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Ripoff Report Removal: How to Fight Back Against Disgruntled Employees, Hostile Customers Abusing RipOffReport.com
2 Comments | Posted by prnewsadmin in How to Handle a PR Crisis, How to Search Engine Optimize a Press Release, How to Write a Press Release, How to Write an Online Press Release
There is a way to fight back against consumers who abuse RipOffReport.com.
Businesses that rip off customers and clients may deserve the public, painful outing they get on the Web site RipoffReport.com. It helps protect consumers from, well, getting ripped off by ripoff companies.
But RipOffReport.com sometimes inadvertantly aids malicious ex-employees, hostile customers, and unethical competitors in attacking reputable businesses. The Web site itself says it is not liable for its reports “even if they contain false or accurate information.”
“The Rip-off Report is not the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or the NBC Nightly News,” the site reads. “Those kinds of media have the power, the ability, and therefore the duty to fact-check their stories before they are posted. This logic works for large, for-profit newspapers, magazines, etc., but it does not translate well for free, user-controlled websites like Ripoff Report. If Ripoff Report was required to fact-check every report submitted by every user, the site would immediately cease to exist.”
This doesn’t surprise the press release writing experts at Press Release Pros (http://www.pressreleasepros.com) who have developed an effective way to fight back against those abusing Rip Off Report and sites like it.
“We hear it all the time. ‘There’s a ripoff report complaint from a disgruntled former employee, and we can’t figure out how to get the Web site to remove the listing,’” says Randy Scott from PressReleasePros.com, a sister company to the press release distribution newswire PRNewsChannel. “Our customers come to us frustrated and upset because they’re being unfairly slandered online.”
Having a negative listing on RipOffReport.com that shows up on the first page of Google for your company name can severely damage a business’ reputation. Potential customers doing their due diligence with online research are easily scared away by negative publicity.
“Nothing is more frustrating than working hard to build a relationship with a potential client or customer only to lose the deal because of a ripoff report complaint,” says a business owner in Arizona. The owner of the company did not want his name or business used for this story. “It’s disheartening and maddening. But I finally saw there was a way to take control of it.”
That Arizona business, and others across the country, have turned to PressReleasePros.com. (http://www.pressreleasepros.com). PressReleasePros.com has developed a comprehensive approach to burying negative information on the Internet by generating positive, informational news articles to bury the negative postings on the search engines.
“These new search engine optimized press release articles will push down the negative information on ripoffreport.com and other consumer ripoff site posted about a business. The negative postings will begin to appear further down the search results where they will be less visible to potential clients,” says Scott. “You can beat those people causing problems and headaches for you and who are abusing a Web site that was created to help consumers not aid vindictive ex employees or irrational and unreasonable customers.”
2 Comments for Ripoff Report Removal: How to Fight Back Against Disgruntled Employees, Hostile Customers Abusing RipOffReport.com
Tim Padden | July 17, 2010 at 11:30 AM
Gene Davis | September 9, 2011 at 7:23 AM
Like it or not there is a need websites like the Rip Off Report. The BBB is ineffective when it comes to providing unbiased reviews that can be used to identify legitimate problems especially if the company in question is a paid member and although there are some statements made on the Rip Off Report that are done with the intention to harm a business there are some very legitimate complaints that would not see the light of day if not for these kind of sites.
This is a double edged sword using press releases like this is has also been used by companies to hide legitimate complaints and deceive a unsuspecting consumer the fact that search engine results that contain page after page press releases and blog posts should be a red flag that things are not always as they appear.
As with all companies big or small it is inevitable that they will have customers that you just can not satisfy under any conditions but attempting to hide or bump a bad review will only look worse to a customer that spots the patterns that will result from this.
Do not underestimate the consumers ability to see through a bad review. As Mom used to say if it sounds to good to be true then it more than likely is. As a consumer a company that has no critics is a company that is trying to hide something because you can’t please everyone.
This is a very frustrating situation. I think the Internet can be great for communicating a message so in some ways ripoffreport.com is a good venue for complaints. It is a way for consumers to be warned of fraud. On the other hand it can be used for revenge. We had a contractor that was fired because of unethical behavior , We clearly let it be known from day one that we have 0% tolerance for this behavior and he was caught red handed. After being let go he decided that he was “wronged” and sent me a text saying he was going to “Get Me” . A couple of days later false stories started showing up on rip off report. Stories that could not be true. He continued to post these for a few months . The problem is that there is no burden of proof and every time I file a rebuttal he posts another ,so I am stuck. The frustrating part is we work hard for our salesmen and we do all we can to assist in their success. Door to Door sales can be very negative business and we set out to have a different kind of company. It is disappointing that after all we have done we look like the other companies that just “use people” when searched on Google.