Defending my diagnosis against a patient who was never mine

This account was submitted by a healthcare provider and de-identified before publication. Details that could identify a patient or practice have been removed, and it is shared with the provider’s consent.

What was posted

Someone left a one star review complaining about the parking situation at the shopping plaza, the "weird energy" of the waiting room, and the fact that we no longer honored an expired promotion.

What actually happened

There was nothing in it about their actual eye exam, which we performed thoroughly and without incident. It is a strange thing to have my professional rating shaped by a parking lot that belongs to the property management company, not to me.

Impact

To make it worse, Yelp's filter quietly tucked several of my genuine positive reviews into the "not recommended" section while keeping this one front and center. Early on it genuinely stung to watch real patients' kind words get buried under a complaint about the pavement.

Steps taken

I tried to flag it as off topic, and Yelp's guidance essentially said that a customer's overall impression is fair game, even when it has nothing to do with the service provided. There was no mechanism to have it recategorized, so it simply sits there.

Reported impact on this provider

Reputation Damage

Three others reported Reputation Damage

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