Fined For Posting a Negative Review Online

reply to post by Mamatus


Did you have any evidence this is blackmail?

there are clear procedures you can follow if you're being blackmailed - starting with calling the police.

And TBH slandering people with legitimate complaints and trying to prevent them making those complaints public is censorship.

Look to your own comments for your assessment!

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


You bet I do. When a client has a coupon with weight limitations and they demand getting to use it anyway or they will slam us online it is blackmail, nothing less.

When we offer a coupon that is limited to weekdays and no holidays and they demand to get one anyway or they will trash us on Yelp it is blackmail, nothing less.

When a rep from Yelp tells me that when I advertise with them they will give me a personal account manager that I can physically call when "problem clients" arise and that they can remove "undeserved" reviews it is blackmail, nothing less.

Mamatus
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

 

You bet I do. When a client has a coupon with weight limitations and they demand getting to use it anyway or they will slam us online it is blackmail, nothing less.

When we offer a coupon that is limited to weekdays and no holidays and they demand to get one anyway or they will trash us on Yelp it is blackmail, nothing less.

When a rep from Yelp tells me that when I advertise with them they will give me a personal account manager that I can physically call when "problem clients" arise and that they can remove "undeserved" reviews it is blackmail, nothing less.

I agree with parts 1 & 2.

Part 3 however, is congress. Just replace "personal account manager" with "lobbyists".

reply to post by schadenfreude


I find it UNREAL that a website/company can put a "ding" on your credit because you gave them a negative review! This couple claim they cannot get a loan because this website/company reported them to the credit bureaus for not paying the $3500 "fine" for leaving the negative post on ripoffreport.com! How is that even legal?

reply to post by schadenfreude

KUTV is our local news at the moment and I just got to looking into this today as it infuriated me. Apparently this same company also charges a $50 "fee" if you complain or dispute charges when you don't receive your order, threatens another $500 if not paid within 30 days, AND will report to the credit agencies. I hope they are forced out of business and made to pay restitution to those they've harmed. These practices are not your normal dissatisfied consumer type complaints.

Disclaimer: I am only relaying information I found on various websites today, I have not personally had experience with this company (luckily)

reply to post by lovebeck


Well if the full story is what this says it's not legal.

If it's something where the report was untrue and say the company has proof of the receipt of the package and eventually went to court over a libel charge and the couple ignored the summons and they were awarded a judgment of 3500 that is now being reported then and only then could something like this legally show up on a cbr.

That could also easily be thrown out if there was never a summons to go to court.

If none of the above happened and the company just made up a charge for 3500 then this couple should call the police and immediately write letters to the CBR.

jedi_hamster
like this one?
tnij.org...

Is that an example of a "Reputation Management Specialist?" Yes. Well... yes, and no.

Is that the kind of thing I was suggesting / recommending? Of course not.


Like any other business or industry, rep management has good businesses, and very shady operators. Do note that i said some are better than others, in my initial post. Rep management firms run all the way from small one-man operations, to bigger companies with offices, actual staff, their own website, etc. And they go all the way from 100% legal and by-the-book to agents that will bend or break the law for the sake of their client's rep.

And that one goes both ways. Some will only "bend or break the law" in their client's favor. Some, however (I like to think very few) are more like extortion operations. I've heard of this a few times. Sometimes the rogue agent will go, themselves to a site like google+ and leave a number of bad reviews, so they can then go to the business owner, and say "oh, look how terrible you reviews are. This could get much worse, or it could go away, depending on how much you want to pay me..."


(Showing a customer their bad reviews online is a common part of an SEO / rep-management sales pitch This does not necessarily mean the agent themselves left the review.)


Anyway, some very big companies do use this type of service. And it generally does not come cheap. Depending on the size of your business, and how bad your rep is, you're looking at a couple grand at least, with most agents / agencies. (I have heard of rates far more than this.)


But theoretically it could be worth it. Word of mouth and online reviews really can help or hurt a business. And having a few really bad reports pushed off the front page of google could, in some cases, be worth the fee, alone.




PS-- From the comments section from the ripoffreport link:

Dear Fox News -

You ruined my life and stole my fiancees.

It seems like only yesterday when we watched the evening news, and saw you promote the 'Internet Bounty Hunter' or Rexxfield.

Being that it was Fox News, promoting this person named Michael Roberts, we felt safe in paying his $10,000 retained fee with the promise of deleting a negative review about my fiancees new business.

So you decided to trust that company... "being that it was Fox News, promoting this person....?"

Yeah, I'd say trusting Fox News was pretty much mistake number one.

Mamatus
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

 

You bet I do. When a client has a coupon with weight limitations and they demand getting to use it anyway or they will slam us online it is blackmail, nothing less.

and you can respond appropriately.

When we offer a coupon that is limited to weekdays and no holidays and they demand to get one anyway or they will trash us on Yelp it is blackmail, nothing less.

ditto

When a rep from Yelp tells me that when I advertise with them they will give me a personal account manager that I can physically call when "problem clients" arise and that they can remove "undeserved" reviews it is blackmail, nothing less.

no - that is actually customer service - something you apparently don't understand!!

Preventing people from making complaints is censorship and NOT customer service.

From the sound of it whatever business you provide suffers from all this - and I think I see why!!

silo13
Be aware there are a LOT of scamsters sending ‘You’ve been Fined’ emails and info out on the net.

The other day I had a pop up which looked quite legal I might add that informed me I had been ‘pirating’ (couldn’t if I wanted to) and I must pay a $100 fine.

