A Review That Gets the Facts Wrong

Stars attached to the wrong story

A review says the job took three weeks. Your invoices say four days. Another says nobody returned the call, and your phone shows two calls and a voicemail on the same afternoon.

Some reviews get the facts wrong: a price, a date, what was promised, what happened at the counter. Most reviewers are not lying. They remember it differently, heard it second-hand, or have mixed you up with somebody else.

The stars count either way. The next person deciding whether to call reads the review as true unless something beside it suggests otherwise.

That something is your reply.

Why reviews get facts wrong

• Memory blurs prices, dates and waiting times within weeks.
• The total is remembered, but not the extras chosen along the way.
• A similar business nearby gets confused with yours.
• A second-hand account comes from a spouse, parent or friend.
• Anger rounds every wait and every price upwards.
• Occasionally, a deliberate falsehood.

The second happens most often, and it is the easiest to answer kindly. People remember what they paid, and rarely the decisions along the way that added up to it.

Check your own records first

Before writing a word, find out what actually happened. Look up the booking, the invoice, the quote, the emails and any notes on the customer's file.

Sometimes the records show the review is wrong. Sometimes they show the reviewer was right about something you had forgotten, and the reply needs to be different.

And sometimes there is no record of the person at all. That points to a confusion with another business, or a review that does not belong on your listing.

Reply with facts, not a verdict

The reply is written for the people who read the review next, more than for the reviewer. They are watching to see whether the business is reasonable.

Thank the reviewer, acknowledge what they experienced, then state the correct fact once, in a plain sentence: the price, the date, or what the quote included.

Leave out words such as false, untrue and never happened. Readers cannot tell who is right about a date. They can tell who sounds calm.

Where there is no record, say so gently: you could not find a visit on that date and would like to understand what happened.

What stays out of a public reply

Nothing from the customer's file beyond what they wrote themselves. Their bill, their appointment history and anything about their family stay private, even when sharing them would settle the argument.

No second reply. If the reviewer answers back, the conversation moves to the phone or email.

And no offer of a refund or discount in return for changing the review. Most review sites forbid that kind of exchange, and readers trust nothing on a page once they suspect it.

When to take it offline

Take it offline when the facts involve money, the customer's personal details, or anything that needs more than two sentences to explain.

The public reply then does one job. It corrects the fact in a line and gives a name and a direct number to call.

If the conversation settles things, the reviewer may edit the review or add a note to it. Ask once, politely, and leave the decision with them.

A worked example

A hair salon for children in a suburban shopping plaza cuts hair in chairs shaped like cars and fire trucks, with cartoons on a screen and a jar of stickers by the till.

A parent left a two-star review. A first haircut for her toddler, she wrote, had cost almost twice the price on the website, and they had waited half an hour past their booking.

The booking system and the receipt told a fuller story. The cut was the price on the website; the rest was a first-haircut package with a photograph, a certificate and a lock of hair, offered at the counter.

The wait was real. A child before them had needed far longer in the chair than booked.

The reply thanked her, apologised for the wait, and explained in two sentences what the cut and the package each cost, with the manager's direct number at the end.

The parent kept her two stars. Readers, though, could now see both sides.

The lasting fix was on the website, where the package had never been listed. Its price now sits beside the haircut prices, and stylists say the total before they start.

Reviews that break the rules

A factual error alone is rarely grounds for removal. Review sites are not in a position to decide whose memory is right, and they seldom try.

Some reviews do break the rules: one meant for another business, one from someone who was never a customer, one written by a competitor, or one containing abuse or someone's personal details.

Google, Facebook and Yelp each let a business report a review it believes breaks their rules. Report it once, with a short reason, and reply anyway in case it stays.

A calm reply under a review that later disappears has cost nothing.

When the review is partly right

Often the reviewer is wrong about the number and right about the experience. The price was correct but nobody explained it. The date was wrong but the wait was real.

Answer the fair point first. A reply that concedes what is true is believed on the rest.

Then fix whatever let the confusion happen: a price list without the extras, a quote that does not say what it excludes, a confirmation email without the time.

The counter-case

Not every wrong detail needs correcting. A review that gets the month wrong but describes the visit fairly can simply be thanked.

Where an accusation is serious and untrue, such as a claim of something illegal, the review site's own process and professional advice come before any public reply.

For the ordinary case, the advice holds: check the records, correct the fact once and calmly, and take everything else offline.

Before you reply

1. Find the booking or invoice the review describes.
2. Note what the reviewer got right.
3. Thank them and acknowledge their experience.
4. State the correct fact once, in one sentence.
5. Give a name and number for the rest.
6. Report it only if it breaks the rules.
7. Fix what caused the confusion in the first place.

Step four is the one the next reader judges. One plain sentence of fact, without adjectives, does more for the business than a paragraph defending it.

How reviews feed into which businesses Google shows is covered in three places in the map results instead of seven.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.