Introducing: Reviewer Card, an ID card for Yelp reviewers that’s supposed to get them preferential service (it won’t)
The first rule of restaurant reviewing is that you never tell your server that you’re reviewing their restaurant. But Brad Newman, the serial entrepreneur behind ReviewerCard, is looking to change all that. Send him $100 (and proof of your Yelp/Zagat/TripAdvisor bona fides) and Newman will mail you a shiny black card to flash at maitre d’s in an attempt to get preferential treatment. A faux-testimonial from ReviewerCard’s promotional video above explains the concept well: “The host came over and comped my entire meal and dessert, because he knew the power I had. Five stars. I love this place.” While most of the foodie Internet is tearing Newman to shreds for the unabashed moral corruption at the heart of the whole concept, we’d like to point out another problem with this scheme: it probably won’t work. Because nothing evokes an eye roll from a server quite like a self-proclaimed Yelper in their midst. [LA Times]
Sounds like a scam with a nice video if you ask me
Doesn’t ‘preferential treatment’ defeat the purpose of objective reviewing? The review would be completely biased, based on an experience the average customer would never have. It might even set up false expectations for the reader that would only lead to disappointment when they actually went to that restaurant…! Sounds like a scam to get Yelpers to cough up $100 to feel like they’re playing with the big boys.
I’ll tell you what. Send me just $25 and I’ll send you a card you can flash waiters that says simply “I’m a giant douche”. You’ll get better service than anyone flashing the ReviewerCard.
I think the amount of negative press this card is getting is great. Feel free to join my facebook group “Reviewer Cards Are For Horrible People” http://www.facebook.com/groups/151884388298178/