked the restaurant.

You scroll down and read these negative reviews:

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11/1/2011
Bertha K. 1 review
I see that a bad review of [this restaurant] was deleted. Perhaps that person went too far or it got too personal for this site. As a paying customer, let me state that this is a fact. I personally have witnessed mice scurrying around [this restaurant]. This is why I refuse to ever think about ordering a pizza from them again. In the past, they made a fairly good pie, but, now their pies get very soupy and their sourdough is quite bland. They also have some of the most unkempt, filthy employees I have ever seen, whether you are picking up or getting delivery. In addition, the accommodations for dining onsite are atrocious, with sparse seating and tables and a very casual, dare I say, unprofessional environment. Poor service and a devil-may-care ambience more suited to tattooing that family dining. I looked past a few of these unsavory items in the past, but when I saw the mice it was adios for me.

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11/03/11
SLC's Worst Pizza
by yodlewoman

What a sad day that slacker expressionism enters the workplace. It makes for a revolting dining experience. No hairnets, unlaundered clothing (notice I didn't say uniforms), and a could-care-less attitude. If that wasn't bad enough, read on.

On to the cuisine. I use the word cuisine liberally. The pizza dough was so lacking in taste, I almost thought it was not sourdough. I ordered a combo and came away extremely dissatisfied. The cheese on top didn't adhere to the toppings, which included uncooked green peppers and rotting mushrooms. I ate one piece and had to throw the rest out. Unfortunately, or unfortunately, I could not return the pie because I did not even contemplate dining there--that's the fortunate part.

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November 9, 2011
This Place Is God Awful!!
by Min Rentals (1 review)
Dude, this pie place is for the birds, yeah I threw my flattened, frozen pizza out my window to the pigeons below. Delivery was a joke! Dude was unconcerned that he was over 30 minutes late. I also ordered the garlic balls and they came cold and greasy, like they were used to clean up the BP Gulf oil spill. After eating just one of those things, I felt like I was one of those sea birds and that I needed some mild dish detergent and a good scrubbing. Try anything else. Hell, go get a Fruschetta's or a Red Baron and save some money--your taste buds will thank you.

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11/15/11
Oy-Vay!
by FredHere

I have gotten more cold, watery, flavorless pizzas from [this restaurant] than any other pizza place in SLC. The phone help was rude. The delivery guys could care less. Used to be good some time ago, but now it's just seems to be a failing enterprise. I finally learned my lesson after getting pretty sick. Avoid this place like the plague!!

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11/15/11
SLC's WORST
by muchwind

Ordered the garlic rolls, a salad, and a combo pizza. Came delivered with the cheese stuck to the box and cold...ABOUT 40 MIINUTES LATE!! The pizza dough was tasteless. The toppings were minimal, to say the least. Sauce was meh! I ate about half a slice (it tasted as bad as it looked) and tried to pass it off to my roommates, but they not-so-politely declined. You see, they had been trying to eat a garlic roll and decided they were better off eating drywall. The salad? Wilted, slimy, and starting to turn. Unfortunately, too late to call them back once it finally got to me; I'll have to let it go and vow never to eat this junk again. [this restaurant] is an unholy mess!

Go anywhere else. [this restaurant] seems more like a prison chow line than a reputable, family dining experience.

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November 21, 2011
Well, I Never...
by Whiteflower (1 review)
I order a pesto chicken special with artichoke hearts late one friday night, thinking it would be a gourmet delight, as their ads and website had promised...was I surprised! I'm not sure what their recipe for pesto includes, but the chunky bitter mess I tasted hardly qualifies as "gourmet." In addition, the chicken was barely warm; quite a food disaster, if you ask me! and, the red onions included part of the peel...ick! Poor quality control abounds!! I will never order again.

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11/21/2011
Dave K. 1 review
I had the big wheel.  It's their version of a combination pie.  It is so bad!  Just drenched with water from all the undercooked toppings.  Salad was barely passable.  Service was on the apathetic side of things.  Everything is overpriced.  Poor to mediocre all the way around.  I would not recommend [this restaurant].

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11/21/11
BAD REVIEWS NEED PROOF -- GOOD NEED NO PROOF!!
by sychoplant

These bad reviews are spot on!! I don't eat at [this restaurant] anymore, cause it is just such a terrible experiense! The food is horrible and expensive! People there look slobby and shabby! Why do you trust the good reviews?! They could be just as bogus as Wilhelm says the bad reviews are. See for yourself--yes!! But, wait a few months when they can revert to their normal selves, dirty uniforms, really bad food, and really lazy service!!! This pizza place is so bad!

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I’m just curious about people’s reactions to these kinds of reviews.  Please let me know your first impressions after reading them, both individually and in tandem.  I will post your comments anonymously if you ask me to.   Thank you for helping me with this little bit of social research.