Fined For Posting a Negative Review Online

(KUTV) For Christmas several years ago, Jen Palmer's husband ordered her a number of trinkets from the website kleargear.com. But for 30 days, Kleargear.com never sent the products so the transaction was automatically cancelled by Paypal, Jen said.


Wanting an explanation, Jen says she tried to call the company but could never reach anyone. So frustrated, she turned to the internet writing a negative review on ripoffreport.com.

That was the end of it, Jen thought, until three years later when Jen's husband got an email from Kleargear.com demanding the post be removed or they would be fined...The clause goes on to say if a consumer violates the contract they will have 72 hours to remove your post or face a $3500 fine.

Fined For Posting a Negative Review Online

Wow. Ok, so to hell with the 1st amendment. Everyone get your lawyers ready BEFORE you type an opinion about ANYTHING concerning any company.

Apparently TOS trumps Constitution law, who knew?

Thought I would give a heads up, seeing as how we're entering the Christmas season & most ppl shop online.

Stay away from Kleargear!

Also, since I never signed any TOS from Kleargear, they can sod off from this poster!

Haha!!!! What if the husband lied!!!!!????? I can see it now:

Wife: "honey, did you get me a present?"
Husband: "uhhhhh.....sure. I ordered it online but it never made it."

The husband is a genius.

catfishjoe
Haha!!!! What if the husband lied!!!!!????? I can see it now:

Wife: "honey, did you get me a present?"
Husband: "uhhhhh.....sure. I ordered it online but it never made it."

The husband is a genius.

If that's what really happened then the husband is better off paying the fine. Less painful than the alternative.

As far as I can remember, the only entities that can legally issue "fines" are government entities. Therefore I would assume this is just a scare-tactic set up by some shady website owners to keep the bad reviews down. I see where they are coming from too, I mean who is going to check out your scam website when google brings up a billion ripoff reviews.

jssaylor2007
As far as I can remember, the only entities that can legally issue "fines" are government entities. Therefore I would assume this is just a scare-tactic set up by some shady website owners to keep the bad reviews down. I see where they are coming from too, I mean who is going to check out your scam website when google brings up a billion ripoff reviews.

I don't think anyone is seriously thinking these ppl need to pay this "fine", (though ironically the threat of the fine was enough for the woman to try and take the negative review offline, so there's another aspect for you) instead it's genuinely affecting these poor people's credit report, trying to get a loan for a busted heater that they can't get because of kleargear.

Ridiculous.

Jen and her husband also disputed the ding with the credit bureaus but because Kleargear.com says the charge is valid the the ding remains. Now as a result, Jen and her husband are amassing rejection letters from lenders as they apply for loan to buy a new car and fix their home's furnace

Be aware there are a LOT of scamsters sending ‘You’ve been Fined’ emails and info out on the net.

The other day I had a pop up which looked quite legal I might add that informed me I had been ‘pirating’ (couldn’t if I wanted to) and I must pay a $100 fine.

I’m not saying what you’re claiming in the article isn’t true - but it might not be real - if that makes sense.

Who was it that said there’s a ‘sucker born ever minute and another to take his money’.

peace

schadenfreude

That was the end of it, Jen thought, until three years later when Jen's husband got an email from Kleargear.com demanding the post be removed or they would be fined...

SOoooooooooooo... They don't have the power / ability / know how to remove a post from their own website?!?!?!

Couldn't they just.... I dunno... delete it?

I don't get it...

If they never received the goods then there was no contract.

They can say what they like about the company.

Thanks for posting, it's another company that will never get my custom.

I would have done the same thing I did when I got a letter from the RIAA back in 2000 for file sharing. Throw it in the trash. If you let corporation strong arm you then you deserve to be their slave.

The negative report wasn't on their own website, it was on ripoff.com which takes complaints from everyone on all companies. This threat of a fine needs to be turned over to the ACLU or another attorney and the marks against the personal credit need to be dealt with legally. How many others have had their credit ruined because of a consumer rating? These people need to get on the ball and take the rucksters to court. Show their emails, phone records, everything they've got.

Personally I HATE sites like Yelp and Ripoff report. Any jerk with a beef can go online and damage someones business. They can do so whether or not they are right or wrong, whether or not they make up lies or not is immaterial to those sites.

Great example, My business had five stars on Yelp for years. I sold some Groupons (oops) that had a weight limit attached. People showed up 30, 40 and fifty pounds over the weight limits and got mad at us for not honoring the coupon anyway. We are now 3.5 stars despite dozens of five stars reviews. EVERY single negative review came from a coupon user...... We even had people threaten us with bad reviews online if we did not make an exception to the limits of the coupon.

Another buddy in my industry, same thing went from five to one star....

