My name has been slandered by a customer report on a ripoff site

[vstiteler]

I am licensed professional working for a retail chain of store which is corporately owned. Recently an angry customer did not agree with our organization's refund policy. She posted my company's name, my first and last name, along with the names of two other people who I work with in the title of her complaint on a "ripoff" website. Negative name calling also appeared inthe title of this posting. There were several statements in her report which were simply not true.

I am deeply shaken about what this has done for my personal reputation. I want to proceed in a professional manner and take steps to repair this situaion.

I would like to share a portion of the email I sent to my Human Resource Department:

"I am truly distressed after finding this customer's complaints about us on the internet yesterday. The scenario she posted is simply untrue. From the moment this customer came to our store she was angry. I did everything in my power to turn her experience around, including, but not limited to:


* Addressed her complaints about her phone service the first day
she came in to the store
* Offered her a complimentary services and product
* Had her sign our form which states special orders take
14-21 business days
* Followed up on these orders, including return phone calls: we
completed 3 out of the 4 special orders complete within the promised turnaround time
* Honored her request for a refund and submitted the refund the
same day she requested



In our defense, this woman was very volatile and verbally abusive from the beginning. She raised her voice, called our staff names (i.e. you are just stupid), and used profanity in the store in front of other
customers.



This is the first thing which pops up on the internet when I googled my name. There is a forum for rebuttal on this site. I would like to take
steps to repair our names and reputation regarding this complaint. The
fact that she used our first and last names in the title of this complaint illustrates her intention to personally attack the livelihood of the individuals working here versus the organization as a whole. Can we verify the refund? Are there steps our company is willing to taketo have our names removed from this site?"

After I reported this to my boss, she forwarded my email to our legal department. I am waiting for them to respond as to how they intend to proceed.

Can you breifly explain the law on this one? What are some of my options?

Thanks,
V

 

[Michael Wechsler]

In short, you may have a defamation action against this person assuming that you can prove that what she wrote was false. You'd do best to have the company (or yourself) send a takedown notice to the forum stating that there is defamatory material that specifically identifies you by name. I'm sure the forum doesn't want to deal with potential repercussions and they will probably suspend this person's account permanently.

Could you sue this woman? Yes. But you'd have to think of a realistic dollar value it's worth and then think of the cost of the lawsuit. How much "damage" is it in actuality? If you aren't losing your job, it's worth even less. Unless it's convenient and nearby, it will probably cost more than this might be worth unfortunately. You'll probably hear from the company what they are willing to do and that will be your remedy. Sorry to hear about this and wishing you the best of luck.