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More Style Less Susie

994 replies

WineGetsMeThroughIt · 24/08/2020 18:50

What happened to the latest thread? Why was it taken down? Wondering now if one of her crew are admin on here lol

OP posts:
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TrashPandaTime · 19/09/2020 22:17

@TofinoSurf I know! I’m almost a bit worried!

Geggs · 19/09/2020 22:21

This reply has been deleted

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WineGetsMeThroughIt · 19/09/2020 22:39

If Susie actually goes ahead and sues anyone it should be Main Hustle School for so royally fucking up her business

OP posts:
Cheetahfajita · 19/09/2020 23:31

Defamation court costs are HUGE, and she's not going to win on the basis of not liking someone's opinion.

It's a massive gamble to sue for that and to what end? It's unlikely average Joe bloggs will have enough money to cover just the legal fees if she won. So it would reflect terribly, dreadful publicly and not a penny to show for it, unless paid back at a quid a week?

It would be worse advice than moving to a paid app.

DeRigueurMortis · 20/09/2020 01:36

@Cheetahfajita

Defamation court costs are HUGE, and she's not going to win on the basis of not liking someone's opinion.

It's a massive gamble to sue for that and to what end? It's unlikely average Joe bloggs will have enough money to cover just the legal fees if she won. So it would reflect terribly, dreadful publicly and not a penny to show for it, unless paid back at a quid a week?

It would be worse advice than moving to a paid app.

The thing is business who adopt this strategy don't intend to sue.

The give away is in the volume of letters - think of the resources involved in taking many, many people to court.

The point is to frighten people into signing their own gagging agreement.

Libel is notoriously hard to prove and one of the best defences against a claim is "honest opinion".

Honest Opinion: it is a defence to a defamation claim if the publisher can show that what they published was a statement of opinion; that the statement complained of indicated the basis of that opinion; and that an honest person could have held the opinion based on any fact which existed at the time the statement was made.

Were people are critiquing a service they have a right to hold an opinion about its quality and proving that opinion was not honest is incredibly difficult.

You also have to prove you've suffered as a result of the libel by reputation and financially. Quoting one poor review on TrustPilot and demonstrating that it alone was responsible for loss of reputation/revenue is just silly, especially if you've made no effort to contact the reviewer and respond to their concerns.

TofinoSurf · 20/09/2020 07:08

I'm wondering about those that signed her agreement out of fear and removed all their content. Can anything be done to reverse this? Even if they signed it, can they ignore it anyway? I really feel for those that were scared into agreeing anything out of fear of being sued. It's so disgraceful to treat people this way.

YettaTessieMarmelstein · 20/09/2020 08:59

I think if someone signed and agreed to delete their context then they have to. The contract they signed becomes legally binding. But I could be wrong.
Nobody sign anything without getting a lawyer to check it.
The arrogance and narcissism of these actions is astounding.

happyandloved · 20/09/2020 09:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Geggs · 20/09/2020 09:38

But she can’t silence us all.

WowStarsWow · 20/09/2020 10:01

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MrsSchadenfreude · 20/09/2020 10:06

#SuedBySusie !

Shannith · 20/09/2020 10:15

@vkocy it's barely worth trying to explain that this is not a smear campaign, it's a legitimate reaction to some extremely dubious business practices.

You don't seem to understand that by paying for an analysis people are not signing over their unquestioning loyalty. They are paying for a service.

That is all. It's a transaction. If they are unhappy with their service they have the right to complain. In the normal world a business chooses to respond to or ignore this. Entirely their choice and a business decision either way.

However, a business runs the risk that if they ignore complaints, people will tend to air their frustrations via word of mouth and heaven forbid public spaces - so yes,social media.

It's basically the opposite of how they would recommend a business they feel positively about.

There is another get scenario: they not only ignore negative feedback, they seek to shut it down. This is reasonably likely to cause people to air their frustrations more often and more publicly to 1. Get a response 2. Warn other people that there is no feedback loop.

The response of the business is then to start to threaten people who have complained with completely spurious legal action. This 1. Scares completely innocent people who... guess what share their concerns with friends and yep... publicly. 2. Causes actual harm to people whose only crime was to be unhappy with a service and attempt to give feedback 3. Creates a massive increase in negative publicity about the business that the business can not control.

