I got a weird email.
About 2 years ago I ordered a product that was, to put it charitably, awful.
So I wrote to the company, and got no where, in the end I was out $10 bucks no big deal this was Nov of 2003
Today I get an email from that company asking if I’d remove my “review” of my product as it is negative and coming up in Google BEFORE their own company’s webpage if you search the company’s name.
I checked and sure enough my review is #2 and their company website is #5.
I told them that I would not remove it and if they have issue they need to take it up with the company who owns the webpage. And I suggested that their money would be well spent hiring a search engine expert to optimize their site.
It’s a site that lists products they sell and offers the customers a chance to give product reviews. Kind of like how you can review a CD on Amazon.com
Of course the email had the threatening, we would hate to persue legal action against you.
So my quesiton is could a company hold you responsible for publishing your opinion. Clearly this is a site that lets consumers state their OPINIONS. It even gives the company a chance to respond to the opinion
In reality since the opinion was posted on a site I don’t own, under a nickname that no one has the address to, it’d take a lot doing to find out who I am exactly. Especially since the whole business is 2.5 years old.
So I was just wondering what the legal points on stuff like this are
I wouldn’t think so. They asked for the reviews and got one. Me thinks they are trying to intimidate you. keep all emails that go back and forth, though.
In my (limited) experience, a goodly number of legal threats made via email and/or relating to Internet content are baseless bluffs which gain what little credibility they may have from being backed up by the possibility of an expensive (to the recipient) legal suit. This bluff is one of the more baseless I’ve heard in a while, and I don’t even know how successful the company would be if it really and truly attempted to sue you.
If you receive a threat on a law firm’s official letterhead with the names of the lawyers involved on it, you might legitimately worry. That means the company has spent enough to retain the services of someone who has, at the very least, seen the inside of a courtroom in real life. (Alternately, it means they have stolen stationary from such people. ;)) This shit is nonsense and the company knows it.
What is the Web site that your opinion is posted on?
Look through their policies and rules fo rthat site - I bet you will find that everything you write there becomes their property (just like the Chicago Reader rules here) and while they might give you the ability to edit or remove the post, they still have the final say.
Really, my advice is to not do anything they ask. Let the site where the review was posted take care of it.
I imagine if this happened to some other Dopers, they would go around the Net and post even worse reviews of this company just to spite them 
Thats just incredibly ballsy!!
“Hey, um, I know we sold you a horrible product and then ignored you when you complained to us, but, erm, would you mind removing yor negative review? It’s hurting business you see…”
Sheesh. :rolleyes:
Just to make it clear as I reread my post and it wasn’t really well written.
I bought a product from this company. It didn’t work. They refused to give me a refund. I was out $10.00.
So I saw this website where you can buy the same product, I guess you’d call it an affiliate site, and post a review. So I went there and posted it. I said the I bought the product it didn’t work, was refused refund. Do not buy this.
So it was posted on a third party site. Now when you go to Google or MSN and enter the company or product name, the site and my review comes up BEFORE the company’s homepage. However on Yahoo, my review comes up right below it.
It similar to when you go to Amazon and look at say, CDs. It says “Have you bought this CD want to post your review.”
To me this says that the company should hire someone to optimize their site so it comes up better in search engines.
Also I was thinking, you know, let’s say an actor gets a bad review. He certainly can’t demand the newspaper retract it simply because the reviewer’s opinon was not favourable.
And while I doubt they could actually DO anything to me, I was wondering in terms of general if thinly disguised threats could become more commonplace as it become easier for people to complain about poor service.
I’d be thinking about adding the E-Mail to the posts on the complaint site!
CMC fnord!
I’d post another review about the company’s legal threats. Then send the link to Slashdot.