Screw these sites. Yelp is the worst because for $300.00 a month you can advertise with Yelp and get a "personal" account manager. This personal account manager has the ability to make you look quite good if you advertise with them. To boot it all they put most of the five star reviews on the "filtered results" in an attempt to get you to advertise. I spoke at length with Yelp. Nothing more than internet blackmail. I won't be blackmailed so I have to live with lower ratings. Somehow this "blackmail" is legal. Personally I hope the owners of Yelp get slowly crushed under a falling bridge somewhere. After all they are crushing others so it would be fitting.

Hmmm..... Maybe I should start putting a fine for a negative review into my booking conditions............

According to the terms of the contract, I don't think what they posted would be considered "libelous". The ordered stuff and they didn't get it. I hope a lawyer takes up this case.

DaMod

schadenfreude

That was the end of it, Jen thought, until three years later when Jen's husband got an email from Kleargear.com demanding the post be removed or they would be fined...

SOoooooooooooo... They don't have the power / ability / know how to remove a post from their own website?!?!?!

Couldn't they just.... I dunno... delete it?

I don't get it...

But Jen says she was not always so defiant. After receiving the threat she says she was terrified. She contacted Ripoffreport.com to ask that the post be removed but Ripoffreport.com won't let her without paying $2000 she says.

reply to post by Mamatus


I admire your principle, truly. I've turned down many things & lost lots of money over principle, so kudos about not being blackmailed.

From a business model however...don't you think that you would more than make up that $300 if you just paid?

I used to watch Ramsey religiously for a few months, (went on a cooking binge, bought a wok,etc) so i eventually looked up Yelp. I could tell immediately who was legit & who wasn't by the details in the review.

Ppl SERIOUSLY offended take up more than the twitter limit to gripe b/c..they're po'ed!

When it comes down to it, educating ppl is ALWAYS more effort than just taking their money, but I've found that mostly, ppl are thankful for it.

reply to post by schadenfreude

I`d say the company violated the contract first by non-delivery so they should be able to dispute the fine. But only if the delivery time was overdue. Some places state that it would be over one month depending on country and such.

reply to post by schadenfreude


I would make more money by paying the $300.00 in "advertising" money as I am pretty sure some people live and die by review sites. However if I caved in to blackmail I would not be a man. My ethics don't change because of money though and I make a really fine living despite losing some cash to a poor review by some overweight opportunistic jerk. Can I give up some cash to follow my heart and do the right thing? You bet!

What most people do not understand is that Ripoff report is in fact itself a ripoff.

Once someone post some thing about a company, the owner of the site goes to the company and offers to squash it for a fee. Or if they pay for advertising they become one of the 100% verified club.

"Recently a Florida Court of Appeals held that:“The business practices of Xcentric [DBA RipOffReport.com], as presented by the evidence before this Court, are appalling. Xcentric appears to pride itself on having created a forum for defamation. No checks are in place to ensure that only reliable information is publicized.”

Source

reply to post by Mamatus


Well at least your "business acumen" doesn't affect your conscience.

Good for you.

:Thumbsup

reply to post by schadenfreude


I give a bad review to every single "sponsored post" facebook shows me, whether I know anything about the product or not. Let 'em come after me next and I'll just defame their lawyers too. It's freedom of speech, and if they don't like that right they better grit their teeth, because the next right on the American list is even harder to stomach, and travels even faster than the speed of sound.

There's a push for freedom FROM speech going on right now among the business criminals. They are nervous about the better than anticipated results of arm-chair activists trading memes and now they've got to put a stop to it.

That's why people are getting sued for proving with video that there is flammable gas in their drinking water, that's why this company is YEARS later invoking its highly questionable 'truth is not a defense to slander' clause, that's why there are lawsuits over Yelp Reviews.

But joke em if they can't take a screw- when you've got no money to take and the offense doesn't carry time, a day in court is good entertainment under the right mental conditions. Sign me up.

Mamatus
reply to post by schadenfreude

 

I would make more money by paying the $300.00 in "advertising" money as I am pretty sure some people live and die by review sites. However if I caved in to blackmail I would not be a man. My ethics don't change because of money though and I make a really fine living despite losing some cash to a poor review by some overweight opportunistic jerk. Can I give up some cash to follow my heart and do the right thing? You bet!

Finlay somebody living on the same planet as me, I've been searching for you for many years now. I come to tell you that there is more, not much of us but we started building "The Ark" 8 months before I left to come find you and I have been getting regular reports by carrier pigeon that the "The Ark" is nearly the size of a small town now and the population is growing. Don't give up hope brother as I never gave up hope in finding you, you must help me find the rest, we have been receiving broken transmissions a couple of hundred miles north west of this point for a while now, come brother let us go there is not much time.