A Portland business owner says one of the most popular consumer review websites is hurting his business.
Rod Dudley owns
Angelic Healing Hands massage therapy centers, located in Beaverton and downtown Portland.
He said someone is posting false and malicious reviews about his business on Citysearch, alleging that the website will not remove the comments.
"For every good review I got, there would be two or three that followed that were bad," Dudley said.
When he noticed the pattern, he tried to contact the "unhappy" customers to see if he could fix their concerns, and claims he discovered most of the bad reviews were written anonymously by people who had never been to Angelic Healing Hands.
Dudley said he contacted Citysearch, requesting they either verify that the comments came from actual customers, or remove them. However, Citysearch responded with the following statement:
"We have determined that the user review you reported does not violate our terms of use, so it will remain published. The review is strongly worded, but nothing that is written is in violation of our terms."
The Citysearch terms of use are clearly stated on their website: "Content submitted to us will not: Be unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, indecent, defamatory, vulgar, profane, obscene, libelous, hateful or otherwise objectionable."
Dudley believes the comments made about his business violate those terms.
"Based on the names given in the profile on the reviews, none of them have ever been in any of our offices," Dudley said. "This vindictive ambush against Angelic Healing Hands' good name needs to stop.”
In a business where reputation is everything, online reviews can be valuable to local business owners.
Chachi, owner of Chachi Hair & Skin in Northwest Portland, has a perfect five star rating on Citysearch, but said he welcomes all reviews.
"If we don't get a negative review, we never know if we are doing anything wrong," said Chachi, who credits his perfect rating to his team's commitment to continuing education and constant training.
Dudley said he didn't create the Citysearch, so he cannot delete it.
When contacted by KOIN, Citysearch refused to comment on the issue.
-- Kacey Montoya
