How to Deal with a Ripoff Report Listing

I agree that a rebuttal is usually warranted and a good way to go with Rep Management, but one thing we try to teach our clients is write the response without mentioning your company name or personal name as it will help the piece rank higher. Obviously it may need to be said once to state who the Rebuttal is from but especially in cases of Rip Off Report (and their ridiculous amount of trust in Google) rebuttals can be the quickest way to make sure that post ranks even higher for your term.

Nice post Glen.

Thanks for the mention again about our post on ROR. The thing that absolutely amazes me is that no one from Google has stepped up and made things right. If our post didn’t get anyones attention in Google, then nothing will. In my opinion - their silence is making them look very guilty in allowing ROR to spam their index. I really hope the money is good, because allowing this is (dare I say it) allowing evil to happen.

Someone needs to unleash the hax0r power on ‘em.

I am the victim of a bogus report on ROR. I have written a rebuttal several times. They have never been published. I have written ROR to ask why and to date I have received no response. What these people are doing just is not right. Truth means nothing to the folks at ROR.

I am the victim of a bogus report on ROR. I have written rebuttals several times and they have never been published. I have written to the editor at ROR to ask him why they won’t publish my rebuttal. To date I have received no response. The truth seems to not matter at all to these guys. What they are doing just isn’t right.

This was an interesting post for me to read as I have used RipOffReport quite a few times to investigate companies that were a bit questionable, whether it was their tactics, their offers, or something else. In fact, I went to a seminar once where a company used very high pressure tactics to get folks to shell out several thousand dollars for webhosting, websites - the whole nine yards. Many people who didn’t know better were sucked in. When I came home, I looked the company up on ROR and saw they were known for doing the same thing in many different areas of the U.S., and had even changed the name of the company a few times.

I have also seen rebuttals on their website, although the people filing rebuttals do seem to be met with a good deal of skepticism from the readers. If ROR is not publishing rebuttals, or requesting payment for a listing to be removed, then that is plainly wrong. Makes it difficult to know who to trust, although I always do a lot of research (ROR is just one site that I check) to see what reviews there are for programs, services and so on. Sorry to hear about your problems, Aaron.
- Megan

Thanks, Megan. At this point I am at a loss. I guess I will create a several blogs and such in order to try and push this ROR site down. What bothers me most is how there was no attempt to even check for factual accuracy in the report about me. The things this guy says that I did………they just aren’t true. And the fact that they aren’t letting me present my side, why would you even do that to someone. I

I’m all for consumer advocacy. I read Consumer Report religiously and always do research before purchasing something. But this website, it isn’t consumerism. It’s gossip.

Hey this site comes up third when you Google my name! Awesome! Since ROR won’t post my reply then I will post it here if that’s ok with everyone.

Here goes:

“I have been trying to post a rebuttal to this posting for a VERY, VERY long time and for some reason my response to this issue has never made it on to this site.

I called a furniture store to try to find a particular item and Doug just happened to be the guy who answered the phone. He was very helpful and seemed a bit overqualified for what he was doing for a living. I just asked him if he liked his job and he said he was definitely open to doing something else. I used a company-approved script to invite him to our office. The script is very clear about how our open interview process works so I’m not sure why Doug was surprised when he got down there.

Doug left the presentation before I had a chance to speak with him. I like to call anyone who takes time out to come to a presentation and thank them for their time. I was absolutely not at all rude or abusive to Doug in any way and I certainly did not hang up on him. He said he didn’t think our opportunity was a good fit for him because he’s “not a salesman”. I told him that he was quite the salesman when I had spoke with him at the furniture store…and Doug went on a tirade. I never got to say another word.

Apparently he had been in computers and was laid-off (a common tale in Denver at the time) and that’s how he ended up at the furniture store. He got very angry talking about the whole thing and he hung up on me. I understand that being laid-off can be a traumatic thing; I’ve gone through it myself. What I don’t understand is why Doug decided to take out his frustration on me by posting this “report”. Just about everything he says about me is untrue. I can’t help but wonder why his version of what happened is so different than what actually happened.

I have witnessed so many people join Primerica and change their lives. I honestly offered a viable opportunity to Doug when he was in need of one. I never misled him in any way. If it wasn’t right for him, that’s fine, but how is that in any way a “rip-off”? “

I am a victim of Rip Off. He has created an employee I never had and all of a sudden just the other day there is this other scathing article about me and my company, from “friendly”.

I do have a couple of complaints which are real, but they come from 2006 and were handled in court fairly.

but other complaints are bogus

I have filed rubuttals and they are not there to be found,.

I am not sure what I can do.

