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A Kelowna business owner who says he received online backlash for no apparent reason is getting help from people in the local and online communities.
Brandon Kambeitz, started the business Mr. Lock about two years ago.
He opens homes and businesses in cases of lost keys, unlocks vehicles and re-keys houses and businesses if necessary.
On Sunday afternoon, Kambeitz, who works from home, checked his phone and saw exactly 100 notifications for 1-star reviews.
According to Kambeitz, a saboteur can buy fake reviews to hurt certain businesses.
"I knew that it was fake because it all happened at the same time,” Kambeitz explained to KelownaNow. “I'm just starting this business and kind of struggling through the first few years of running it and with the bad reviews, I got pretty nervous about how to handle it.
“I was offended because I know that somebody has gone out to do this against me.”
Immediately, Kambeitz told some of his friends what had happened and posted a Facebook update, telling people to ignore the fake reviews.
“I didn't ask anybody to try and counteract it, but immediately, all my friends and family and customers started sending in reviews,” he said.
Kambeitz also made a post on the Entrepreneur subReddit to ask other business owners if it's possible to find out where the reviews came from. There he received even more unexpected support.
“That just blew up and everybody started giving me reviews and reporting these false accounts.”
At posting time Monday morning, there were already 106 5-star reviews on the Mr. Lock Facebook.
"They're all business owners, they know how bad this can hurt, so they're just jumping to help. It's just great,” he said.
According to Kambeitz, about 90 per cent of his business comes in through word of mouth. Because of this, the reviews are pretty impactful.
“If someone was browsing through and they saw that I had a one-star average, it would probably turn someone away,” he said. “It definitely helps to have people talking to me in a good light instead.”
While Kambeitz didn’t really focus on Facebook before, he has plenty of positive reviews on Google from happy customers.
"If there is people out there who absolutely need my services and they can't afford it, I'll go help them out and I say, 'just leave me a good review and I'm happy with that,’” he said.
Currently, Mr. Lock only has a five-star ratings on Google.
In person, he has never heard anything negative from customers, or even from other locksmiths that would be considered competition (although most he said he is friends with).
Because of this, the source of the reviews is quite the mystery and Mr. Lock is now in the process of rebranding.
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