id=”mod_20468575″>How to Ruin a Business Online
It is absolutely possible to ruin a business online. But only in certain circumstances. There is an entire industry based on protecting online reputations called ORM or online reputation management. If you understand reputation management, you have the ability to make an online reputation manager rip out his or her hair. This is called reverse ORM or negative SEO. Please only utilize these tactics if a business has genuinely ripped you off.
Before you consider this, be sure to identify the weaknesses in the online reputation of the business. A good online reputation manager will have already done this, but most business do not employ ORMs because, lets face it, a lot of business owners still believe the internet is silly and that it cannot hurt them. They are wrong. So, so wrong. Ask the pink slime guys.
You have the best chance of recovering the money they refuse to refund to you if you are dealing with a small business. A business like this is also more likely to work with you when you are unhappy with their product or service. So the good news is that you can probably get your money back without resorting to the extreme tactics to ruin a business online as I have outlined. This is good because ruining a business online is actually a lot of work.
Is it Realistic to Ruin a Business Online?
In order to understand if you should try to ruin a business online, you should first take stock of that business and it’s online presence. You will never bring down a multi-national corporation such as Walmart, Disney, Apple, etc. If the business you are upset with is a major corporate player, it is best to stick within normal channels and try to work out your grievance within their system. You can even hire a professional mediator.
Why I decided to Ruin a Business Online
This is the story of how I got my money back after a business ripped me off and refused to give me a refund. I did this using guerrilla tactics to ruin them online. This is an educational post designed to help businesses protect their online reputations as well as empower consumers to hold a business accountable for their wrongdoings.
I believe that the internet empowers the consumer. If utilized responsibly, the internet can be used it in a way that holds scam artists accountable and forces them to do right by the consumer or to face the ultimate ruin of their business online. I believe that this is also a positive change in the tide for scrupulous business people who can create themselves an online reputation that rocks.
Things to Remember about Ruining a Business Online
Your goal is to get satisfaction for your complaint. You do not really want to ruin a business online, you just want your money back. You’re only going to take this just as far as you must in order to get your money back (or whatever the desired result is.) Play fair.
Assess the value of your complaint. If the business in question sold you a $10 item and you were unhappy, then you should be realistic. Do you want to spend two months of your time and maybe $100 trying to seek justice for a $10 rip off? If the amount was small, I suggest contacting the business owner and trying to negotiate a return. If that doesn’t work, write some bad reviews and move on. (The business I went after took in excess of $2,000 from me, so it was worth my time and money to pursue the complaint.) However, if you want to spend money ruining a business online out of principle alone… then make sure you go in knowing the costs.
Make credible threats. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do. And when this is the case, you should probably just give it up. If contacting the business does not work, write some bad reviews, contact the Better Business Bureau and move on with life. But there are some things you can do as a consumer to take the power back. Just be realistic about what you can do and don’t threaten anything more.
Ruining the Online Reputation of a Business that Wronged You – Give them a Chance
The measures I am about to outline here to ruin a business online take a lot of time and commitment on your part. You should only do this if all traditional measures fail. Before you resort to these tactics you should try to get your money back in the easiest way possible: talk to the business.
In my case, I sent the business an email. I politely outlined what I felt that they had done wrong and asked them to take a few simple steps in order to make me feel better. At this early stage, what I asked for would have cost the business nothing. I was simply asking them to right the wrong that I felt had been perpetrated against me. I have found that in most cases this works. In this particular case, I did not even get a response from the business.
Ruining the Reputation of a Business Online – Warn Them of the Destructive Actions that You are About to Take
If talking to them or corresponding via email does not work, the next step you should take is to write a letter. On paper. (I know, right?) Explain your complaint again. Very clearly tell them exactly how they can resolve the problem. This is giving them a second chance to right the wrong they have done to you. However, this time you are also going to tell them what happens if they decide not to honor your requests.
After you outline your wants and needs for the second time, outline the steps you will take if they do not comply with your requests. Make sure to give them a deadline. “If you have not returned my money and/or done XYZ by July 2, I will take the following steps…”
Send this letter via certified mail. Give the business a reasonable amount of time to respond. Between 2 and 4 weeks is best, depending on the circumstances. Remember that the goal is to get satisfaction from the complaint or issue you have, not to ruin the business online. Ruining the business should be seen as a last resor if only because it is so time consuming. Give them ample opportunity to satisfy your requests before you declare and online reputation war.
