Earlier today, it was pointed out to Bumble that Ripoff Report was removed from Google’s search index. Initially this was discovered by Search Engine People, and later reported on by Mandy Boyle. You can view Mandy’s article here as well as the comment exchange between yours truly and of all people- Ripoff Report.
Just what is Ripoff Report you ask? Ripoff Report is an open public forum where consumers can voice complaints against businesses. Anyone can go there and file a complaint against a business. As to why Google would remove it from the index, Bumble will leave that to the experts on such subjects. Bumble is merely an expert on douchebaggery behavior and couldn’t resist reporting on some.
You see, Ripoff Report allows anyone to file a public grievance for would be customers to view. Unfortunately, by their own admission right on their main web page the complaints are not vetted. In their own words…
“While we encourage authors to only file truthful reports, Ripoff Reports does not guarantee that all reports are authentic or accurate.” Interesting. If you are the business owner in question, you can of course reply to the Ripoff Report and even file for arbitration through their site.
Ironically though it is free for any disgruntled consumer to bad mouth a merchant (provided they use the honor system and “file truthful reports”, it costs the businesses money to settle the complaints. Up to $2,000 to refute a complaint by any competitor, schmuck, former employee or ex-wife with a grudge. Yeah, really. Again, from their site…
You submit a written arbitration statement identifying the false statements in the report, or explaining that the report was posted by a competitor pretending to be a customer. You are also given the opportunity to support your position with documentary evidence and/or sworn affidavits. There is a filing fee of $2,000 to pay for the arbitrator’s time and for administration of the program. The author of the report is then given the opportunity respond and you are given the opportunity to reply (source: http://www.ripoffreport.com/).
Bumble isn’t sure just how much money, nor does he care. The fact that anyone can flame your company in a public forum with an unsubstantiated claim is preposterous. This is why there is a Better Business Bureau in the first place. Bumble had hoped to investigate further on the actual fees that Ripoff Report charges merchants, but since he doesn’t have Alta Vista he couldn’t find their site.
Now you may be asking yourself what would so inflame Bumble as to care about Ripoff Report?
Simple.
Hipocrisy!
Within minutes of Mandy’s article, someone from Ripoff Report commented on her site. Obviously, they take their own reputation management very seriously. Again, you can certainly read Mandy’s article, and Bumble encourages you to do so. It was very fair. Now to the hipocrisy part…
Doug (from Ripoff Report) had this to say in reply.
Really??? Really??? Bumble is astounded that someone from Ripoff Report would be so indignant that anyone dare post something negative about them. In fact, if you look at the directory on Ripoff Report many businesses have their own section. One is curiously omitted. Bumble doesn’t see a section for Reports ON Ripoff Report. Wow, this kind of karma does not come around often enough. A company that has made it’s money publishing unsubstantiated rubbish is upset that anyone would dare to talk about them without doing more homework. There really isn’t much more to say about that. It’s so brutally ironic that it hurts.
Bumble will simply close with his comments back to Doug.
P.s. Doug, this one will cost $4,000 to take down.
UPDATE: Late last night the plot thickened. Google did not ban Ripoff Report after all. As it turns out a request was filed by someone at Ripoff Report to remove themselves from the index. A spokesperson from Google was quoted by Search Engine Land with the following statement.
The owner of this site delegated access in our webmaster console to multiple email accounts, and one of those email accounts submitted a url removal request for the site. We’ve emailed the site owner to check whether the site removal was an intended action, or whether the removal was a mistake.
As of this morning they are back in the index, prompting all the SEO and Reputation Management firms that make a parasitic living off of claims to remove false reports to breath a collective sigh of relief. Their mafia style protection money scams can continue unabated.
Doug has yet to reply to Bumble.
