It is not unlike the notion that one should be forced to pay in order to reclaim funds lost due to a stolen credit card number- or else simply deal with the loss. At least with credit cards, the law protects the victims.

Perhaps a complaint and its validity should be verified prior to publishing rather than universally accepted – thus leaving the burden of proof on the business owner.

I believe anyone operating in the realm of consumer-driven content should be mindful of their ethical responsibility toward both sides of the customer experience.

Unfortunately, in these days where every thought is tweeted and people will post to Facebook things they’d never say face to face the notions of slander and libel have become relics of a pre-140 character era. There is so much noise in the ether that no one feels compelled to think twice about the consequences of their words…because two seconds later something different is trending.

Thank you for the complement!

One more thing to note.

You wrote, “It is a wonder that RipOffReport.com hasn’t been sued for extortion because charging people a fee in exchange for removal is similar to what got Yelp.com in trouble not too long ago.”

In fact, Ripoff Report has been sued in the past for this very thing, and the courts have decided that our CAP (Corporate Advocacy program) is NOT extortion or illegal in any way. It is not simply removal of a report for money, but does all of the following:

- Reviews all reports and contacts the author, verifying for unfair, unjust, unbalanced or phony filings.
- Determines the truthfulness of the complaints as best as we can.
- Exposes phony reports filed by competitors, malicious individuals and/or disgruntled employees.
- Sends an email to each person who posted a report about your company, notifying them that your firm has offered to negotiate in good faith to resolve their complaint.
- Prevents reports from being filed in the first place, if the complaint is handled and remedied immediately.
- Updates all reports stating your commitment to address complaints.
- Provides updates to existing reports, stating your side of the story, as well as your resolution to the -problem. This shows how you made changes to your business to avoid reported problems in the future.
- Prevents the filing of phony reports by competitors or malicious individuals by exposing existing reports as false or malicious.

And please remember, Ripoff Report has always had a uniform policy to NOT remove reports.

Thanks again,
Olivia

The challenge and frustration that we face when advising clients on things related to reputation management come into focus with sites like yours and even the BBB. Essentially the sites exist as a venue to lodge complaints with very little to no consideration for complements. And once a complaint is filed the business has VERY limited resources available to address or remove the complaint in the event it is false, libelous or just plain illegitimate.

Unfortunately, the good ole fashion American adage of innocent until proven guilty does not apply in the court of public opinion. I much prefer Google’s review platform where bad reviews can stand side by side with good ones to provide a fair and balanced consensus of public opinion.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the constructive dialog. You represent your company well, Ms. V.

Thank you for covering the topic of Ripoff Reports on your website. Our policy never to remove any report protects consumers. Your advice to Danny about getting State Farm to respond to the report, or craft a strictly fact-based response of his own, was absolutely correct.

Smart consumers will base a buying decision on many pieces of information, and not just one bad report. In fact, a well-crafted, consumer-friendly response to a negative Ripoff Report will often bring a business more customers in the long run. How businesses handle complaints is what separates the good ones from the bad ones, and consumers are able to read that for themselves on our site. Also, it does not cost any money to file a rebuttal to a Ripoff Report.

We can never stop dealing with human beings, but we can all act a little more human in the long run. We wish your friend Danny the best with his State Farm office and look forward to reading his response to the negative report posted on RipoffReport.com.

Thank you,
Olivia V.