Ruining the Online Reputation of a Business: Getting a Refund – Reversible Tactics
If the designated time frame comes and goes and you get no response, or an unsatisfactory response then proceed with caution. They are calling your bluff. Do not begin by murdering the business online from the start. The first thing you want to do is take actions that you can reverse or undo if they continue to refuse to refund you. Using reversible tactics, you are still giving them a chance to redeem themselves. (Remember that your goal is to get the business to bow to your needs, not to destroy them.)
The very first steps are to take to Twitter and Facebook and other social media channels. Post on their facebook wall, Tweet @ them. If other ask you what they have done to deserve your tirade, make sure and tell them why you would not recommend this business. At this stage, you will be an annoyance. You may get a response from a social media manager, you may not. Depending on what you ask, they may just give your money back to shut you up and get you out of their hair. Great! Read my article about experiments I have done to test social media business response and crisis management for more ideas.
If that does not work, leave reviews on websites like Yelp and other professional industry specific sites for the business they are in. When you write the reviews, make sure you clearly articulate the problem and the response you got from the company regarding your complaint. Be factual. Just tell your story, do not say that the business “sucks” or that you hate them, etc. If you are bitter then you may not be taken seriously by the business or by other customers. You want to hurt them where it counts: at the bank. Writing overly nasty reviews is the best way to get people to disregard your opinion.
Ruining a Business Online – Your Initial Tactics Fail to Garner Attention and Fail to get Satisfaction
If your initial tactics fail then it is time to look at investing money. This is why you need to consider your actions before you threaten them. In this case, the name of the businessperson who wronged me was available as a (dot com) domain name. I registered hisname.com at GoDaddy for about $8… I also registered a variation of the business name (businessname.com) and the name of the owner of the company.
When you register these properties, try and get a dot com. If your grievance is against Acme Widget Company and their domain is acmewidgets.com, then register acmewidgetcompany.com, acmewidgets[your city].com or something similar. Once you have done this set up, a very simple blog using a low cost hosting service. I like Host Gator.
Additionally, it is helpful to register a google+ account in the business or business owners name and a twitter account. Make sure and monopolize all of the properties you can at a reasonable price. Then start updating them. A LOT. Search engines love fresh updates and new content, so you should update all of the channels and web properties you have as much as possible.
Again, be levelheaded. Tell your story, give updates about the complaint you have filed and do not use profanity or other bitter language. Think of yourself as a reporter: you are only giving the facts of the case as they unfold. Link to new reviews, link to other people’s reviews. Ask other customers for their opinions and feedback. Whatever you can do to generate content. You can even ask for submissions from other wronged customers.
Update frequently. Link to the company’s actual website, facebook profile, etc as much as you can. Get their attention. When writing, use the name of the business and responsible parties as much as possible so a google search for that company will pick up your site. You want their attention! Make sure and stress that the business is welcome to contact you at any time to make it right. Update your G+, Twitter and other social profiles every time you update the website/ blog. Make it clear that the business can contact you to make this right at any time.
As a precaution, be sure and add a disclaimer to the blog. “I am not a representative for Acme Widget Company, I am not affiliated with Acme Widgets, I am simply telling the story of how Acme Widgets ripped me off.” Make sure you do the same for social accounts. The Bio’s can be similar: “NOT the Real Acme Widgets Company”.
Continue to update these sites on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Give the company time to notice you and respond before you do more. After two months of doing this, I had actually been able to outrank the business on it’s own Google search results and people were finding me before them! I had hundreds of visitors to the website about them. I’m unsure about what the cost to business was for them, but I do know hundreds of people in my area were made aware of my grievance.
Destroy the Business Online – Going Nuclear on an Online Reputation
So, until now, all of these things can be undone. If the company you are targeting has a brand manager or an online reputation manager, he or she will be encouraging the business to give you whatever you want to make you stop. Before you go nuclear.
Going Nuclear will cause irreparable damage to the business. If you have followed the previous steps you should have been able to get the fake website(s) that you have created to rank in the search engines. When I did it, the website and the twitter would pop up each time someone performed a Google search for “Acme Widgets” or “Acme Widget Reviews,” etc. This is a nightmare for online reputation managers. Which is why going nuclear should be your very last resort. The business will already be feeling pressured to give in to your demands. You are holding them hostage. As soon as you cause irreversible damage to a business online, you have lost your bargaining chip.
