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.

I’m not scared to post the link

Neither was I, just didn't want to get OP's thread deleted.

If you go to Google and type "keep em quiet Mumsnet" it pops right up.

Eesh. They don’t respond well to negative feedback, do they?

Like pp, I don’t expect every company I’m buying from to have 100% 5 star ratings - you can never make everyone happy all the time etc, and sometimes people knock stars off for things that aren’t really the company’s fault.

But the sort of defensive, ranty, accusatory response to a negative review that’s on the Trustpilot site is really off-putting.

If I’m considering ordering something online, then I’d like to feel that if I do have a problem with it, for whatever reason, that the company involved would handle my complaint in a professional way. The response on Trustpilot to that negative review gives the opposite impression.

ROFL at the blatant sockpuppet from the company ( jamiejonesey). on the original thread. That really is feeble

Or maybe “plant” is a better word.

id like to add my 2c here being a repeat customer of this company. I think you are being a little picky I'm afraid to say but would argue you shouldn't have the same type of item and they should offer a replacement. I have ordered from this company multiple times as have all my friends, i do recommend them if people are short on time or are busy with other things. We have always been impressed. I even helped a friedn organise her wqedding and she ordered these after seeing that Princess Euegenie got them for her wedding last year.

Absolutely cringeworthy, and manipulative. I hate it when companies pull these stunts.

DD is a little young at the moment, but I'd seen adverts for Keep Em Quiet and had made a mental bookmark of their products for when she's older.

Your (fair and balanced) review would not have put me off at all, but hearing that they are trying to scrub clean and delete it has made sure I definitely won't be buying from them now. Really shot themselves in the foot there!

I had a company refuse to correspond any more and wouldn't resolve my complaint about being out of pocket, because they saw my very factual and truthful Mumsnet post about my experience with them. They emailed me within a matter of hours of me posting it!

Ha! I searched some of the positive posters on that thread and one hadn’t commented on anything else at all, and the other had 2 other comments but made on the same day as the thread! Your posts are not the problem posts there.

Thinking about it, I imagine the company is under financial pressure because of COVID, but this isn’t the way to tackle less than flattering reviews. It’s the opposite of the right way.

@Whatthebloodyell

Ha! I searched some of the positive posters on that thread and one hadn’t commented on anything else at all, and the other had 2 other comments but made on the same day as the thread! Your posts are not the problem posts there.

Surprise surprise. 😉

Absolutely cringeworthy, and manipulative. I hate it when companies pull these stunts.

I particularly like the inclusion of typos to make it look more genuine!

if MNHQ weren’t prepared to stand by the posts, they would have taken them down without contacting you. So, they are prepared to risk legal action if you are. They can also take legal action against the OP personally - I speak from bitter experience.

I wrote about concerns about a professional (who shall remain nameless) and stated as part of my posting that I would be clarifying with their professional body so it was just a concern at this point. Their reviews were also terrible. They found out who I was and firstly demanded I remove the thread and apologise (it wasn’t on mn) then when I did that he still found out who I was and sent me a letter of claim threatening with court action...

I had to pay a solicitor £250 to advise me, and he said that if people do have access to the right kind of legal representation (and most companies would) they can take action, and even if they don’t win, it will still end up being a costly (and stressful) experience.

It’s not fair but trust me the amount of stress made me ill. I would agree for the thread to be removed.

I hate companies like this.

Once I left an honest review on Trustpilot about a satchel I bought. Within a couple of weeks the leather had cracked and it looked awful. I'd bought other bags from them in the past and they'd been fine, which I mentioned in my review. The company responded by saying that it was a bit of a strange coincidence that my name was similar to one of their competitors and that it wasn't possible that my satchel could be damaged in the way I described. I later received an email saying my review had been removed.

The bit about my name puzzles me to this day 😂

@Fuckinellitsme is your name Louise Vuitton?

Ridiculous. Nothing defamatory about the your posts on the old thread (and even if there were, there's a limitation period of one year from first publication to do anything about it anyway!). I say leave it.

[quote TicketToTheWrongFilm]@Fuckinellitsme is your name Louise Vuitton? [/quote]
Just call me Mul Berry, dahling 😂

(It wasn't Mulberry, to be clear, but a well known satchel maker!)

They can also take legal action against the OP personally - I speak from bitter experience.

That’s what I was saying. At least that’s what I thought I was saying. It purely depends on the post in question, of course.

If it’s any consolation OP, there are quite a few of us knocking about who have had that email from MNHQ at one time or another and have refused to withdraw the posts and nothing has ever happened. I can remember half a dozen of us discussing it a couple of years ago. The threads are probably all still up somewhere.

Huge overreaction from the company, and such a shame as the owner seemed to handle your complaint well. I won’t buy from them either.

@Fuckinellitsme

(It wasn't Mulberry, to be clear, but a well known satchel maker!)

You’re the Duchess of Cambridge?!

If Emma Green is on here... your review's been hidden!

This reminds me of the thread about the terrible kids cafe in South London, anyone remember that? It was hilarious.

@ChiaraRimini I remember that one! Didn’t it get deleted?

I wonder if they are injecting to you mentioning they wavered the restocking fee - since they haven't been allowed to have one since 2014. Naughty naughty to charge it!

www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/distance-selling-regulations