Leading chefs in Majorca have reacted with astonishment to the decision of a Palma judge that a chef should pay 6,000 euros compensation because of a response made to a customer on TripAdvisor.
Macarena de Castro of the Restaurant Jardín in Puerto Alcudia, one of the nine Michelin-starred restaurants in Majorca, has been ordered to pay this amount by Judge Orestes Muñoz because of the way in which she replied to criticism. Her fellow chefs consider the penalty to be disproportionate and excessive. Among the reactions is that of Miquel Calent: "TripAdvisor merits no respect. The customer is always right and the website doesn't ask for evidence from those who complain."
Marc Fosh, a contributor to the Bulletin, says: "It's strange that everyone is free to have an opinion but not Maca. What happened was something out of the ordinary, so Maca was right to reply. It's very unfortunate that people can behave this way."
Alfonso Robledo, the president of the Majorca restaurants' association, believes that a 6,000 euro fine is outrageous. "I can't make head nor tail of it."
In 2015, a response by Castro went viral on social networks. Criticism from a customer, which said, among other things, that the restaurant was a rip-off, was met with a response which referred - again among other things - to customers who preferred to drink rather than eat and to the embarrassment caused when the woman fell asleep on the sofa by the restaurant's entrance.
The judge's ruling said that Castro had violated the complainant's rights to honour and privacy and that her intention had been to degrade the complainant and to place her in a situation of being discredited in the views of other TripAdvisor users.
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I think I know which restaurant you mean Frank Jones. Although being Santa Ponsa, they are pretty rough anyway. The problem is of course with TripAdvisor is that owners can write a hundred reviews on their business saying it is fantastic, whatever the truth actually is. On the other hand, a rival business could also do the same with negative reviews on another's bar / restaurant. Don't believe the truth!!!
There is a certain ''restaurant'' in Santa Ponsa,used mostly by tourists that for some reason has good revue ratings on Tripadvisor yet the two meals I had there were truly awful,two because I thought the first could have been due to a bad day,but no,the second was just as bad and the owner of this establishment always comes back with sarcastic,smarmy comments to any bad revue,personally,I think cooking burgers are way above his capability. Funny how all the Majorcans who live in Santa Ponsa give his place a wide berth.
I think this is a little bit harsh but possibly a useful lesson for restaurants, and whilst I partly agree with Marc Fosh that Restaurants shouldn't just be 'sitting ducks' and having to accept all the criticism that comes their way without reply, TripAdvisor's usefulness is based on trends. If 100 people review a place and 90 of them think it is great, most people won't worry too much about the other 10. Ergo the restauranteur should feel confident his/her professionalism in replying will be noted by the readers. I have seen defensive replies on TA by restaurant owners which are absolutely unfair and occasionally totally inappropriate. Quite often they also seemingly only reply to the criticism and thus appear to be taking the good feedback for granted.
Well, she should have been sacked and the fine reversed. It's a free world dammit !
The initial complaint was made by highish ranking Sa Nostra bank executive, who, after her bosses heard about her behaviour, was apparently demoted to cashier.
And who is to say the initial complaint wasn't made by a rival (jealous) restaurant?