9 replies to this topic

[Marchy]

I have a client that is being destroyed on a complaint board by a competitor on false accusation. The problem is that complaint board when you search for his company name comes up right after his site. He is loosing clients with it when the search for his company name. He tried asking the complaint board site to remove as everything is false but they refused. Is there any legal way to force to remove this?

[Jill]

Is there any legal way to force to remove this?

Typically no. They could certainly hire a lawyer to see what they can do, however.

[Marchy]

This always a real bad side of the internet as any one can trash people without any recourse because of the "Freedom of speech". It is one of the negative part of a good thing!

[Michael Martinez]

Under U.S. law freedom of speech does not allow you to lie about people but there are no "speech police" to turn to when people lie about you. You have to go to the courts and be your own police.

Freedom of speech is a guarantee that the government will not suppress the open expression of political, religious, or ideological views. It does not in any way mean that you can say anything you wish without being held accountable for it. That's why it is illegal to say anything in a theater/cinema that would incite an unnecessary panic.

[Catz]

Sounds like one of your options at the moment is create some pages that do well in the SE's for his name, and get them to rank above the complaint board.

People are always going to wonder, just like we are here, if the complaint is legitimate. If it is not, it is worth trying to see what you can do to get the complaint board site lower in the rankings, and the only way you can do this is to get some quality content out there that ranks for their company name in ahead of it.

It's a nasty world out there, and you are experiencing it first hand. Complaint boards are important and very useful these days, but you can't always believe what you read online either, so you do have to be careful in these type situations.

It's too bad this has happened to your client...if the complaint is not legitimate.

[Jill]

Sounds like one of your options at the moment is create some pages that do well in the SE's for his name, and get them to rank above the complaint board

If you've ever tried it that's a lot easier said than done. The complaint sites have a huge amount of authority and you can't simply outrank them just cuz you want to.

[Catz]

That's for sure! It's not something that will be easy, or most likely even possible, but it is what some really aggressive companies have been able to achieve on occasion in situations like these.

Those complaint sites serve an important purpose, but they certainly can be abused as well.

Just a suggestion of something they could try since they feel they have been wronged...which beats trying something that makes it worse.

Since when has something "a lot easier said than done" stopped those who love a challenge from at least doing a little experimenting? Of course, if you really believe it would be pointless, you have probably seen a lot of companies give it a try and fail.

If they feel they are being "destroyed on a complaint board", chances are they are going to do something to make it worse if they don't feel they are at least trying to do something to remedy the issue.

Guess they could change the company name, though eventually someone will catch on to that and post for that name too.

That's the power of complaint boards, most of us have been exposed to enough unscrupulous business (especially sales) people in life that if someone steps up and is willing to post a complaint, chances are there is something to it. If those unscrupulous business people are your competition, they have basically just found another tool to use against their competitors.

How do you know it was a false accusation by a competitor? That still just sounds a little fishy.

[Michael Martinez]

How do you know it was a false accusation by a competitor? That still just sounds a little fishy.

Most people who make false complaints for competitive reasons have (in my experience) been pretty sloppy about the process. Sooner or later you see a pattern (not to mention a lack of background for the complaints).

Complaint sites are essentially made-for-advertising spam but like Jill says they have a lot of authority. That's because most consumers don't understand how search engine spam works or even what it is.

[cybernac]

I have heard of a few people being unfairly criticized on complaints board and they have spoken to the owner/manager of the board. It took some persuasion, but they were able to remove some of the Spammy complaints they received. I would have had my doubts about the effectiveness of complaining about it, but it seemed to work for them (I believe at the time it was Yelp they were having trouble with.)

[Marchy]

I emailed the complaint board and asked them to remove the complaint which I had good reasons to do it. They said that I need to talk to the person that issued the complaint to remove it and it was the only way. It is ridiculous! Jill you are right these complaint board have a lot of authority. I tried to over ranked them with a blog and a review site. Did not succeed yet.