SUNDAY, APRIL 3 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE G3
BY TATUM HUNTERNew York City bar owner Mi-
chael Reynolds never wanted his
business listed on Yelp. Within
weeks of opening, the online
review site gave the bar a profile
anyway, and the reviews came
soon after: “Rude bartenders.
Mediocre cocktails.”
Reynolds ordered about 100
T-shirts with the review embla-
zoned across the back and hand-
ed them out to regulars in hopes
they’d get a laugh.
Since then, the reviews have
kept flowing, says Reynolds, who
asked to withhold the name of
his bar because of fear of retribu-
tion from Yelp or its users. Few
are helpful, he noted, with nega-
tive reviewers reveling in slam-
dunk meanness and friendly re-
viewers forgetting they’re not
professional food critics.
“We’d like a Yelp page where
business owners can review the
customers,” says the 39-year-old,
who has run the bar since 2015.
Customer feedback for busi-
nesses has moved online, where
you can insult someone’s cock-
tails without looking them in the
eye. The steady drum of often -
anonymous complaints from
sites like Yelp and Google adds
stress during an already difficult
time, as the pandemic drags on
and many people spend less
time in bricks-and-mortar busi-
nesses.
Then there are the actual re-
views, which often reveal more
about authors than the establish-
ments they’re critiquing, busi-
ness owners say. Yelp says 51 per-
cent of reviews on its platform
award the business five out of
five stars, but some business
owners say the effect of occasion-
al cruel reviews outweighs the
benefit of good ones. Reviewers
pick on individual employees,
insulting their appearances or
demanding they be fired. Bad
reviews are stuffed with every-
thing from foul language to seri-
ous accusations of wrongdoing,
Reynolds says.
Is the Internet entirely to
blame?
Jacob Treviño, a restaurateur
in Cincinnati, says no — he’s been
on the receiving end of in-person
tirades about tacos, among other
things. He tries to see every
review as an opportunity to bet-
ter serve guests, but it can be
tough to decide where to focus
his energy.
“I think the hardest thing
about our society right now, in
particular with the Internet, is:
How do you deal with constant
feedback?” Treviño said.
A Yelp spokeswoman said cus-
tomers have the right to review
businesses even if the owners
would rather not be listed. She
said the company encourages
reviewers to register using their
real names and that Yelp’s auto-
mated system tries to identify
rants or irrelevant details and
put those reviews in the “not
currently recommended” section
linked at the bottom of a busi-
ness’s page. Google did not im-
mediately respond to a request
for comment.
So how do you leave online
reviews that actually help cus-
tomers and businesses? Help
Desk has compiled expert advice
from business owners and re-
viewers so you can write con-
structive reviews that stand out
from the mean-spirited peanut
gallery.- Don’t be fooled by
anonymity
Don’t let any supposed ano-
nymity on review sites encourage
you to say things you wouldn’t
say if your own name was at-
tached.
On Yelp and Tripadvisor, other
people can visit your profile and
see every review you’ve left. If
you wouldn’t want a first date to
read it, don’t write it on the
Internet.- Avoid personal attacks
That slow, forgetful server
who made your blood boil could
have just had the worst day of his
or her life. Leave room for peo-
ple’s humanity when you’re re-
viewing their behavior on the
job.
If you need to mention poor
service, stick to the facts. An
employee’s appearance is almost
never relevant, says Becky Foley,
head of trust and safety at Trip -
advisor, a travel-planning site
that includes reviews. Think
hard before using first names
(did this employee cause you
harm, or just annoy you?) and
leave last names out.
“Depending on the entire con-
text, if there is no description
that ties that into your actual
experience at the property and
you’re simply saying something
to insult someone, that’s not
something we’re going to post,”
Foley said.- Keep the details firsthand
If your cousin’s roommate’s
girlfriend’s mom heard some-
thing bad about an establish-
ment, it doesn’t bear repeating,
Foley said. Focus your review on
things you experienced yourself. - No reviewing under the
influence
Friends don’t let friends write
drunk reviews.
“Any reviews left after 2 a.m.
and before 6 a.m. should be
discounted,” Treviño said.
Similarly, give yourself some
time after a bad experience to
cool off before you write. Tripad-
visor lets authors delete their
comments if they experience
r eview regret, and Foley said its
automated system can flag policy
violations such as personal at-
tacks before the review goes up.
