Companies using bullying tactics over reviews

Kittenonthekeys

I hope I've posted this on the right board.
As MSE has a dedicated board that supports and champions the challenging of private parking 'bully boys' - and indeed I have been lucky enough to benefit from their advice in the past - I was wondering if there was also a way of fighting back, eg home improvement companies who, having dished out dreadful customer service, then attempt to silence their aggrieved customers who leave negative reviews by threatening legal action for defamation unless the review is removed?
This time it is not me personally, but someone I know of (in their 80s) on the receiving end of such a threat. After just a week, their review mysteriously vanished from the site. This company has been in business for over 20 years, yet curiously only has 3 reviews - all positive. It would seem their idea of resolving problems is to issue threats and get any negative reviews immediately removed.
This person's review had simply been a factual account of their experience and how that company had treated them. The whole experience has left them traumatised and fearful.
Quite frankly I find it shocking that any company in the UK (whose filed accounts incidentally, show negative assets) is able to act as judge and jury, getting away with censoring genuine, factual reviews and intimidating customers by way of threats and bully boy tactics instead of simply responding politely, apologising and attempting to resolve valid grievances. What's the point of reviews if they can be censored by the very company being reviewed, and all we ever see are the positive ones?
I am aware that fake reviews are posted, but it is possible to check which are genuine, as I believe some sites do.
*Is* there .any way of ensuring that a genuine review like this remains and is it worth fighting back against this bullying, or is it best to simply back down and roll over - which means the rogue trader's shenanigans never become public knowledge?

takman

If the review is accurate and truthful then there is no legal action that can be taken against the person who left the review. So any letters about court action can be ignored and if the company becomes "threatening" then you can call the police.

But the main problem will be if you leave a review on a website that removes them if the company claims it's false. There is nothing you can do to stop this and it's up to the site where the review is hosted on whether or not they remove it.

meer53

Rogue traders tend to get their comeuppance eventually, Reviews or not. How would you fight it ? It's not worth expending any more effort on a company which threatens legal action for a review is it ? For me, a company trading for over 20 years but with only 3 reviews would ring alarm bells.

Kittenonthekeys

takman wrote: »

If the review is accurate and truthful then there is no legal action that can be taken against the person who left the review. So any letters about court action can be ignored and if the company becomes "threatening" then you can call the police.

But the main problem will be if you leave a review on a website that removes them if the company claims it's false. There is nothing you can do to stop this and it's up to the site where the review is hosted on whether or not they remove it.

Thank you takman, that's interesting.
AFAIK, Trustpilot, for one, resists removing negative reviews merely on the say-so of the company involved, but would normally ask for proof that the reviewer had actually been involved in a transaction with them, which imo is fair enough. If so, then (anecdotally) Trustpilot will leave the review in place.

Kittenonthekeys

meer53 wrote: »

Rogue traders tend to get their comeuppance eventually, Reviews or not. How would you fight it ? It's not worth expending any more effort on a company which threatens legal action for a review is it ? For me, a company trading for over 20 years but with only 3 reviews would ring alarm bells.

Indeed, but the problem is that it didn't ring alarm bells with this particular customer,, which it almost certainly would have done, had the (doubtless) other negative reviews still been on there for them to see and make a proper informed decision as to whether they wished to deal with this company. The senior generation on the whole, rightly or wrongly, does tend to be more trusting and charitable.

hollydays

I think it's hard to comment on removal of reviews without seeing the review.
It's usually inadvisable to use words like fraud, scam, liar , cheat, stick to a very factual and disspassionate account if you want it to stay

forgotmyname

Just keep creating accounts and leave negative reviews on every review site.

hollydays

There's a website called ripoffreport - post a review on there it cannot be removed
Edit- this site can't be accessed from uk

pmduk

It's one of the reasons I pay so little attention to review sites.

Kittenonthekeys

hollydays wrote: »

I think it's hard to comment on removal of reviews without seeing the review.
It's usually inadvisable to use words like fraud, scam, liar , cheat, stick to a very factual and disspassionate account if you want it to stay

I did see the review before it got removed. It contained nothing like that but the reviewer decided to remove it as they felt intimidated.

Kittenonthekeys

hollydays wrote: »

There's a website called ripoffreport - post a review on there it cannot be removed

Thank you.
The problem was/is that it wasn't removed by the site (Google) as it hadn't broken any rules, but by the reviewer themselves, as the company had threatened them.