Restaurant owner calls negative reviews 'blackmail' with video evidence

[djbaxter]

Restaurant owner calls negative reviews 'blackmail' after video shows customer put hair into dish
by Jenny Rodrigues, Globalnews.ca
March 2, 2017

Video appears to show restaurant patron plucking hair from head, swirling it into dish | Watch News Videos Online

The proprietors of a restaurant in Australia are claiming TripAdvisor ignored their requests to take down negative reviews of their eatery, which they say was a customer?s attempt at ?blackmail.? But after Global News contacted TripAdvisor for comment regarding the story, the travel company removed three negative reviews, which they said did not meet their guidelines.

Biagio Biuso, the chef and owner of Casa Nostra Ristorante, posted security footage from inside the restaurant that appears to show a customer pulling out her own hair and putting it into her pasta dish over the weekend.

He wrote on social media, ?We could see 101% it was the customer?s hair and that is the reason why we did not remove this dish from the bill. Because we did not remove the dish from the bill, they told us explicitly that they would post bad reviews on TripAdvisor, which they did.?

The negative reviews were published online despite the owners? attempt to alert the travel website of the situation.

?TripAdvisor has a ?no blackmail? policy for reviews and if you inform them in advance, they say they will not post them,? wrote Biuso. ?We emailed them on the night this happened, saying the customers threatened us with these bad reviews, and we gave them easily identifiable information. [?] The reviews are posted on TripAdvisor for all the world to see.?

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[Linda Buquet]

Wow! Bad review as blackmail for a free meal. I'm sure it happens, but this is the 1st I've heard of it.

Thanks for sharing David!