The mom of a customer (who we never worked or transacted with) rated us a 1-star

Long story short, we were reviewed poorly by the mother of a customer who seemingly was told the wrong information about what actually happened. You can read more about it in our review response if you really want to: https://yelp.com/biz/lucky-puppy-claw-arcade-spring-valley?hrid=nJmInphGslnlDUn3gdraGQ&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=biz_post_share&l=en_US

I thought Yelp needed to be first-hand customer experiences only, so I asked AI to make sure and the response was “No First-Hand Experience: Yelp’s Content Guidelines state that reviews must come from individuals who have a direct, personal consumer experience. Writing a review based on a family member’s experience is strictly prohibited.”

Then I looked at the Yelp guidelines link on their website that says “Personal experience: We want to hear about your firsthand consumer experience, not what you heard from your partner or co-worker, or what you saw in the news or on social media. Tell your own story without resorting to broad generalizations and conclusory allegations.”

So I think ok, I can probably report this and have it removed since we only interacted with the daughter and her sister. But they responded saying they are leaving it up. I thought, hmm, that’s odd. I thought for sure they’d remove it. So I did the request another opinion option and this was the response:

Hi,

Thanks for writing in. You’ve asked us to take another look at Caroline P.’s review of Lucky Puppy Claw Arcade. I’m writing you back to let you know that we have taken another look at this review and to clarify our policies as they pertain to cases like this.

We see a firsthand consumer experience as an event when someone interacts with a business, regardless of whether they complete a financial transaction, and will allow reviews that describe experiences like this to remain in place. This includes reviews posted by the guests or partners of a customer, as long as those reviews don’t misrepresent the reviewer’s identity or rely solely on the opinions or experiences of another person. In the event that an individual appears to be able to comment on the offerings and service of a business based on their personal experience, we allow them to stand by their review.

With that in mind, we’ve taken another look and we stand by our original decision to leave the review up, as we did not find it to be in violation of our guidelines.

It looks like you’ve already taken advantage of the messaging feature on your business account to post a public comment in response to the review. You also have the ability to directly message the reviewer; you can learn more at https://www.yelp-support.com/article/000006832. And for additional guidance on using your business account, visit https://biz.yelp.com/support-center/Yelp_Business_Page/Getting_Started.

Regards,

Mariah
Yelp Support
San Francisco, California

I guess I don’t understand how this can in any way be considered a “firsthand consumer experience” when the reviewer never spoke to or worked with us? Just because she’s related to the actual customer? Seems very unfair to businesses, and some clarification should be added to their policies.