Thread: Complaint sites, what to do?

With the advent of the web, there are a bunch of complaint sites.
Most will actually remove bogus complaints (which come up on Google searches), but there are few really slime ball sites that will not, no matter what you do. Any tips or suggestions on this? thanks.

I've found that a high majority of the complaint sites are actual customers that got scammed, mistreated, etc.. and in their complaint letters they were so upset that they may or may not have exaggerated a bit on some things. Those sites are meant to store the complaints forever as a record systems of past experiences, not to be sorted by the company reported and cleaned up to try & look better.

Granted, there are some unethical people out their that may make a bad report on a company in retaliation for the company / community banning them for spamming their forums or blog. I will assume that's the type of bogus complaints you refer to (False reports). Sadly, while anyone can claim something happened, the same goes for claiming something didn't happen, it's a catch 22. The site itself that hosts public claims isn't the bad guy, it's the people that post the claims. Most complaint sites will allow the company in question to post a response in an attempt to clear them self, but if the complaints evidence is stronger than the companies attempt to clear them self, they will still look bad.

While it may suck to have a bad complaint listed on a public site, you can't expect them to delete the complaints you don't like. I would suggest you compile evidence to prove that you didn't do what they said & use that in your defense reply. If you did do it & you are just trying to erase your bad mistake, suck it up, learn from it, & never do it again.

I wish you the best of luck...

It happens all the time and I think it would be a waste of your energy to really focus on removing the slander out on the web. You won't find and fix every single one so you are better off just improving your sites/services/etc to change public perception.

thanks,
I had this bogus complaint removed by the site it was submitted to.
The complaint violated the sites own terms and conditions.
Was not even a customer.
But then out of the blue some new site, years later, compiles anonymous complaints and they will not remove it.
Total slim ball running it.

Easy for you say, "suck it up"
What if you have a business, and some anonymous yahoo, wrote, "avoid this guy he is a real sleaze..."

Originally Posted by donna23

Easy for you say, "suck it up"
What if you have a business, and some anonymous yahoo, wrote, "avoid this guy he is a real sleaze..."

It's not a question of, "What if?".. It happens to everyone eventually. All it takes is one person that has a vendetta against you, one mistake you made, one product that didn't deliver to a customers expectations, etc.. It's part of the business world, you have to take the good with the bad & roll with the punches.

Business is constantly working on bettering your best, Providing optimal customer support, insuring your customers are happy, upgrading your products / services, performing damage control. etc...

I already said what I would & have done in situations like those. Compile your evidence and reply to their complaint with it. people will see that you made an active effort to clear up the complaint. Believe it or not, some people will read both the complaint & defense, then make their own opinion about your company. Not everyone will just rely on the complaint & ignore the evidence / response.

There's really no easier way to say it besides "suck it up, Learn from it, Roll with the punches". I'm sorry that this happened to you & that you are now experiencing what a majority of businesses have been going through for centuries. Just keep bettering your best & focus on customer service, Continue to establish yourself as a professional and authoritative presence in your field. And most importantly, NEVER let a few negative reviews get you down, use them as fuel and a reminder to change something for the better.

I see the positive aspects of that Drifter, but you stating feelgood obvious banalties.

So wrong on so many counts:
1) before the web, the worst scarlet letter was BBB, and their site is password protected, and complaints are removed after a few years.
2) I said, this is not even a customer -- re-read the post
3) The website is slimeballs of the highest unethical order, and don't even read the complaints they are hosting on their website.

If you have nothing insightful to say, just pass.

Personally I don't like complaint sites. I prefer to contact and "yell" to companies directly.And then file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Donna, your issue happens to everybody. If I could suggest something would be to respond to the dissatisfied person (whether a customer or not) and see about possibly correctly what is bothering the person.

These complaints are by "anonymous" people

Originally Posted by donna23

I see the positive aspects of that Drifter, but you stating feelgood obvious banalties.

So wrong on so many counts:
1) before the web, the worst scarlet letter was BBB, and their site is password protected, and complaints are removed after a few years.
2) I said, this is not even a customer -- re-read the post
3) The website is slimeballs of the highest unethical order, and don't even read the complaints they are hosting on their website.

If you have nothing insightful to say, just pass.

Then why are you getting so worked up about it? it's obvious by what you say that they are nobody's in the world of complaint sites & that you have already provided your statement that the person reporting isn't a customer of yours so other viewers can see the truth. Now wash your hands of it & move on... If you let it eat away at you it will only stress you out more & effect your productivity.

Maybe you can post the link to the report so we can all read it & laugh at it with you. laughing at it might help make you feel better, as sometimes silly things happen in life for no apparent reason or fault of yours at all.

As far as insightful, every single one of my posts has been an attempt to help you see the situation for what it really is, I've also given suggestions trying to help you cope with it (That's insightful), you are just to worked up in anger to see it right now. Take a few breaths & relax. Nobody here is out to get you, so please don't take out your anger on us.

thanks Drifter, I hear you, I just "hoping" some insightful way to nuke this site.

If its a good complaint site, they will contact you before they show up or ask for your side of the story.

On the plus side, you can get a nice backlink out of it!

One way to move these sites off of the first and 2nd Google result page for your company is to create a several webpages from website that offers these services like apsense.com, linkedin, youtube using yoour company name as the title of each page and them create enough backlinks to have google cache these pages.

So that next time, someone googles the name of your company, they wont be able to see the complaints.

Man, there no one technical here.
none of the complaint sites are good.
They are lowlife sites.

thanks Drifter, I hear you, I just "hoping" some insightful way to nuke this site.

There are not a complaint sites in these world in my knowledge.
If a web sites you look then also in these sites maneo on a box.This box also called feed back then you also written any complain in this web sites.

For example any such complaint site?

I dislike these complaint sites it is better to avoid

This is not happened for me right now.

I love this question. I taught a class last summer on ethics and the web. Tip number one, you can never please everyone all of the time. I start with this tip because it reminds my clients that eventually they will piss someone off, no matter how hard they try to please the customer. It also serves as a reminder that their web presence is equally as REAL as their RT presence. Conduct your web presence as if it was the same face, view and voice you would use to communicate with people in your office or your home. The same standards of ethics in business that apply to face to face interactions, print publications, radio, television, etc. apply to your web communications. This includes your website, social media networks, banner ads, etc. Stand by your brand. Your promotors will shout loudly in your favor if you have this kind of integrity, just as your detractors will shout loudly if you are found to be a fraud or a cheat. You may not be able to stop their talk, but you can have a strong measure of integrity to make their talk look cheap.

Originally Posted by donna23

These complaints are by "anonymous" people

You're right, many of complaints are only made by those people who hide beyond the "anonymous" name.