I’m not saying what you’re claiming in the article isn’t true - but it might not be real - if that makes sense.

Who was it that said there’s a ‘sucker born ever minute and another to take his money’.

peace

PT Barnum

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


You make a lot of assumptions.... Poor ones at best. It matters not one bit that we bend over backwards providing our service to some people. My point was simply that even when we bend over backwards for people if they do not get what they want some will make threats, leave bad reviews etc etc.

Look at it this way (brace yourself logic coming).

You go to Disneyland and you take your kids. Your kid wants to ride on a roller coaster but there is a sign that says "You must be this tall to ride". Sadly your kid is just too short to be able to ride and he is pretty disappointed. So the question for you is; How would you handle it as a parent?

Would you:
1. Tell Disneyland that your kid is getting on that roller coaster (regardless of it being unsafe) or you are going to give them bad reviews.
2. Tell your kid that you will bring him back when he is taller.
Pure logic.

I own a business that can kill people. Should I allow people to ride despite exceeding weight limits? Heck no. We do however offer people their money back on the coupon. Some will still make threats.

In all honesty it is our own fault though. We did business with Groupon........ The source of some of the worst people we have ever had to deal with........

reply to post by schadenfreude


Lol lol I was just kidding, sorry to disappoint you but there is no ark
I'm just a little bit crazy.

Edit - we could take it too the short stories if you want though lol

reply to post by GreyGoo


im so dissapointed.

was looking forward to the mothership!

lol

btw these emoticons STILL suck.

Personally, I would be using that 3500 dollars these people are trying to scam me out of to post the email demanding the money all over the Internet. I would be taking out newspaper ads all over the country and contacting the press.

If it's ruining my life, by God I'm ruining their business.

reply to post by Mamatus


I do believe there is a limit to what people can do (if you want to get an attnorney). Libel due to a temper tantrum meant to cause harm in spite of a valid complaint is one reason.

I understand where your coming from since I've seen it happen to businesses - people get angry due to an imperfection in the company (human error - did not ship right product for example), or as in your situation - they don't want to take responsibility for their own lack of dilligence.

This public GPA for businesses in the form of stars is harmful because of people who blame everyone else (those who have knee jerk reactions). There's a positive but...people should have to be accurate and truthful (some responsibility should come with posting a comment - terms and cond. - short and sweet so people will read).


Rest assured - there are people who think for themselves and will read the comments and think for themselves (weigh it). In the meantime - these rating agencies should he the ones paying the fines when damage is done from non-legit complaints. Then they can go after the perp - they have the income and owning a business should not mean you should be open to destruction if you can't please every soul. Stars can work for or against a business so can also be exploited - business feel pressured to take losses and not pass on any responsibility to the consumer all for the sake of wrath and the power of these stars. Or it can warn others of a bad company or product.

I'm not speaking of the store herein by the way. This story sounds like a legit complaint. But...take away the stars since even the better business bureau has to investigate. This is the public version of this so they should bare some of the responsibility. Comments are fine, stars that weigh these as equal is not.

As a side note - there are companies you can pay to remove these negative comments. For example - a negative comment on google, a google rep will charge about 500 to remove. They know the law and they know the technology. It's quite the racket. Instead wouldn't it be better to pass laws on what these companies can and cannot do with negative comments?

reply to post by jssaylor2007


I agree, now that is soo many online protection agencies making money handling the bad comments about companies businesses on line they are hiding behind bogus "clauses" to get away with intimidation.

reply to post by schadenfreude


Anybody that tries to "fine" me for posting a comment about something that I have prof to be true, I will tell them to take their fine and shove it where the sun doesn't shine, then I challenge them to take me to court.

Perhaps a law sue will even be part of the deal. How about that.

reply to post by schadenfreude


Which is why we have the Better Business Bureau.

Angie's List is also a website based on consumer reviews.

When a website does that and then tries to sue, then they are not really a business company, they are a scam. Even on Ebay, people scam all the time. But Ebay isn't doing the scam, just the people. And Ebay allows people to complain about scammed. Kleargear, obviously a scam. And they probably sold the account information to some "Nigerean your next-of-kin" mailing list. They buy and sell those accounts every day.

In one week, I got emals from the FBI, a "US Army soldier", the Czech Republic government, banks I have never heard of or been to, President Obama. That's what those scam sites are for, creating accounts and then selling the account information.

she should have said, 'Send this to me in writing' since they have her physical address. She gave it to them. But of course, it's a scare tactic. I would have copy pasted the email and included it in the review, then really laugh at the 20 emails that follow.

Anyone whos gonna fine/sue you is gonna do more than send an email

as long as you have proof you actually dealt with the company and your review isnt a lie its fine

i get all sorts of these emails and fake cease and desist letters from people who don't exist whenever my website gets a lot of traffic. these people are everywhere. trolls.

reply to post by WarminIndy


BBB is a joke, good for nothing. they have no teeth.

a reply to: schadenfreude

BBB is a scam in itself.

The BBB is basically the modern version of buying "Mafia Protection".

The BBB is nothing but modern day mafia extortionist. They are con-artists and scammers. In fact, even on their own web site they post that if you are in litigation with a company who is a member of the BBB you CAN NOT post a complaint about them with the BBB. This is simply because companies who are BBB members are the BBB's assets and the one thing multimillion dollar companies do best is protect their assets. Therefore, in retrospect, the BBB is in business to protect top paying companies, not consumers.

After researching the BBB, my conclusion is that with them it is all about you or any business owner coming up with $425 to get an A+ rating. End of story! I do not desire to be part of their game . .