Complaint about a zombie post of mine

[Chefwifelife]

I had an email from MN report team today to inform me that a post of mine from June 2019 has been reported as possible libel for defamation.

I’ve read the post several times and stand by the post as honest. I’ve informed MN that I don’t want the post deleted.

I can see today that several of the posts by other members on the thread have been deleted.

I was intrigued if there were similar posts on Mumsnet so Googled this company and found that a few days ago there quite an unpleasant exchange on Trust Pilot with a customer who had left a negative review about them.

AIBU to stand by my original (ancient) post or should I just be done with it and delete it? I don’t want to feel bullied into removing an honest post asking for others experiences.

Has anyone been in this situation?

FYI MN have been great throughout.

If they wanted to throw some money at the problem, they’d have been far better to invest in some SEO to get other mentions of them up the google rankings (and the OP’s thread shifted down) as opposed to paying a lawyer to draft something questionable about libel

Have read their trust pilot reviews.

Why do people give five stars for a product that they haven't opened

I’ll tell you who else censor negative reviews in their own website.....Joules and M&S.

I had a leaky pair of wellies from Joules....they eventually replaced them after a load of pressure from me and the new ones leaked. They’d initially tried to wriggle out of replacing as I had to send them off for a leak test and they lost them! Tried to leave a review, just about the leaking part....didn’t mention the lost wellies part and they wouldn’t put it up.

M&S, I paid £30 online for a top and the material was awful. Thin and see through and scratchy. I left a review saying I was surprised about the poor quality of the material for the price and they said my review did not meet their standards! Well their bloody top didn’t meet mine!

So I don’t trust any reviews now.

You are entitled to yr experience.
Mumsnet shouldnt allow co to whitewash yr experience of that company

Wow, interesting to note that all of the less than positive reviews on trustpilot have now been reported and being reviewed - so we can't see them or the responses!

In a defamation suit the company or person who brought about the lawsuit claims that they were damaged by the conduct of the person who made the false statement. So they would have to prove to a court firstly that the allegations were false and malicious. Secondly that their reputation had been damaged and that they had lost profit. This is a pretty difficult thing to do and would cost them a considerable amount. In the unlikely event that such a case did come to court such bully boy tactics against a consumer would not enhance their chances of a favorable judgement.

When you have a legitimate complaint against a company its wise to first complain to the organization itself or look to see if they have a complaints procedure. Keep a record of any correspondence. Then if you do leave a public review you can show that you made reasonable efforts to reach a settlement before posting a negative review.

In their own website they have no review lower than 3 star and even then it's good.

I've looked at the poster who posted the negative review on their TP and she seems a legit customer who has reviewed many other places very kindly. So not a troll type who just types bad reviews everywhere for a laugh.

Interestingly their Facebook page doesnt have a review page, just lots of self promotional 5 star reviews posted to their page by them. Its Good concept, poor execution and dosent seem to understand customer service.

@JacobReesMogadishu

I’ll tell you who else censor negative reviews in their own website.....Joules and M&S.

I had a leaky pair of wellies from Joules....they eventually replaced them after a load of pressure from me and the new ones leaked. They’d initially tried to wriggle out of replacing as I had to send them off for a leak test and they lost them! Tried to leave a review, just about the leaking part....didn’t mention the lost wellies part and they wouldn’t put it up.

M&S, I paid £30 online for a top and the material was awful. Thin and see through and scratchy. I left a review saying I was surprised about the poor quality of the material for the price and they said my review did not meet their standards! Well their bloody top didn’t meet mine!

So I don’t trust any reviews now.

Seasalt also do this I'm sad to say. My honest but slightly negative review hasn't appeared, so the thing that I bought is still 100% 5 star reviews only. Makes the whole thing a bit pointless.

I was expecting a complete and total ripping apart of business for them to have complained years later to get it removed

What a waste of their time when they should be concentrating on their customers.

I wouldn’t have paid £20 for all that either. It isn’t worth it especially when it isn’t what you ordered

I won’t ever order from them either purely because of the way they are treating their customers

Have finally found the original thread.

So instead of taking the time to look after their customers they are spending more time trying to delete old quite balanced reviews. That is not a company that I would want to do business with.

So they would have to prove to a court firstly that the allegations were false and malicious.

Just for accuracy, it isn't necessary to prove malice for this sort of alleged defamation.

I didn't read the whole of your last thread, but wanted to point out that jamiejonesey
only commented on your thread ever.

which leads me to believe they were the company pretending to be a "loyal customer" to argue with OP, and basically calling her mean.

By joining MN to pretend to be loyal customer goes against MN guide lines.

Mumsnet maybe need to be made aware?

@chaoticisatroll55

Mumsnet probably receive money from the company. I think Mumsnet need to realise that if they keep silencing people on these threads for nothing then we're going to get pretty sick of their site.

But they aren't silencing people, witness the fact that OP's thread is still up. They are simply following standard procedure on receiving a threat of libel and giving the poster the option of taking the thread down (which gets rid of the threat) and leaving it up and taking her chance that the company will follow through. In this case it's highly unlikely that they will, because the reality is that they stand no chance of succeeding in any iibel claim. So the thread will stay up, and all the company has achieved is more publicity for the original problem plus publicity for their rather silly threat. Win-win, I'd say.

