Avoid Website Revenge: The Better Way To File Consumer Complaints

Being in the business of website development for over 20 years, we occasionally get requests from our clients for building & marketing a complaint website that will take a “ThisCompanySucks.com” or “ThisPersonSucks.com” type of approach. In this article we discuss the good, the bad, and how to avoid website revenge by offering tips on better ways to file consumer complaints that avoids the liabilities for website developers and consumers alike, instead of creating a revenge website.

We recently had a long time client email us to tell us about a broker from a local investment company that performed questionable business practices, that unfortunately resulted in losing their life savings. We could only imagine the frustration he was feeling, and completely understood why he requested a quote for us to build and market a website about this broker’s bad business practices. Having some knowledge in this area, and having had an experience ourselves of a former client defaulting on owing us over $180,000, I could sympathize with his situation.

While building such a site and marketing it is very possible, the issue is that it can put both the website development company and the website owner at a liability, even if everything posted on the website are facts. So I turned this client down, but gave him some advice that I decided I would share with the public, in hopes that it can help others to better understand these liabilities and give other options to share consumer complaints with the public, and avoid website revenge.

Is It Worth It For Website Developers?

As the owner of a website development company of 20 years+, I always appreciate new business and enjoy completing new website projects for our clients. However, whether you are a single developer or a development company, there are liabilities to take into consideration to make that decision if you feel it’s worth the risk of creating such a website.  Here are some questions to ask yourself;

• Do you have a solid contract for your client website projects that has been reviewed by a lawyer?
• Does your client contracts release you from all liabilities of content that is provided by a client for their website?
• Do you have professional liability insurance?

If you answered YES to 2 out of the 3 questions above, then you can consider doing such a project if you truly desire. Unless you have some top notch liability insurance that you know will absolutely cover all of your legal expenses if you are sued, I recommend against it though for one simple reason – just because someone doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on, doesn’t prevent them from filing a frivolous lawsuit against your or your company.

In an ideal world if someone wrongfully tries to sue you, you wouldn’t have any legal expenses or they would be covered by the other party when they lose. Unfortunately that isn’t the way the legal system works. The fact is that the larger the company is that your client is writing about, or the deeper their pockets are, the more likely you are to get buried with tons of paperwork and motions your lawyer has to file, each one which will cost you and potentially tarnish your reputation in the meantime. You could easily be looking at $10,000+ that liability insurance wouldn’t even cover, before the case is dismissed by the courts with no guarantee that the other party won’t file an appeal that will put you right back to where you started.

Ensure you take these things into consideration before deciding to do such a website, and instead consider just giving your client your ear, and some good advice. That brings us to our next section, and the advice we gave our own client for his horrible situation.

Is It Worth It For Website Owners?

It’s unfortunate and very frustrating when we have a bad experience with an individual or a business that has wronged us. Many times our first instinct is to find a way to tell the world about them, so you can prevent anyone else from having the same bad experiences. In this modern age people understand the power of posting information online and things going “viral” quickly can be the shortest distance between two points, leading to your satisfaction. But is creating a “revenge website” the best way to approach the situation and what are your risks as the owner of such a website?

The first thing you need to do is examine what proof you have. Without proper proof, you can easily be sued for “libel” (written), “slander” (spoken), or both. Here are some questions to ask yourself;

• Do you have written proof, audio proof, or video proof of the events in question?
• If it’s audio or video proof depending upon your state laws, is the other party aware that you recorded them?
• Does your proof show their intent to defraud you?
• Are there others online that have made similar complaints that you can reference?

If you have answered YES to at least 3 out of the 4 questions above, then you have options. Do your research on social media, google reviews, BBB.ORG if a company, and potentially local county circuit court websites that allow you to research court cases. The more proof you have that establishes intent and a pattern, the better off your are regardless of the course of action you decide to take.

Once you have established that you have proof and evidence against this person or company, before you go off and running to do a “revenge website” I suggest you take the following actions to ensure due diligence in exploring other options first.

1. Ask for their boss; In some situations you may discover that the person acted in their own selfish interests, and not the best interests of their company. A good manager may be willing to give you an agreed upon resolution.
2. Ask for their boss’s boss; If you cannot get a resolution from the manager and the company in question has multiple locations, the next suggested step would be to get the information for either a District Manager, or Corporate offices. Many times this information is readily available via their website or Google.com. Contact them and tell them what has happened and that you tried to resolve this without success.
3. Consider contacting a lawyer; If you haven’t had any success with reporting this issue to the company or the person works for themselves, getting a consultation with a lawyer would be advisable. Most lawyers will give you a free consultation to determine if you have a case or not.
4. File complaints on consumer complaint websites; Another step you can take is to file complaints on various consumer complaint websites. Most companies will monitor these and they may be more receptive to a resolution, and even if they aren’t at least you have told others about your bad experience. Some websites we suggest include:
   • BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU: https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started
   • GOOGLE REVIEWS: https://www.google.com/ then search for the company name, and on the right side you should see “reviews”. Click it to leave your review.
   • YELP.COM REVIEWS: https://www.yelp.com/ then search for the company name, click on it, then click on the WRITE A REVIEW button.
   • FACEBOOK.COM REVIEWS: https://www.facebook.com/ if you have a facebook.com account, you can consider searching for them and leaving a review there. However keeping in mind that unlike the other sites, they can always hide or delete these reviews.
   • RIPOFFREPORT.COM: https://www.ripoffreport.com/ While this is an older website that hasn’t been updated in years, it still gets some good traffic to it.
   • PISSEDCONSUMERCOMPLAINTS.COM: https://pissedconsumercomplaints.com/ A suggestion by one of our readers.
   • TRUSTPILOT.COM: https://www.trustpilot.com/ Reader suggested, but be aware – some people complain that negative reviews left on trustpilot.com are being removed for “paying” companies.
   • TRUSTEDBUSINESS.REVIEWS: https://www.trustedbusiness.reviews/ Reader suggested, a nice alternative to yelp.com.

Even though these options may not feel as satisfying to you, while your wounds are still raw, it’s a much better start with almost no liability. If you still wish to continue pursuing a “revenge website” consider these things before proceeding;

• Anyone can file a lawsuit against you, even if they have no case, and it can get very expensive.
• If your complaint is against an individual, chances are they are less likely to file a lawsuit but more likely to try to do the same thing as you – smear your name across the internet.
• If your complaint is against a company, most companies prefer to keep these things private and you have a much higher chance of them settling out of court if you don’t do a “revenge website”.
• By doing such a website, you also put your website development company at risk of a lawsuit filed against them as well.
• If you still wish to pursue doing a “revenge website” consider using a website builder service like wix.com or godaddy.com. Just don’t be surprised if after you spend all of that time creating such a site, that they suddenly take it down because a complaint was filed with them.

In Conclusion

While I can completely understand the desire to tell your story or your client’s story to the entire world and hope it saves the next person from being defrauded, ensure you fully understand the liabilities and risks involved with creating a revenge website. Do your due diligence work first, gather as much information as possible, weigh the risks, and make the best decision you can. Making a proper consumer complaint can be a frustrating process and provides no immediate satisfaction, but in the long run it’s worth it.