Advice on being threatened by 1 star reviews

LiE

LiE

LiE

Caporegime
Joined
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Posts
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Location
Milton Keynes
So recently we've had a disgruntled customer who despite being given all the information about a specific treatment, is now asking for a refund. They are claiming that it wasn't explained to them what the treatment was and that they were mislead. So after having done our due diligence we have found the customer was completely aware of all the facts and the service was done perfectly. They are effectively trying it on.

So we get a 1 star review, not the end of the world we can respond politely and move on, it happens. They then follow up on social media messages, threatening to leave multiple 1 star reviews from their other 5 accounts if we do no give them a partial refund. 2 more 1 stars later and 2 open Google review appeals, I'm wondering what we do next.

Has anyone had experience with this? I'll be speaking to the FSB legal team later to see if this is actually allowed (misinformation/fake reviews and threats via social media messages).
 
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Have they posted the review as fact or as an opinion?

I would be sending a strongly worded letter that if they persist with leaving defamatory reviews in light of the evidence that what theyre saying is full of crap, that you will look at taking them to court.
 
Assuming you are UK based then you definitely have a claim against them for leaving multiple negative reviews and even more so if the reviews aren't factually true. It'd be interesting to hear the guide from the FSB legal time as I've considered becoming a member myself.

I've had the same problem with review-bombing in the past, if you have Google One then you get access to live-chat agents who can help you remove the fake reviews without having to jump through hoops and typical rejections.
 
kindai said:
Have they posted the review as fact or as an opinion?

I would be sending a strongly worded letter that if they persist with leaving defamatory reviews in light of the evidence that what theyre saying is full of crap, that you will look at taking them to court.
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They are effectively saying "You didn't explain the treatment properly" yet I've watched the CCTV and it can be clearly heard that it was explained and the customer was asked if they still wanted to go ahead and they can be heard saying yes.

On Holiday said:
if you have Google One then you get access to live-chat agents who can help you remove the fake reviews without having to jump through hoops and typical rejections.
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Thanks will give that ago.
 
Yaayuh! said:
I was wondering what the Russian intelligence/security services had to do with it until I googled it. That might have been an overreaction :D

edit: What "treatments" are we talking about. Was their happy ending not so happy?
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Well the 1 stars suggest no happy ending :p

To be clear this is effectively what the customer is doing:

Customer: "I've booked this service, does it come with a happy ending? The website didn't say it doesn't, so I assume it does."
Business: "No sorry it doesn't come with a happy ending, do you still want the service?"
Customer: "Oh ok, yes please proceed."

2 days later...
Customer Review: "Shocking service, they didn't explain that it doesn't come with a happy ending and wouldn't refund"
 
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It might be construed as blackmail.

Do they have any money or assets to make it worth involving the law? Do you have a lot of free money to risk on barrister's fees and possibly costs if you lose? If you feel their statements are libellous remember pursuing such matters is usually a rich man's sport.
 
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Depending on how much this "service" was and whether other "services" are available; perhaps offer a credit for another "service" as a good will gesture.

Just read your above reply, individual sounds like a tool.
 
Resident said:
Usually with review sites the business owner can create an account and reply to said reviews.
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It's Google and we did respond to the initial 1 star review. I've got an appeal open against the other 2 which I've not replied to yet.

We have 79 reviews and prior to this only had 2 1 star reviews, 1 of them being valid.
 
From the perspective of a customer, honestly I would just ignore it publicly - obviously raise the issue of duplicates with the review providers, e.g. Google, Trustpilot etc. (as you seem to be already doing :), but If your good reviews hugely outnumber the bad ones (and it appears this is the case), then it isn't going to pull your average down much, and any potential customer is going to see this is the case.

You're always going to get "those" customers, and IMO pandering to them is just going to encourage it - I would hazard a guess they've done this to other businesses before and gotten what they've wanted, so are expecting you to roll over and do the same - I definitely wouldn't entertain @darkgen's suggestion of giving them free stuff, as you're just reinforcing the **** behaviour!

If you must respond, just make it factual and professional, e.g. "sorry you weren't happy with the service provided, but it was made clear to you at the point of sale that XYZ wasn't included. We've taken on board your comments and have updated our website to make it clearer exactly what is covered by the service*". Be careful with threatening legal advice or getting into an argument with a customer - even in a private email conversation - as this can easily backfire, i.e. the Streisand Effect. Yes I can imagine it's hard to stay detached and not let emotion get in the way when it's your business you've worked hard to build up, but it rarely has a positive outcome; I've read plenty of reviews which haven't been too bad... until the company has responded extremely unprofessionally and made themselves look extremely petty and vindictive - NOT someone you want to be dealing with.



TL;DR; don't worry about it too much, some people are just **** who want a free lunch, and any savvy potential customer will realise 1 bad review amongst many good ones likely says more about the reviewer than the company itself.


LiE said:
This is a big part of the problem, they aren't reasonable and we can't engage with them like a normal customer.
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Then don't - they will soon get bored if they don't get the response they are looking for.

* only put in this bolded part if you've actually done it, however it shows other customers that while you aren't willing to give in to blackmail, you are able to listen to constructive feedback
 
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LiE said:
So recently we've had a disgruntled customer who despite being given all the information about a specific treatment, is now asking for a refund. They are claiming that it wasn't explained to them what the treatment was and that they were mislead. So after having done our due diligence we have found the customer was completely aware of all the facts and the service was done perfectly. They are effectively trying it on.

So we get a 1 star review, not the end of the world we can respond politely and move on, it happens. They then follow up on social media messages, threatening to leave multiple 1 star reviews from their other 5 accounts if we do no give them a partial refund. 2 more 1 stars later and 2 open Google review appeals, I'm wondering what we do next.

Has anyone had experience with this? I'll be speaking to the FSB legal team later to see if this is actually allowed (misinformation/fake reviews and threats via social media messages).
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File a police complaint regarding harassment.
 
My gut goes with Haggisman on this one.

Keep it strictly factual.

If they leave other reviews, firstly try to get them removed legit via the review site. If worst case you cannot get them removed leave a "are you sure this is the correct business since we have no record of you as a customer" type comment back.

Suspect this will be a storm type thing where they will kick up a fuss for a while and eventually realise you are not giving in.

Never take the ryan air approach to customer service ;)
 
You have messages saying they will use 5 other accounts to 1 star bomb you? Make a safety copy of them.

Should be easy to get them removed then, potentially pushes it towards the police looking at harassment or potentially even a level of blackmail.
 
Flibster said:
You have messages saying they will use 5 other accounts to 1 star bomb you? Make a safety copy of them.
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Yep, I'll be hopefully using this in the appeal process.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Keep it strictly factual.
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Absolutely, we are always professional with our responses and stick to facts.



Update:
So I was able to get through to Google business support on chat and since I have appeals already against the 2 reviews they can't do anything yet, but it does give me hope that if the appeals fail I still have some options via this team.

FSB did give us a defamation template letter but honestly this person isn't the type to really be motivated by such a response. So currently the best route is to wait for the appeals to be processed and if that doesn't work go back to the business team and provide our evidence.
 
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