The offending reviewer gets an
email explaining how they need
to edit the review if they’d like it
to appear on the site, so they can
rewrite once cooler heads pre-
vail.- Check your expectations
Paying customers have a right
to critique their experiences, Fol-
ey said, as established by the
Consumer Review Fairness Act
in 2016, which both Tripadvisor
and Yelp supported.
But if you’re mad because a
steakhouse didn’t serve falafel,
that’s on you. Before you start
typing, make sure you consider
whether the business delivered
what it advertised, Treviño said.
Bars are often loud. The depart-
ment of motor vehicles has long
lines. Not every experience will
conform perfectly to your tastes.
A sense of humor can help,
too, says Maddi Filliater, an ac-
countant in Cleveland who
turned to Twitter during her
college days to let companies
know when things went side-
ways. Filliater says she tries to
keep her feedback lighthearted
so companies know the jabs are
all in good fun.
“All my hung over a-- wanted
was some @shakeshack cheese
fries but they forgot the cheese,”
she tweeted at the hamburger
joint last month. The company
responded soon after and ended
up offering her a complimentary
meal, she said.- Consider your audience
Running a business can be
hard, and some establishments
have more resources than others
to deal with customer com-
plaints.
Back in college, Filliater said,
she tweeted at a local sandwich
shop about some alleged brown
lettuce, and the business re-
sponded angrily: Why didn’t she
bring up the problem in person
instead of attacking them on the
Internet? Her friends refer to the
incident as “LettuceGate.”
“Ever since then, I’ve steered
away from smaller businesses,”
she said. - Longer is better... to a
point
The most frustrating reviews
are three stars with no comment;
nothing for the business owner
to go on to make the experience
better in the future, Treviño said.
If you’re leaving a negative re-
view, make sure to write enough
to let the company know what
went wrong. Tripadvisor, for ex-
ample, has a minimum word
count (to avoid the likes of “rude
bartenders, mediocre cocktails”).
But tread carefully. Nobody
wants to read a manifesto —
especially from someone who
overestimates their own exper-
tise.
“The long ones are sometimes
the most daunting things to ever
read,” Reynolds said. - Note what was good
A balanced review is a helpful
review. Before you launch into
what went wrong, note what you
liked about your experience, says
Foley. That helps the business
owner know the feedback is in
good faith. - Share feedback in person
Most importantly, practice
mentioning problems as they
arise, Treviño recommended.
Any business owner worth their
salt wants to fix things in the
moment rather than hearing
about it after the fact, he said. If
you’re not cursing or shouting,
odds are managers and employ-
ees will hear you out.
It may feel awkward to voice a
complaint face to face. But it’s
better than spewing meanness
from behind the safety of a
screen, business owners say.
HELP DESKHow to leave a bad online review without being a jerk
Proper etiquette for providing constructive criticism — not just mean comments
MADISON KETCHAM FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTHaving employees transcribe
returns is an incredible misuse
of their time. They could instead
be put on the phone lines to
help weary taxpayers.
Olson said that with 2D bar-
coding, upon receiving a paper
return, the agency could convert
the information into digital
form and allow the return to be
treated the same as an
electronically filed return.
I can sympathize with the
IRS’s employees. They have
faced a monumental task over
the past two years because of
the pandemic, including issuing
millions of stimulus payments.
But come on. Where’s the
visionary leadership to push for
the scanning technology that
could have mitigated the
situation the agency finds itself
in n ow?
“There are lots of problems
that the IRS has that are not
easily solvable,” Olson said. “But
really, this is so solvable, and it
was solvable back in 2004.”
Collins says in her post that
it’s been 20 years since more
than one-third of states adopted
2D bar-coding, 18 years since
Olson recommended it for 1040
forms and eight years since the
Treasury Department requested
that Congress provide the IRS
with the authority to mandate
2D bar-coding.
“The pandemic didn’t stop
people from thinking
intelligently and prospectively,”
Olson said
I agree with Collins and
Olson. The time is now, before
the 2023 tax season starts, for
the IRS to show some common
sense and get this done.of the Center for Taxpayer
Rights, has a blog series — “How
Did We Get Here?” — in which
she writes about failures at the
IRS, including the missed
opportunity of scanning
technology.