MN’s email is completely non-judgemental and actually quite relaxed and reassuring. It says this is why they have complained. These are my options. If I want advice here are some links. When I replied saying I did not want the post removed they emailed back very quickly thanking me for my reply and that they would inform the company that I would not be removing my post. It’s a shame that the other posters have deleted theirs so people could see the whole thread.

I wonder if jamiejonesy will be back to update us on his/her latest experience of the company, as well as any details of whether Princess Beatrice will be following her sister's lead in stocking up on packs for her postponed wedding? S/he must be terribly well-connected to know that...

Unless jamiejonesy is in fact Fergs.

Good customer service is sorting problems out when they happen, not trying to erase bad reviews! Ironically it seems the company did try and respond to the OP properly but they are just digging a hole for themselves now.

Also donnalovemykids (nice name ) was a one day poster too, although they managed to post on two other threads within in the hour they spent on mumsnet.

My GP Surgery also do this and that's via the official NHS review website which is pretty shocking. I wrote an honest, pretty negative review of how terrible some of their reception staff were a year or so ago about the fact that as well as being rude and making people cry they were giving out incorrect medical information. I made sure to say that the doctors I had seen had all been highly professional. They had a string of negative reviews on the GP website, which all then had pathetic replies along the lines of well its so hard you know and this is just mean, we only get 10 mins for our coffee break etc. Nothing about how they were planning to address the problems with their triage process and staff training, even though they were legendary on the local facebook site and they clearly did have a plan as it has been approved. I received an email from the NHS review site saying my review had been disputed and was being looked at. It never appeared and I never received a communication about any decision. Since then I have submitted a few more reviews, out of interest and they have also never appeared.

So if people are gaming official NHS review sites what hope is there of ever being able to trust online reviews?

And yet TripAdvisor still seems fairly honest and people can spout whatever toxic bile they like on Twitter - go figure.

Can I just ask - why are individuals on the site being threatened with legal action, rather than the site itself, which has allowed them to post? Isn't it Mumsnet's responsibility for publishing the content? If I find something I'm watching on the BBC offensive, I don't try and track down the writer, I expect the BBC to deal with my complaint....

Was considering for my youngest DS for an 8hr round trip we need to make at the end of this month. Won’t be buying now, absolutely disgusting they can attempt to pressure people into removing reviews they don’t like.

Thanks for the heads up OP, I will never use them and I'll be telling my friends. The company's response to the negative Trustpilot review is pretty unbelievable tbh. Do they imagine that potential customers are going to agree and sympathise rather than think that this is a shoddy, unprofessional outfit and avoid like the plague? If they are having problems with their business it's 100% on them, not on the people who have spoken up because they are not happy.

They had a string of negative reviews on the GP website, which all then had pathetic replies along the lines of well its so hard you know and this is just mean, we only get 10 mins for our coffee break etc

My GP surgery has posted some defensive and some aggressive "everyone is out to get us, nobody appreciates us, patients are lazy and selfish" type responses to the handful of (balanced and legitimate sounding) negative or critical reviews amidst many positive ones (so clearly the hyperbolic "everybody/nobody" narratives are nonsense).

Even better, some of the responses to the positive reviews are along the lines of "thank you, it's nice to have our hard work appreciated, unlike most of our ungrateful patients". (Why would you publish stuff like that for the world to see?!)

Not only is it desperately unprofessional and an abuse of power, but it also reveals a dysfunctional mindset.

Plus the kind of "thinking errors" ("everyone is..." extremes etc) that the basic CBT they dispense to depressed patients covers. It irritates me that the same doctors who tell mental health patients they have to take responsibility for changing their own distress, change their thinking because meds are just a crutch, don't be so negative in your outlook blah blah are having a public strop demonstrating their inability to follow their own advice.

There is already a significant and problematic imbalance of power in healthcare. It shouldn't be accepted for clinicians to behave like this with review sites.

@aliloandabanana

Can I just ask - why are individuals on the site being threatened with legal action, rather than the site itself, which has allowed them to post? Isn't it Mumsnet's responsibility for publishing the content? If I find something I'm watching on the BBC offensive, I don't try and track down the writer, I expect the BBC to deal with my complaint....

The Defamation Act 2013 provides a defence for website owners under s5. - if they follow the procedure correctly, they are ultimately have a valid defence and the issue becomes one between the poster of the content and the complainant.

The guidance is worth a read for anyone who owns a website which allows comments, or indeed for anyone who posts on them:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/269138/defamation-guidance.pdf

If a product has no one, two or three star reviews I find it a bit suspect

I notice that this company have 3421 five star reviews, 242 four star reviews, 32 three star reviews, 1 two star reviews and not a single one star review.

Which is IMO a bit suspect, I’d have thought that over 3,500 people leaving reviews would have resulted in at least 1 one star review, even if its one that’s been left by some grumpy sod who’s complaining about something that most people would consider to be very trivial.