honest reviews of terrible vendors should not be removed simply on their word, WeddingWire!!

@Michelle, good point!

@Sara, sorry you had a bad experience :-( But would you please make sure you keep us updated? I'm really curious to see what's going to happen.

I just had the same thing happen to me, despite 5 great reviews of other vendors! I am furious as well, and it doesn't look like there is anything I can do about it except get on these forums and warn people.

Oh wow I am so sorry you are having such a rough time! Thanks for your post because now I know not to look at the stars. I will have to dig deeper to find reliable vendors. The more I read the more I am appalled at WW.

Turn him in to your local BBB. Maybe it will save someone else from the trouble you delt with.

I'm new to WW, and I've wondered why there were hardly any poor reviews. Since I'm still in the planning/researching stage, I wish WW would let you review vendors regardless if you've had your wedding or not. I wanted to be able to warn other Washington, DC brides of a couple vendors that I've contacted to try and set up a meeting who have been either rude, or non-responsive. I guess the best place is to put that in your "Planning Experience" section under your profile?

Woot, more DC brides!

Ultimately, WW is NOT a credible resource for vendor reviews. At all. EVER. Trusting WW for vendor reviews is like having a fraternity keep an eye on your liquor cabinet.

We found all of our vendors through word of mouth, cross-checking with Yelp, BBB, etc before signing on.

I have seen a number of bad reviews posted on some of my competition's pages. Maybe some fall through the crack, but I believe most are left up there unless there is a dispute, even if the review is from a bride. Sometimes brides will leave negative reviews that are unfounded, and it's not fair to the vendor to leave those up there. WW looks into this, and they make sure the review is legit. Now, I'm not sure what happened in this case, but hopefully it will get put back up since it sounds legit. I only disputed one review, and I knew who had written it. It was from another photographer that was mad at me b/c I didn't agree with all the bad stuff he said about a photographer friend of mine. The review was temporarily taken down, it was found to be fraudulent, then removed. All of my reviews are legit, and if you only see 1 star next to the reviewers name, that's because we ask our clients to review us here, even if they've never used WW. So, they come on specifically for our sake.

That is disturbing news. I swear WW you are really starting to let me down.

Sara, I'm sorry this happened to you. Sounds like a bad experience. I hope things get cleared up quickly.

As Leslie said, please do not disregard reviews just because the bride only has one star. Most of my brides have not been users of WW, and only created an account to review me...for which I am extremely thankful. Trust me, WW can tell if a vendor is trying to create a review of their own services.

Great news, everyone! My review will be going back up!!

I know that my brides who come to see my reviews here trust them, and they should; I invite EVERY bride I've married to review me, and about 30% of them do.

There are plenty of bad reviews here (fortunately, not for me) and I know that it is not easy to dispute them as a vendor. And as EminDee stated, most of my brides also have one star because they come here only to review me.

Hi Sara A!

Again, thank you so much for your cooperation during this time. Review dispute investigations can take several weeks to complete, as each dispute is different. I know it can be frustrtating, but we appreciate your patience!

I'm glad everything was resolved fairly and that your honest review will be returned to the vendor's WeddingWire Storefront.

@ WW - really? it still says pending review????

No, it was returned to his storefront.

Or.. I thought so.

@Stacey V...no it wasn't, it still says the review is currently being verified.

Thank you for everyones concern!

I don't personally take care of these, but the review will be going back up as soon as the team concludes all necessary correspondence.

Sara A. was already informed, so just stay tuned!

Sorry you had to deal with this Sara A, I have read a lot of WW reviews and I have seen good and bad ones.

Did people forget about this? I didn't and I just check again to see if her review was back up...but I see it still says it's under review, even though Sara was informed that it would be going back up....doesn't that seem odd????

Thank you Sara for starting this discussion. I am a wedding planner who specializes in day of coordination and venue scouting. As part of my research I check reviews of all venues to learn what brides, guests and vendors have to say about a venue. You don't need my background in market research to realize the reviews on WW are too one-sided. To help select my venues I instead used other sites such as Yelp, tripadvisors, and found that those reviews in many cases were LOWER than the ones on WW. Sara I am glad you brought it up so we could all discuss it because it confirmed my suspicions.

I want to shed some light on something that was mentioned by a few brides...

When it comes to reviews, many of us (vendors) have clients that we did not find through WeddingWire. Thankfully, WeddingWire makes it very easy for us to ask our brides to submit a review through their webpage. This helps us establish our web presence, even if we were booked through local advertising, a local bride show, or even another web site.

Most of the brides who have reviewed me only logged in to WW because I asked them to do so. Some of them came from other web pages. Others were just planning things locally or they were a referral from another vendor or colleague. Please understand that "one review" doesn't mean that the quality of service we provided was any less stellar. It just means our customers found us elsewhere.

I have yet to book a single bride from WW. Yet I enjoy the forums and I enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations. It helps me become a better vendor for them!

C:>

Please see our response to Sara's review on our page. We wish Sara and Tony well.