There are two types of
scanning technology the agency
could use — 2D bar-coding like
you see on products you buy at
the supermarket, and optical
character recognition (OCR).
There are, of course, kinks that
would need to be worked out.
With OCR, certain digits can be
scanned incorrectly. A “1” might
be mistaken for a “7.” But a lot of
mistakes also happen when
humans are typing in the data.
Last year, IRS employees
made transcription errors on
about 22 percent of paper
returns, Collins said.wider scale?
The agency said that i t didn’t
want to confuse taxpayers and
divert them from e-filing, Olson
said.
“That thudding sound is my
head hitting the desk, both back
then and now,” Olson said in an
interview.
Olson, now executive directorOlson said she had
conversations with IRS
leadership about using 2D bar
code scanning back in 2004,
when she was national taxpayer
advocate. At the time, the
agency did have this technology
and was using it to scan some
IRS forms.
So why not introduce it on aher annual report to Congress in
January.
It doesn’t have to be that way,
say Collins and her predecessor,
Nina E. Olson. They point out
that over the past two decades,
many state tax agencies have
begun using scanning
technology to automate the
processing of paper tax returns.
But the IRS, like a squirrel
trying to cross a busy street, has
been indecisive about
introducing technology that
could free up personnel for
other things, such as correcting
returns that have mistakes,
corresponding with taxpayers or
answering the phones.
“The IRS has considered,
rejected, proposed,
reconsidered, partially
implemented, and deferred the
question of whether to
implement scanning
technology,” Collins wrote.
When criticized for the
backlog, IRS officials have
responded with legitimate
grievances.
Yes, the agency has been
hobbled by pandemic-related
shutdowns. Yes, Republicans in
Congress have repeatedly
blocked necessary funding to
expand the agency’s workforce
and update its old technology —
using the IRS like a soccer ball
being kicked around to make a
political point.
But the scanning technology
could have — and should have
— been put into place to
mitigate the current backlog
crisis.
Collins has issued a directive
asking the agency to work with
tax companies to implement
scanning technology.
“The IRS has been reviewing
bar coding and other viable
options with our tax industry
partners, who are critical to our
tax return processing efforts,”
the agency said in a statement.
This is not the first time the
IRS has been scolded for failing
to think progressively.Here, at last, is
the real reason
your tax return is
delayed: It’s not
the pandemic. It’s
that the IRS
handles too much
paper and has
failed to adopt
scanning
technology that
could have
significantly reduced the
current backlog of returns.
The way the agency processes
paper is “archaic” and was a
problem that was fixable long
before the coronavirus shut
things down, National Taxpayer
Advocate Erin M. Collins wrote
in her latest blog post about the
2022 tax season.
Last year, the IRS received
nearly 17 million paper 1040
forms, more than 4 million
individual amended returns and
millions of paper business
returns, according to Collins.
I’m still trying to wrap my
head around it: Employees
transcribe all of those millions
of paper tax returns manually.
This means keystroking each
digit and each letter on the
return. For moderately complex
or longer returns with forms
and schedules, the number of
digits can exceed 1,000.
“In the year 2022, this doesn’t
just seem crazy. It is crazy,”
Collins wrote.
As of March 18, the paper
return backlog — original
individual and business returns
as well as amended returns
(1040-X forms) — was nearly
15 million.
And since most taxpayers get
money back, the processing
delays have resulted in delayed
refunds. Since the start of the
pandemic, some taxpayers
expecting refunds have
experienced delays topping 10
months.
“Paper is the IRS’s Kryptonite,
and the IRS is buried in it,”
Collins said when she released
The real reason the IRS is behind in processing tax returns
Michelle
Singletary
THE COLOR
OF MONEY
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST
IRS employees still manually transcribe the m illions of paper returns the agency gets e ach year. “In the
year 2022, this doesn’t just seem crazy. It is crazy,” says National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins.If you have a personal finance
question for Michelle, please call 1-
855-ASK-POST (1-855-275-7678). Her
award-winning column The Color of
Money is syndicated by The
Washington Post News Service and
Syndicate and carried in dozens of
newspapers.“There are lots of problems that the IRS has
that are not easily solvable. But really,
this is so solvable, and it was solvable
back in 2004.”
Nina E. Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights
and former U.S. national taxpayer advocate, on the IRS’s long
reluctance to adopt scanning technology