writing reviews

You have to certify (by checking a box) that you did, indeed, have a contract with the particular vendor that you are about to review. I haven't had to write any negative reviews, so I can't speak on that process. It's probably to ensure that bogus people from that companies competitor(s) aren't paying/soliciting random people to post negative reviews on their WW site. They want to make sure you are an actual Bride/family member that has used the service with a contract, etc.

I did dispute a glowing review. It was put on my storefront by mistake -- I had not officiated their wedding. I told WW and they removed it -- hopefully, they found the right vendor and he got it.

I'm weary of seeing weary in place of wary.

The WW review system is silly. I, too, had a negative experience with a vendor and posted a fair review of my experience. I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to prove that I had this experience. I wouldn't be posting it if I hadn't. Looking though reviews, you'll see that vendors have no trouble getting WW to take these off. Almost every vendor has nearly perfect feedback.

If a vendor had a lot of bad reviews, s/he would want to just disappear from WW, not advertise here, and not send couples here to see reviews.

I've officiated over 1,400 ceremonies and have about 18 reviews here on WW (of course, most of my weddings were before I signed up here). I work hard on my weddings and feel that's reflected in my 5-star rating (which includes one 4.8 and one 4.9 review). My most recent couple mentioned that I printed their vows in a large font so they didn't have to put on their glasses!

Don't just look at the star ratings, also read the reviews to see what the couples liked and disliked about that particular vendor.

Nancy, while many of the reviews DO have great, honest feedback about their vendors, it's hard to trust a site that removes any negative reviews based on the vendors request.

While I'm sure they do this to create "more" honest reviews, I think it sometimes back-fires. I have not reviewed anything. I don't have a contract for anyone yet either. I wish I could write reviews on venues that didn't get back to us, quoted us verbally, then doubled the quote, but since I don't have a contract I'm not even trying. But as Nancy pointed out, some people can mistake businesses and wrongfully write reviews. I'm sure there are other places to leave reviews for businesses though, besides WW without having to jump through hoops.

They don't remove a negative review; there are plenty of them here. They review reviews, good or bad, that can't be backed up by a contract, so people who DIDN"T use the vendor can't weigh in on them. I also removed a positive review; it wasn't one of my couples.

Personally, I hate the star system. The narrative comments are far more helpful especially when they say WHY the vendor was good or bad.

WW does not automatically side with the vendors. They look to see if there is a contract. If there is, the review usually stands -- unless the couple is outright lying and vendor can prove it.

The one that you appear to have a problem with has over 300 reviews and only about 10 are less than 4-stars (and they show).

Hi there,

As @rusticbride mentioned, each reviewer must certify that they did conduct business with the vendor they are reviewing and can provide either a proof of payment/cosigned contract upon verification request,

PLEASE NOTE that we will NEVER remove a review simply because it is negative or because a vendor asks us to. Reviews are only removed if they violate our Terms of Use (profanity, personal information, etc) and if a review cannot be verified with proof of payment/a cosigned contract. It does not matter if a vendor is a paid advertiser or uses a free account - this standard remains the same.

Nancy also makes a great point - the vendors you probably notice first in the catalog are paid advertisers, and are likely showcasing their great reviews because they can. Vendors who do not receive great scores on their services are likely to 'hide out' until they are able to increase their overall score.

For your reference, we require documentation to leave a review for a couple reasons:

- We absolutely do not want vendors writing reviews for their competitors. Without verification, we would be unable to determine whether or not a review was written by an actual client or a competitor vendor.

- While we are unable to weigh in on the veracity of a review and that reviewer's opinion of a service, we try our best to make sure a review is as accurate and valid as possible for visiting couples choosing their own event vendors. Guaranteeing a reviewer was an actual client is how we obtain this validity - and requesting 'proof' is required in such a situation.

Unfortunately, on other websites (Yelp, for example) you may not have to jump through as many 'hoops,' however it is impossible to know if that review was left by a real customer, someone who decided to go and troll some businesses, a competitor vendor, or a vendor themselves. On WeddingWire, couples can at least know for sure that a review was left by a vendor's paying customer.

We also have other security measures in place to ensure that vendors are not writing positive reviews for themselves - and when our system is triggered, we remove those reviews immediately.

Thank you for cooperating with this process - this way, your honest opinions can be heard and our users (both vendors and couples) can rest easy knowing our reviews were left by actual

customers.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!

Thank you, Lauren. I know this question comes up about once a month and you have to come on and explain how it works.

Of course, Nancy! Its my job

I had a bad review posted on my listing. I left it there! No one can have a perfect 5 star rating. Even if you do the same level of work for everyone, eventually someone will find something wrong with it. I would only dispute a review if it was slander, otherwise, I leave every review up. I just wish people would spell check first.

This should be a sticky

I'm glad WW requires proof. FH is an attorney. You would not believe how many people who never sign or pay a retainer write a review about their firm. The firm has had file cease and desist letter on several people who file multiple reviews and have never retained the firm. I wish Yelp! and all the other websites required this.

Keith Michael, I'm with you with the spell check.

On the professional boards, vendors aren't thrilled with the dispute procedure either. When a client wants to leave a negative review, they can remain anonymous or use a screen name. When thy choose to do that, WW will not disclose the real name of the client to the vendor. Vendors are not shown copies of signed contracts or proof of payments submitted by the reviewer, so we are left in a position of having to accept WW as the final arbiter of the review. This issue gets hotly debated on the pro forums, but WW isn't going to change their protocol.

