Comments on: Lawsuit For Leaving A Negative Review Online?

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:03:32 +0000

I am having this experience right now. I believe I have been the victim of a sophisticated con job by two businesses working together. I did put a negative review online and the business owner replied with more fraudulent information. I removed my review from the site and I have reported the situation to the Attourney General of the State of California. If the criminals can respond to negative reviews with misinformation how does that help anyone?

By: Lucy

Lucy — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 04:29:29 +0000

I have recently been threatened by a company online for whom I left a negative review based on my experience with them. They accused me of slander, despite it being written, and entirely and completely true. They also have only positive reviews and an A+ BBB rating. I can hardly believe that I am the only one that they given poor service and refused to resolve the problem, so I find it hard to believe that these ratings legitimately. I think it is unfortunate, because they are one of those smaller businesses online that I am always a little concerned about dealing with anyway and now I feel like that concern has been validated. This is unfair to good businesses out there who are small and deserve a chance. I value reviews left by others who have used businesses and appreciate the benefit of their experience. I think that I can discern between reviewers that had reasonable expectations and those with unreasonable, but I value the input. If I were the business I would also value the feedback; it gives me one more opportunity to learn what consumers are looking for and where I might be falling short. It is far worse that the consumer simply walk away unhappy and not providing any feedback out of fear. I will be a lot more cautious about sellers with perfect reviews, and will likely avoid them. If I were a small business I think I would be the most outraged about these bullies. From what I can tell based off of complaints out there these review bullies seem to have the lifespan of the average county fair goldfish. Afterall, the fate of companies that fail to satisfy the customer predates the internet.

By: Sally

Sally — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:49:55 +0000

Recently I have found myself in a similar situation. We were dissatisfied with the condition of the unfinished, newly-built pavilion where our wedding reception was held, and I made a very honest, factual statement online regarding our experience. The owners threatened legal action against us if the post was not removed. They claim that posting the feedback was a breach of contract and illegal, and I KNOW that there was no breach of contract, which was supported by our attorney. However, to “prove” that we were correct still could have cost us thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees, so we had to remove the posting to avoid arbitration. It is an infringement on my freedom of speech that they forced the review to be removed. We are disgusted with the situation and at a loss for what else we can do to notify consumers to beware when entering business with these people. They did the same thing to all other negative reviews and had them removed… bullies!

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:02:15 +0000

Individuals should be held accountable for their words being truthful. Unless the person is running for political office you’re required by law to do so. In the case of the chiropractor the reviewer accused the chiropractor of seeming to commit insurance fraud within his practices. You’re welcome to offer your opinion of his service, whether you liked it or not, however an accusation of fraud is hardly commenting on the cleanliness of his waiting room. Additionally I believe its only fair that an individual would allow the business the opportunity to rectify whatever criticism has been rendered and if necessary to use that in writing any such reviews.

By: Paul Rouke

Paul Rouke — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:49:41 +0000

Hi there ‘Q’. Thanks for posting your response, and sorry to hear that you’ve ended up in the position you are in.

I’m surprised about how your bridal shop were informed on the negative review which you have left, by the site owner of the review site. Unless I’m mistaken I don’t think this is common-practice!

It’s a real shame when situations like this occur, and in particular when you are planning a wedding – certainly one less stress that you would like to deal with!

I hope you manage to sort out the situation, and please post back on this article when an outcome has been achieved.

By: Q

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:37:10 +0000

I agree with what Christopher did! So many people rely on reviews these days whether it’s buying a new car, going on vacation, going to a salon, etc. The experience of others definitely does play a fact in whether or not someone will get my business. Maybe if the business is getting bad reviews, they need to step it up a notch, or even write a comment on the website regarding any potential bad reviews.

I am currently in a situation where I wrote a negative review about a bridal shop in Caledonia, Ontario. The owner was contacted by one of the websites indicating she had a negative review written about them and had the option to dispute it. It was only after that phone call that she found out I had posted negative reviews on several websites about our negative experience. Since when does a website contact a store owner that they received a bad review???

All information written in the review were facts however now the store owner is holding one of our dresses ‘hostage’ until the reviews are removed as she feels it’s misrepresenting the situation and the statements are fasle. She will not release the dress until the reviews are removed, but even after them being removed (it was only done to get the dress), we are still waiting to hear back from her about when we can pick up the dress.

She also threatened me with having her lawyer send me a letter due to the review as she feels the statements made in my review were false…. which I totally disagree! All statements are 100% fact.

So we’ll see how this situation turns out, but considering there was already a negative review posted on one of the sites, should she not be going after them as well?

One thing for sure is she will not be getting my business or friends/family’s business in the future.

By: Paul Rouke

Paul Rouke — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:55:51 +0000

I agree with your comments Sam. As I mentioned in my post, providing the ‘reviewer’ has a clear conscience about what they are saying I’m a firm believer that free speech online is something that shouldn’t be watered down, and that the reviewer shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

As you say businesses should be actively encouraging their customers to share their views in order that they can improve rather than hamper their reputation, and trying to fight against this can prove extremely damaging for brand reputations.

I’m not sure that in the case of Steven Biegel the phrase ‘all publicity is good publicity’ applies!

By: Sam Decker

Sam Decker — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:35:36 +0000

The fact that someone files a lawsuit in the US shouldn’t be the a reason for panic. If the chiropractor wins the lawsuit, we possibly have a reason to worry. We’ll have to wait and see what the outcome of the litigation will be. I think that if the customer has stated facts that are shown to be untrue, he may lose. If he has posted negative opinions, he should be fine.

One of my colleagues who had legal education (this is not an official legal opinion!) suggested that the burden of proof is not just proving that the review was false. You have to prove “actual malice,” i.e., that the accused made an untrue and defamatory statement about a person knowing that it was false, or with reckless disregard of whether it was false.

Regardless, the learning for businesses in this debacle is that you don’t manage your reputation by litigation. Customers will always find a way to share their experiences. What you need to do is to provide a positive experience and then give the customer the tools to tell the world about it.”