He is at the top of the search engines and I do not understand Google.

It seems we need to band together in a group - in a united force somehow

What do you think?

Well Aaron

I can only say I have had the same problems. I have posted rebuttals on Rip off only to find they are not there!

I too had one person who was discontented. Now this person writes reports about something that happened 2 years ago. It sounds like it happened yesterday.

Then ROR has created a fake employee, that this person (Pam) responds to.

I need to do something about this. I am not sure what. Maybe we can form some kind of united group?

I will write here again with an email address that anyone can write to.

Ruth

I have tried to post a rebuttal for several days now…. it doesn’t show up.
I signed up to be contacted by their Consumer Advocacy Program…. and they haven’t contact me.
The real ripoff is ripoff reports itself.

My nightmare started in 2006 when RipOff Report allowed 2 totally bogus claims come in which were created in my name and signed by my husbands name (all searchable and indexable). My husband shares his name with his father, therefore the RipOff Report shows up for his father too. I have spent over $3-5K in websites, and I cannot tell you how many hours in SEO development to clear his name. I moved it down for my name, but only onto page 2 on Google. The RipOff Report for his name still shows up no top PAGE 1. Yahoo, AltaVista, Ask and other search engines do not index RipOff Report. Only Google. I wrote to Google (what a waste of time that was), and explained that the claims on the internet were not true IN ANY WAY and they need to be removed (7 months ago). I explained that this was our family name being tarnished. After I realized that Google could care less, I started blogging. Now I am on every blog page, link rolling page, picture sharing page, etc. Our family name is posted all over the internet. But guess who is still on top? What else can I do? I really do not want our name here as it will eventually be indexed.

How can this be legal? Why can’t this be stopped? We need to change the laws in this information world. It is like graffiti on the web. It is gossip and should not be taken seriously. Where is our FTC? Our Attorney Generals? Where is our Government. Are they all profiting off this SCAM?

HELP ME PUSH DOWN RIPOFF REPORT!

Signed
I HATE RipOff Report

Wonderful post. I have been doing this for a few weeks to repair my reputation that a stalker attempted to ruin, and it is working for me. It does take a lot of determination and can be time consuming, but so far, evidence points to the possibility of this “counter-attack blogging” generating even more business for companies. It can, if handled properly, backfire on the perpetrators, as long as companies are diligent in their blogging efforts.

Before you even consider filing a Rip Off Report be very, very aware that you can never ever remove it. The Rip Off Report essentially takes over ownership of your complaint and uses your frustration for their profit from the company you complain about, not for your satisfaction. I would never pay an extortionist who uses ROR (and Google) as a criminal tool to hold my good reputation hostage unless I paid them their financial extortion demands. Why would a company pay a fraudulent ROR complainer anything if you cannot remove the report anyway? You’ve just permanently screwed their reputation for life and yourself too because I don’t believe that your complaint will put the company you complain about in any mood to mediate a settlement with you.

Filing a complaint on ROR is like one person holding a public lynching of another with no trial right on the court house steps rather than take your complaint inside the court house to Small Claims Court if a complaint is legitimate. So I believe ROR is mainly for people who have no legitimate complaint and no evidence to support their rant. I believe ROR is already causing great damage to our American judicial system and it will only get worse.

I believe the US Government will eventually need to step in and force hate sites like ROR to file a disclaimer on them like on cigarettes: “Caution: Reading this may be hazardous to your mental health.”

I agree with you Mike. It’s not something that honest people do. It’s a junk site, for anyone with white-trash revenge type mentality.

We have been in business almost ten years and only have ONE BBB complaint and have a 95% customer retention rate. We have 2 BOGUS reports and filed rebuttals, but they never got posted.

Thank heavens, our customers are smart and did their homework first on our company and on ROR…and how they are extorting thousands of dollars from thousands of companies to remove the bogus claims.

This has helped us with pushing ROR back a few pages…we are still tackling some others… ;(

1. create as many profiles on social networking sites you can find. Search wikipedia social network list.

2. add an in site blog and post till your fingers fall off…focusing on your companies name.

3. use VIDEO from youtube..upload whatever you got, and target your companies name.

Good luck and may the force b with you!
sandy

Mega Star Media INC
http://www.megastarmedia.com

Yes..thank God your customers are aware of garbage sites…thankfully, mine haven’t been made privy to ROR…they are smart enough to ask me for references, which they get, and that’s enough. Good tips! They do work.

good article

If Satan is seeping up from hell, this ripoff place is where he is surfacing.

Not long ago a competitor wrote a report including my name and my company name that included accusing me of fraud, tax evasion, discrimination and more. This showed up all over the web next to my name and company name in the organic search results with 24 hours of the posting. These were in some search results positions that had taken years for me to achieve.