Do not destroy the business online too soon. If the business contacts you before you go nuclear, you can agree to turn over the domain names and twitter (and other social accounts) in exchange for your refund. Plus expenses. Everything up until this point can be undone. For a Price.
If you are finding no satisfaction and you decide that it is time to go nuclear, go to sites like ripoffreport.com or pissedconsumer.com to leave reviews. You can leave as many as you want, even link to them on your website to give them authority and ranking in search engines. But beware that sites like these refuse to remove their reviews after they have been posted. Even if you get your money returned to you and ask nicely, these sites will never take down your reviews. Use these sites with caution because they will keep permanent records of your complaints and will not take them down.
Think carefully before taking this extreme step against a business. Since it cannot be undone, it may mean that the company will never give you the refund you were after. Posting on these sites is giving up and throwing away all of your bargaining chips. Please do not take these irreparable steps until you are certain that no amount of internet destruction will get your money back. On behalf of brand managers everywhere, please do not file these kind of reports without warning the company and giving them ample opportunity to respond without leaving a scar on their permanent internet record.
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sendingCindy
14 months ago
great read. I was just ripped of by an online company. I ordered one thing, they did not send it, they sent some knock off in its place, and then refused to issue an RMA. The person answering the phones stonewalled me in speaking to the boss, said she has”the power of the boss” ect.. I told her I either get an RMA due to a Truth In Advertising scam, OR I will be filing on the company for deceptive marketing practices. She then replied “Go ahead and file you are never getting your money back”.
So I filed, FTC, BBB, and The Oregon DOJ.
I then told her to stop communicating with me unless she was going to issue an RMA, these agencies are now acting on my behalf concerning the complaints. She bombarded my email address with all this crap trying to prove her side. I emailed her back 3 times telling her to stop emailing me. Finally I told her I would file on her for harassment as well if she kept it up.
I will be filing another report tomorrow with my DOJ in my state, and submitted proofs of the deceptive marketing. If all this fails, its off the small claims for us. 2K sale.
This lady was so brazen, so completely confident in her ability to bamboozle it made me want to just bring her down. I will do all I can to make life so difficult for her her life is smashed to bits.
POed
17 months ago
The best defense is offense. Go thermonuclear.
Anastasia Varianichenko
19 months ago
Good article. I will try to do it. May be author has some additional advices to update the information? Thank you
Zeeshan Ahmad
20 months ago from pakistan
good article it will help the new people in online businees
GreenWald
2 years ago
Remember, if a company ripped you off they have no respect for you and thought of you as a chump.
Giving them a chance is NOT an option. If the want to refund your money then fine, but still destroy their reputation to teach them a lesson. (they ripped you off and didn’t care, 퍼스트카지노 so now why should you?)
They count on you showing mercy, they know full well what they are doing when they rip people off, they just don’t think the person has any power to stop them. …well thanks to the internet the power is in the consumers hands again!
Lesson for businesses: Watch how you treat people, treat them with respect at all times or you may draw the ire of someone who will be hell bent on seeing your business reputation destroyed. Its simple, give respect , get respect. Too many businesses now think they are better than their customers, when in reality they are only as good as the customer allows them to be.
outragged
2 years ago
How can a company delete a negative remark left on facebook? My comment had posted and two days later was deleted. How can a business do that?
Juggle Jack
2 years ago from Indonesia
It is wasting time to do that.
Do you get any pleasure from doing that?
Ripped off consumer
2 years ago
The company agreed to a settlement. They mailed a check a week later then put a stopped payment in the check after I signed and notarized the settlement agreement. The company still has a piece of my furniture. I filed a claim and 3 months later no response. This Moving company is a rip off. Spartan Moving Systems, Miami FL.
Sam
2 years ago
I would like to hire someone to do this for me. Do you have any recommendations?
Vindictive
3 years ago
Thank you ma’am I’m about to go nuclear.
Edwin B Lowry
3 years ago from PA
Nice work, and now I know what to do if I ever get ripped off.
Akramul Haq Sagar
3 years ago from Chittagong
Hope so it will help to new online entrepreneurs
relentless2016
3 years ago
Really good information. I have a few questions though.
How can I reach the author for just 2 questions?
Cynthia
3 years ago
Thank you for this very informative article.