Blackmailed by a company I hired. What would you do here?

hollydays

m0bov wrote: »

Change review to 1 star and up date it with the threats and stalking. He will soon get the message.

I've never posted a review l could update

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

I do video commercially, but would never do a wedding as it is too much hassle. But that aside, I always have my rough cuts out within a week, and final edits within a month. Eight months is too protracted to even consider.


Unfortunately these days, google and facebuck are awash with so called professionals, who can add the word photographer or videographer to their name and hey presto, you become Cecil B. DeMille!


I would suggest using www.swpp.co.uk, Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers for assistance!

duchy

He is clearly stupid to put his threats/plans for harassment in writing .
My next step would be a stiff solicitors letter telling him one o pull his neck in and two advising you require full refund prior to court action. (You can put that stephrough yourself if he doesn't refund via the small claims court)
Check to see if your home insurance or bank account package has legal cover to cover the solicitor too.

wesleyad

hollydays wrote: »

I've never posted a review l could update

Depends on the service (you can for amazon and trustpilot for example). For google you can update from the my contributions option in maps. I'd also edit to a one star and add the poor behavior. Just for his reaction more than anything else ;p

CorrineCoo

You may not want to go the legal route but you could always threaten to, including the police. According to you he has recorded his baseless threats via email. Well done him. You have evidence. Once you have warned your employer, there's nowt much else to do but see what he does and counteract. If it's bad enough visit the police station, (if you can find one of course).

hollydays

I have to disagree here , I wouldn't report to the police at this point in time

pawntoc5

Update: he went through with his threat and posted a 1-star review on my employer's Google listing, putting my full name in capital letters in the review and calling me a large number of things that are ridiculous and untrue (eg. "manipulative" - ironic considering he's the one who's publicly denying the authenticity of my review and then threatening me in private.)

This man is plain psychotic.

The review he left on my employer's listing is still up there even though he claims he's taken it down but I suspect he's lying about that. Reason: he claims that he can't see the review anymore on his phone nor laptop, and then suggests that maybe the Google bot hasn't updated and sometimes it takes a while to reflect the change so I should wait a while. Which of course makes no sense, because if Google bot hasn't updated as he said, then why would he be able to "not see" the review when I can see it (even when searching on new devices so cache isn't a factor)?

I am now seriously considering the legal route and filing a harassment injunction.

Or, echoing the previous poster, perhaps NOW is the time to call the police?

m0bov

Your employer should be able to delete the review.

unholyangel

Forget harassment - you can't claim harassment if you're responding to them and the police are likely to see it as a civil dispute given there was a contract in place.

IMO you should be reporting him to trading standards (usually done via citizens advice as most TS won't take complaints direct from the public) & the ICO. The former for aggressive trading practices & the latter for misusing your personal data.

Browntoa

Misuse of personal information and data

Report here

https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/make-a-complaint