Back story: Over a year ago, I visited the Toronto Coffee and Tea House. I found out that the location was the former Toronto Coffee Company shortly before I visited. The former owner of The Toronto Coffee Company posted on Facebook about an ownership conflict he was dealing with (see the latest post here for story: https://www.facebook.com/TorontoCoffeeCompany). When I wrote my review, I expressed my honest opinions in regards to that Facebook post, saying that I thought it was unethical and that I felt bad for the former owner because I would have hated to be in that position. I mentioned that I wasn't going to return to the cafe because of this matter. Despite so, I still gave my unbiased review of the cafe experience itself because I truly enjoyed it and wanted to provide my readers information about the atmosphere, drinks, and so forth.
Months later, I was contacted by a third party hired by Toronto Coffee and Tea House to look over their online and social media presence. I was kindly requested to edit my review since the Facebook post was apparently untrue. That was fair enough, since I didn't have the full story. I edited the first paragraph of my review and kept most of the original post (revised review here: http://torontocafeandfood.blogspot.ca/2013/08/toronto-coffee-and-tea-house.html). Everything was confirmed and it was all good.
A few days ago: I was greeted with this message on my way to work:
When I edited the blog review, I genuinely forgot to update the one on Yelp (since I always copy and paste my reviews over because Yelp does not allow me to link back to my blog). However, it was the only review I forgot to update. The reviews on both Zomato (https://www.zomato.com/toronto/toronto-coffee-and-tea-house-wallace-emerson) and UrbanSpoon (with the spoonback link) for the Toronto Coffee and Tea House were updated to reflect the new information. Had I been notified by the third-party company from before that I forgot to update my Yelp review, I would have happily obliged. Instead, I got attacked by another representative for a misunderstanding. I didn't realize that the same person also posted a review replying to my original post until today:
I sent my reply after to the message:
Regrettably, I have deleted the original review before the reply so I cannot post it here for you guys to judge.
I cannot recommend this cafe to any of my readers as of now. I feel so disrespected as a blogger to have my review called "trash" when I gave my honest opinions based on what I saw on the Facebook post. I still gave an unbiased review of the cafe experience itself separate from the incident. Had the representative checked up on other review platforms before jumping to conclusions, the person would have noticed that said reviews of the cafe were updated and that the Yelp review was simply an oversight. Furthermore, I gave favourable ratings throughout all platforms because I truly enjoyed my experience at the Toronto Coffee and Tea House (4/5 rating on Yelp and Zomato). Instead, I was told I would've been sued if the person was the owner of the cafe and was accused of purposely wanting to slander the owners of the current cafe.
My goal as a blogger is to empower my readers by providing them with my unbiased opinion as well as the unfiltered information I based said opinion on. If I am presented with new information, I will of course update my reviews and opinions to reflect this new development. I do not purposely write anything inflammatory or sensationalist simply to attract attention. I always state that the opinions expressed in my reviews are mine alone, formed from the information in my possession at the time of writing.
I will keep my revised review up and will be updating the rest of the platforms with these experiences soon.
