I felt very much let down by a Yelp.com, a site that claims to have "Real Reviews...Real People". Maybe you've already guessed it. Maybe it's expected. I just found it sad. Yelp is biased. But just how biased is Yelp...?
Yelp - Real People, Real Reviews - EXCEPT THE BAD ONES.
It's just like the old saying goes...it's only fun until someone gets hurt. This time, it's personal. I wrote a review at yelp.com only to have them remove it because the company complained about my review.
My friends and I went out to hang out a Dave and Busters in Arcadia, CA on a Thursday night. My friends were upstairs hanging out at the bar when a fight between 2 different groups of gangsters broke out. A gunshot was heard and my friend, Jayson fiercely clutching his other friend, Dextor's wrist. Jayson said, "I got shot." but Dextor didn't believe him at first. The next thing we know, Jayson drops to floor and blood his shirt started turning a bright red. We later found out that there was only a single gunshot that wounded 2 people. The bullet first went through another person and then hit my friend in the left ribs and put a hole through both lungs, liver, and all other organs in his upper body except the heart. It finally laid to rest near his right armpit.
Anyway, after the shooting the crowd went crazy and the security guard at Dave & Busters did not know how to control the situation. Instead, they jumped on the loudspeaker and told everyone to leave and get out. They didn't bother stopping anybody and there was mass confusion everywhere. We saw the shooter running out the back-door and somebody even yelled it out but Dave and Buster's security did nothing. I think I remember some of them even RUNNING AWAY FROM THE SCENE themselves.
They also didn't bother to call the cops and kept telling me and my other friends that we couldn't go upstairs to see our injured friend and that everything was ok. In the end, the police arrived because WE called them ourselves.
The hospital was a complete mess in itself with all of us crying and worried sick that we might never see Jayson again. The police weren't surprised at the shooting. Apparently stuff was always happening on Thursday nights because that was "gangster night".
Dave and Busters just doesn't care about their patrons security. They hire young guards who aren't trained on anything but how to ask people to show their ID's at the front entrance. Their guards are often too busy talking and checking out the female customers than actually looking around for trouble-makers. If you've gone here enough, you'll know that trouble-maker types are ALWAYS sneaking in through the side entrances and emergency exits. Dave and Busters can't even secure all their restaurant entrances. Their security isn't trained to do anything and they just don't care about people's safety.
Yelp.com is just a total letdown. I thought this site really cared about people's reviews but I guess not. I wrote a review to save OTHER PEOPLE from the same thing happening. This isn't about bad food or bad service, it's life and death. Yelp.com just doesn't care; they're just another big-dollar advertising medium for making money and staying corrupt and biased. I'm not amazed, it's easy to be a sellout if you're getting paid big bucks. I just wonder how much money they're making to not care about people dying.
Spread the word. Dave and Busters and Yelp.com does not care about people's safety. Thank god my friend made it out alive. He spent 18 days in intensive care and now can't be left alone because he's still got tubes going through him. He's traumatized and is constantly afraid of getting shot. He spent those 18 days on the verge of dying and living day-by-day every single time. His bleeding couldn't be stopped until the 4th day and he picked up what the surgeons said was the worse thing possible - infections. Dave and Busters even sent lawyers to the hospital to try and defuse the situation and clear themselves of any blame but the police made it clear that they were the ones to blame and there was no way out of that. The lawyers didn't even bother to apologize for what happened.
If anybody wants to help my cause, please re-post my review below and bombard Yelp.com with it until they leave it up. Big companies need to pay for their mistakes; they CAN afford it.
Below are the emails passed back and forth between Yelp and myself:
Hi Dave,
I’m glad yelp and D&B is taking my review seriously. Perhaps, I can write a much longer 1ST PERSON account of what happened so that my review is not considered “hearsay”. I can also have all my friends that were standing right next to the gunman when the shooting happened and have them post on yelp as well.
I take your website very seriously as a creditable source of information and truth and would do everything I can to stay within your stated guidelines.
Would my suggestion above be sufficient?
Thanks and take care - Johnny
From: David @ Yelp [mailto:
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]
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 3:47 PM
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.com
Cc:
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Subject: Message from Yelp.com HQ
Hi Johnny,
I'm writing to let you know that we have received complaints about your review for Dave and Busters in Arcadia, CA. Our Customer Service Team has investigated your review (copied below) and have decided to remove it because it has violated our Review Guidelines.
...the Yelp team will remove a review (and will typically email the writer to let them know) when we are made aware of certain situations including: Second-hand experiences and hearsay. For example, you can't give a deli a bad review because your co-worker complained about his chicken salad. Your reviews must be about your personal experiences, not about what you may have heard.
We do not take the removal of reviews lightly, and are open to discussing this with you if you feel that we have missed something or have questions about our policy.
David
San Francisco, California
Your removed review:
[04/20/2007] Here's a good story. At 12am (4/20/2007), a bar brawl broke out upstairs between gangsters and thug-types at the Santa Anita Dave
& Busters restaurant/bar. In the crossfire, 2 males were shot. 1 was my friend and he was definitely innocent. The
security failed to lockdown and secure the place. Instead, the security kicked everyone out of the restaurant and
would not let anyone go upstairs, not even the freinds of the shot persons. Dave & Busters security LIED when they
said they had the place under control and the cops didn't come until the panicked patrons called the cops themselves.
The police arrived long after the gunmen and were even surprised to hear that D&B security did the WRONG thing by
letting everyone go (including the gunman). As everyone was running out, some people even yelled out that the gunman
was running out the backdoor or alternative exit but D&B security still did nothing. It's a shame that their security
can't do nothing more than check ID cards at the entrance and give young-looking 21-year olds a hard time.
My friend is now in the hospital in critical condition bleeding to death while doctors rush to save his life and stop
the massive internal bleeding and the police have no suspects. Who is to blame? And why is my innocent friend in the hospital fighting for his life?
*WARNING*: Do not go there on THURSDAY nights. The cops have confirmed that thursday night is commonly known as "gangster night" and other violent attacks and instances have been known to always happen on thursday. You have been warned.
The update on my friend: He is still in critical condition, the bullet went through his rib and tore holes in all his organs and went up to his chest. The top surgeons in the county that specialize in gunshot trauma are currently working to patch a hole in his liver and save his life.... take care of yourself, people. This stuff could happen to anyone
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