Customer gets fined negative review
Company fines for negative online review – Social media has given consumers a megaphone to share their experience with hundreds of others. One way to avoid negative posts about your company is to improve your Customers’ experience and responsiveness when things go wrong. If you’re not willing to do that, another option is to do what a company called KlearGear has done. KlearGear has built in a clause in their “Terms and Conditions” at the time of sale that, if accepted, prohibits any Customer from posting anything negative about the company.
“Your acceptance of this sales contract prohibits you from taking any action that negatively impacts KlearGear.com, its reputation, products, services, management or employees.”
It appears that one Customer ordered a package but never received it. After not being able to get in touch with the company, she wrote a negative post about her experience on Ripoff Report. Three years later she received a notice saying she had 72 hours to remove the negative review or she would be fined $3,500. KlearGear also has a clause that if you cancel your order, even for a reason like you never received it, you get charged $50.00. Check out the complete story on Hubspot.com.
Ugly Trend – I fear that more companies will adopt KlearGear’s tactic of building in a “no negative review or posting” clause in their Terms & Conditions — something no one reads or checks. The government will have to get involved quickly or consumers will lose all power and the ability to speak up, while companies can hide behind hidden clauses.
New perspective – When you read the definition of what a Customer Service Revolution is, one part reads, “It permeates into people’s personal lives, at home and in the community.” Here is an excellent example: I recently had a super successful Service Vision workshop with Nitel, a telecom company headquartered in Chicago. Shortly after the workshop, I received the message below from Nitel’s Director of Marketing, about how the workshop changed his approach to a personal situation.
Do you have a Certified Agent at your company this Holiday season? We are now taking applications to my next Secret Service Certification Class this March 4th & 5th in Cleveland. As a Certified Secret Service Agent you will have the knowledge to train your company or clients in the same “Secret Service Systems” used by the top Customer service companies in the world. This class is by application only. Email your application as a PDF to David@thedijuliusgroup.com or fax back to 440-484-2373. Limited seating.
– Mahatma Gandhi