The truth is that almost every bride promises to leave you a great review...on the day of her wedding (or in the days immediately following her wedding). Statistically, most of them don't leave a review. As the days turn into weeks, they go back to their normal lives and leaving reviews just isn't all that important to them. We had a wedding on July 4th, and the bride was so thrilled that she sent a very expensive thank you gift. Still, no review, although she promises that she will get to it (and yes, she says it will be a 5 star review).

I'm not thrilled with WW's unwillingness to share the identity of a negative reviewer (and I'm well aware of their stated reasons for taking that approach), but I'm glad there is a verification procedure in place. I have received several negative reviews from competitors. I didn't need their identities because I knew from the descriptions of their "weddings" that I had never worked with them. They came down because of the contract/proof of payment rule. You have no idea how cut throat competitors can be, especially when they see their competitor taking off. There are two in my general area that are a constant thorn in my side (one who sees the brides I'm talking to on my business Facebook page and then contacts them to tell them that whatever I'm giving them, she'll beat my price, and the other is more local. She has stolen my images, and most recently, has been going to local businesses in my town in which I leave expensive advertisement brochures. She tells the business owner that she is my employee, and we need to change the brochures so she's taking them...and she does. She's about to get a letter from an attorney).

Oh, and far as vendors "hiding out" because their ratings need to come up, that's not always the case. I was a paying vendor for a year on WW and I did come up when you searched my zipcode and service. When the contract expired, I didn't renew because WW didn't do much for me in terms of serious inquiries or bookings (I now advertise on another site, and have booked eight weddings in the first month, so I made the right decision). However, now that I don't pay, I don't show up in the catalogue of vendors in my area. You have to put my business name in a search bar at the bottom of the catalogue to find me. I just wanted to let you know that a failure to find a vendor doesn't mean they're necessarily hiding out until their reviews get better. I believe my rating is a 4.9.

Centerpiece, how disgusting of your competitors!

This is the review that I wrote, which was removed. I have submitted a copy of my contract, so we'll see if it gets put back up.

"I flew from AZ to MA to find my wedding cake vendor. Of the three I met with, I selected Konditor Meister based on their price and the elaborate displays they have. We met with Felicia, who called us the morning of our appointment and told us that she was leaving earlier than our appointment time, so we rushed from Bourne to meet with her before she left. Felicia was friendly and talked us out of our basic design (an ombre affect of our wedding colors) into having our names written on the middle tier, with our first dance song lyrics wrapping around the top and bottom layer. We weren't impressed with the flavors (they were neither good nor bad), but we liked her idea enough to commit. We paid for our cake many months in advance. When our cake arrived, our venue manager called us to see the cake immediately. The top of the cake was scratched, as well as the middle tier. The writing on the entire cake was extremely elementary and did not appear to be done by a cake artist of any kind. The letters of some words were larger than other letters and one letter was clearly wiped off and rewritten without any effort to make it look professional (we had white lettering on an off-white cake, so the smudge was pretty easy to spot.) On the middle tier, there was a thick yellow smear. We had planned for our cake to be the centerpiece of the dance floor during dinner, but chose to put it behind the entry door to draw less attention. A few guests politely asked if our cake was homemade.

Our wedding was June 21st, but I have not had any luck getting a solution or refund as of yet. Felicia was not working the day of our wedding, so I was told to call back Monday. I spoke to a manager that Monday (from my honeymoon), who said she'd call back Wednesday after speaking with the owner and cake decorator. She emailed me Thursday or Friday, but only offered a tiny refund. I spoke with a new manager last week, who said the owner was on vacation. I am still waiting for a resolution. "

That may not be the best written review, but it was honest.

I think that's a very fair review Kyle; I'd absolutely submit proof to WW so it gets posted. And it will. That is unforgivable.

I can't tell you how many couples tell me that they picked me because of my reviews here, and no, they are not all perfect. I'm lucky because the service I offer is pretty controlled; my couples see the script before hand; there is almost no 'ad libbing' or spontaneous addition of religious elements; they know the pricing, they've seen or at least heard me and how I perform, and I confirm details in a psychotic OCD way. There isn't really a lot of room for error or misunderstandings. When it happens, I absolutely want to know about it, and I'd like my future clients to always address concerns based on reviews that they read.

Other pros are not in this situation; there are artistic decisions to be made, timelines to keep to, subjective opinions on taste and artistic quality. Then there are those who flat out don't perform, show up, or interact in a timely way.

That being said, I'm also not happy with anonymous or private reviews. I can understand the need or desire for privacy on the site, but the vendor should absolutely have access to a disappointed client (if the client hasn't already let the vendor know that....) if only so they can answer a concern, make restitution, or dispute what may or may not have happened.

I think in most cases, the reviews here can be trusted. A vast majority of our couples don't bother to review us (either positively or negatively) and those that do are motivated by a compelling desire to let others know about us. I appreciate that feedback and I know my couples do too.

I'm rarely a fan on censorship. As a customer, it's up to me to accept reviews as truth or fiction. If a vendor has mostly positive reviews, and a few negative ones, I want to read that information and use my judgement. If someone is overly harsh or dramatic, I can tell. Everyone knows how Yelp works, and I think people take those scores/reviews with a grain of salt...as they should. All opinions are subjective.

If, for example, your couples wrote mostly positive reviews, but one said that you showed up late and with pink hair, I would likely ask you about that, and make sure you contacted me before doing something crazy. If someone just writes that they didn't like you, or that you were rude, I would be able to read the many positive reviews to contradict that opinion. (That being said, I'm pretty sure you and I would get along just fine!)