All because bad business practice was followed in the first place and with every entirely predictable development has dug a deeper whole.

This has mushroomed from a few people saying I'm not sure I've been analysed correctly and the delivery service was somewhat unprofessional and not as bespoke as I was led to expect to legal letters flying about and untold reputational damage.

It's not a witch-hunt. It's an entirely predictable response to a mid-managed situation.

Yes, it feels heightened because we are talking about women's bodies and their self esteem and because the business build itself around a single person.

But stand back and view the actual process without emotion and see how it looks if it was say a window cleaning service, a car mechanic, a hairdressers - any other service provider and perhaps you'll get some perspective on what had happened and what is happening here.

But perhaps you'll accuse me of being a troll. And add flames to the fire. Which is such a shame because much of this could have been avoided by applying some basic principles of running a business, any business.

Shannith · 20/09/2020 10:16

God ignore all they typos. It's Sunday morning!

Shannith · 20/09/2020 10:21

@TrashPandaTime

I was thinking earlier that only a few weeks/months ago this thread and the previous were just a few of us saying we didn’t think she always got people’s seasons or shapes right, but the business was a good idea and could be fantastic with some work.

Then the complaints started to come out and rather than address them she doubled down and escalated the situation, blocked people and encouraged positive trust pilot reviews, real or fake.

Then when we still didn’t stfu she doubled down and escalated further; started randomly removing members of her fb group then eventually closed her fb group with 14k or so members and decided that the way forward was paid Patreon, reducing her following to 800 or so.

Because of this, more bad reviews came out and people on the new group started to realise what was happening, so she doubled down and escalated AGAIN and sent cease and desist letters to bully people into submission.

Now people are aware of her threatening others with legal action which is arguably not great for her business.

Anyone want to guess what her next action will be?

Two choices:

  1. Admit the faults in her business, apologise to unhappy customers, move on and try to better herself and her business; or

  2. Double down and escalate

????

And everything @TrashPandaTime says. For those of us who run businesses, watching this car crash unfold had been horrifying and sad in equal measure.
TrashPandaTime · 20/09/2020 10:36

@Shannith car crash seems appropriate!

I don’t even run a business and have no desire to, but even I can see she’s not gone about this in the best way!

Atalune · 20/09/2020 12:35

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WowStarsWow · 20/09/2020 12:43

I don’t know what MN has against tattle. They are tiny in comparison and 99% of what is written on there is completely reasonable. Trolls go to mn to make up sick stories about poo and periods and stuff. Trolls go to tattle to bitch that their favourite influencer is being held to account. 🙄

Mammabear31 · 20/09/2020 13:10

Maybe those who are being targeted should screenshot this thread, if they haven't already? (Yes, I'm aware of the irony)

Now there's alot of legal talk this thread may well go poof like the others, and I would hate for any of it to get lost when it could be helpful.

WawLaDot · 20/09/2020 13:20

That is a good idea @Mammabear31 as once your posts are removed you've no proof should you need it.

Nonamesavail · 20/09/2020 17:59

Couldn't give a flying fuck if I get a letter it will be proof of bullying tactics

kevinn · 20/09/2020 18:39

MNHQ keep deleted threads...especially those related to threats of legal action. So should anything from this thread ever be needed to help those in receipt of a letter, hopefully it will remain accessible. Thanks

Sarahbarney · 20/09/2020 18:58

Crikey. I had seen this company recommended by Tomm and googled and came across all this. How scary

DeRigueurMortis · 20/09/2020 19:15

I actually think this is really sad.

I genuinely feel happy to see women building a successful business, especially so when the focus is female centric.

I think she had a good idea in offering style advice at a reasonable price point focused on affordable brands.

I think what it shows however that there is a big difference in having a good concept and having the experience to effectively manage, grow and maintain quality as the business becomes more successful.

There's no pleasure to be taken in seeing so much business potential wasted through poor decision making and even less so hearing about the experiences of dissatisfied customers who've been threatened with legal action.

MrsSchadenfreude · 20/09/2020 19:31

I agree, @DeRigueurMortis. And it was doing so well. She has been so badly advised. It’s a real shame.

Atalune · 20/09/2020 19:46

And any uptick in her insta following is just to see what happens next- no interest in styling!