Ikhlos Muhammad, owner of Silav Cafe and Grill at 330 S. High St., says she started noticing inaccurate one-star reviews of the business on Nov. 3.
They said things like, “the bed sheets were horrible,” she says, which didn’t make sense.
Assuming the review was meant for a hotel, she reached out to a reviewer who had provided a phone number and explained Silav was a small local Kurdish restaurant and that the posted review was for the wrong company. But once she provided the name of the business, she says things got worse.
“By the time I told him that, they had written … 20 to 25 one star reviews,” she told Columbus Monthly, noting that many of the posts came from users with the same first and last name. And she says the individual asked for payment to stop posting and remove the negative reviews.
Instead, Muhammad contacted the police and Google. She also shared screenshots of the reviews and her text conversation with the reviewer on Silav’s Instagram.
“We started with a 4.8 and now due to these false negative reviews we have dropped to a 4.5 star,” the post said. Muhammad says her customers responded in kind, posting a series of positive reviews at her request.
As of this writing, most of the negative reviews appear to have been removed, and Silav’s rating on Google is back to 4.8 stars. But Muhammad says she hopes other businesses can learn from her experience. “I just noticed that they’ve done that to multiple people, like multiple restaurants and car dealerships,” she says. “That’s horrible for someone to go through.”
Cranksgiving Columbus is coming
Cranksgiving Columbus, an annual “food drive on two wheels,” will be held Nov. 8 at 10 a.m. During the event, bikers will choose between routes of five, 15 and 21 miles, purchasing food to donate to the Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resource Center along the way. This year, there is also a shorter route for families that wish to ride together. Registration is free, and participants can choose how much they want to purchase from a list event organizers will provide. All participants are invited to an after-party at Clintonville’s Combustion Brewery and Taproom.
Organizer Eric Tippett said last years event collected over 4200 pounds of food donations and over $1300 in cash. “We hope to exceed those numbers this year, as the pantry continues to see increased demand for their services,” he says.
More information on this year’s ride is available on Cranksgiving’s Facebook page, and advanced registration is encouraged.
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This article originally appeared on Columbus Monthly: Columbus Kurdish Restaurant Warns Other Businesses After Google Review Scam
Reporting by Linda Lee Baird, Columbus Monthly / Columbus Monthly
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