I am a single Dad who is partially blind and turned down disability to earn my living on the Internet with a small business.

I spent nine years developing my 100% web based business with a 100% customer approval rating. Within one week I lost a top client and my business went down 50% in the next few weeks. The posting has destroyed my business. This was my only income.

After nine years of 12 hour days and developing business, I am now bordering on foreclosure which means my young daughter and I will be homeless - we have no where else to go.

I contacted the person who wrote the libel posting and they expressed remorse and offered to remove the bad information but have found they CANNOT.

I contacted the ripoff people and they said “we will not remove the posting so too bad sue us.”

So I am suing Google and the ripoff.
I am not sure what this will do for my situation but maybe I can help save someone else.

These people and practices MUST be stopped.

We NEED a class action suit NOW.

Do some homework on these rip people.
Their website is lie after lie.

“We NEED a class action suit NOW.

Do some homework on these rip people.
Their website is lie after lie.”

I totally agree. I am willing to be part of a class action lawsuit.
About 3 years ago, some competitor of ours posted two bogus reports on ROR. They knew what they were doing and put the correct titles and tags for it to show up on Google’s 1st page. The posts show up when my husbands name is searched and when our company name is searched. We have spent thousands of dollars on SEO to bump it down, but have gotten nowhere. Google continues to index RipOff Report even before actual news articles. My Husband and I are very good people, who work extremely hard. Our business has suffered severely because of this. Our reputation has too. Our competitor was jealous and very vindictive that posted this RipOff Report. The post was full of lies about my husband and our company.

The other issue is my husband is a Jr. So he shares his father’s name. His father is a farmer and a wonderful person. The post shows up on #2 for him if his name is searched.

I think that this falls under a different law. One that they need to create for slander and libel on the web.

A Class action lawsuit against RipOff Report and Google? I am all for it.

I also have been a victim of bogus claims from an ex-employee that refused to use their real name. By the writing manner it was easy to figure out who the actual person was, yet I can do nothing about the libelous comments. I cannot understand how Google gives so much more weight to an unqualified post that is 4 years old?

I am a stay at home mom that has a crafting business..its nothing big, a few hundred dollars a month. None the less, I have 100% ebay feedback and a small site. I also run a popular online mom blog and am active in a lot of forums. Some of the moms got “mad” at me and filed a ROR against my crafting business saying i defrauded their credit cards, when in fact, not only were they never customers, used fake names, and falsy accused me, I dont even take credit cards, I only take paypal.

But when you search my name online, its the first thing that comes up. Its completely humiliating for my family that just becuase someone on a BLOG got mad at me for an opinion i had on something, they attacked me online and it goes up with ZERO verification. I filed a rebuttal, but of course, ill be lucky if someone reads it ever.

I’m a consumer who posted a complaint against a company on ripoffreport.com, and now I’m worried that this company can take legal action against me - the consumer who posted the scathing complaint. The report I posted shows up in all search engines, and this certainly must have hurt the company’s business. I posted the same complaint on other consumer advocate websites as well, but all the other sites allowed me to remove the report.

I was a hotheaded consumer and ignorant of any legal repercussions that may occur. The company was acting in good faith, but I felt that they continued to be wrong about how they were resolving my situation. What I posted I felt to be the truth, but now I realize that I was probably wrong. I feel that I over reacted.

Now that the company has redeemed themselves, I feel terrible that I caused this permanent blemish which everyone can see by typing their company name on Google. The company had a spotless record, and even though I feel I didn’t do anything wrong when I filed the complaint, I wouldn’t have posted on ripoffreport.com had I known that the company was taking measures to resolve my issue.

I feel just as victimized as anyone else who gets a bad post on ripoffreport. I did not reaize until it was too late that I was being coerced into entering specific metatags designed to come up in Google, and I didn’t realize that I was being coached by ripoffreport while filling out the report to maximize the negagtive impact that this would have on the company. I thought at most this was just one of many numerous consumer websites where people can post complaints with much less or temporary repercussions.

Now I’m worried that this company can sue me for the complaint that I made on ripoffreport. I’m sure that this has hurt their business. As I said, the company was actually acting in good faith to resolve my issue, and I didn’t realize this until after I posted the complaint. I was truthful and honest in the complaint, but I was also angry and really accused the company of being fraudulent and dishonest - which I honestly felt was the case. Now I realize I was mistaken.

Any comments on what can happen to a consumer who files a complaint against a company on ripoffreport? I don’t see anything on the web where companies actually sue the original poster, so maybe this doesn’t happen too much.