It's now illegal for businesses in the US to punish customers for negative feedback

[Mira Yurizaki]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/11/congress-passes-law-protecting-right-to-post-negative-online-reviews/

 

It'll probably go into effect starting next year, but you'll be able to post negative reviews (legitimate ones of course, slander is another case) without fear of the business trying to "punish" you like threatening legal action or charging extra on your card.

Quote

The Consumer Review Fairness Act—full text available here—voids any provision in a form contract that prohibits or restricts customers from posting reviews about the goods, services, or conduct of the company providing the product or service. It also voids provisions that impose penalties or fees on customers for posting online reviews as well as those that require customers to give up the intellectual property rights related to such reviews. The legislation empowers the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the new law and impose penalties when necessary.

 

The bill also protects reviews that aren't available via the Internet.

The amazing thing I found in this though is it was a unanimous vote. In spite of the US's political broken base. There may be hope yet.

[Coaxialgamer]

good

[theninja35]

What makes a negative review legitimate, though, as opposed to only being posted to ruin the company?

 

As great as this may seem, it might also be a big mistake.

[Dionyz]

If someone was to punish me for giving a bad review, I would leave another one.

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, theninja35 said:

What makes a negative review legitimate, though, as opposed to only being posted to ruin the company?

 

As great as this may seem, it might also be a big mistake.

The person can prove they were actually a patron there at some point.

 

Like if I said "Dell sucks" but never purchased anything from them, let alone used any of their products (which of course is tougher to prove), I have almost no case.

[ThinkWithPortals]

Should've been illegal long before now.

[Atmos]

I wasnt even aware this was a thing in the US >.>

 

My Question though, what will this do to non Disclosure agreements about products, and those that break them? Are they exempt for a period of time from this law, or do companies just have to trust that these people won't spill the beans, or if they do just blacklist them from future releases.

[aneil1998]

I read it that it is now legal for businesses to punish customers for negative feedback. Let's hope that this makes other countries do the same.

[theninja35]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

The person can prove they were actually a patron there at some point.

 

Like if I said "Dell sucks" but never purchased anything from them, let alone used any of their products (which of course is tougher to prove), I have almost no case.

Right, but what if they purchased something and then complained about Customer Support even if the Support did literally everything they could?

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, theninja35 said:

Right, but what if they purchased something and then complained about Customer Support even if the Support did literally everything they could?

Then that's a legitimate complaint. If the customer isn't satisfied, they're not satisfied.

 

If the customer complained about customer support and never actually spoke to them, that's slander.

[dragosudeki]

2 minutes ago, theninja35 said:

Right, but what if they purchased something and then complained about Customer Support even if the Support did literally everything they could?

The bill sounds like it protects ALL reviews. Its truly up to the reader to determine whether it is credible or not.

[Guest Kloaked]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

Then that's a legitimate complaint. If the customer isn't satisfied, they're not satisfied.

 

If the customer complained about customer support and never actually spoke to them, that's slander.

This is a running problem on Amazon as reviews will show up even though the reviewers aren't verified buyers. Every now and then I'll see a "Verified Buyer" badge or something like that but not too often. I don't even know why they allow reviews there if someone didn't buy the product from the website.

[theninja35]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Then that's a legitimate complaint. If the customer isn't satisfied, they're not satisfied.

 

If the customer complained about customer support and never actually spoke to them, that's slander.

It's not legitimate if there is literally nothing they could have done and the customer is just upset about their product. 

 

What if, and this has happened, the customer ordered the wrong color but thinks that they didn't? That's an un-needed bad review and probably wouldn't be removed.

Or what about reviews that complain about shipping? The package has nothing to do with the company once it leaves their warehouses, but people still complain about the shipping and handling regardless.

[TidaLWaveZ]

I wasn't aware that companies could "punish" people for negative reviews in the first place. I've also never heard of this happening before in the US in my entire life.

 

Unless you signed a contract agreeing to not leave negative feedback then on what basis can a company charge you?

 

This doesn't really make sense to me...

[Fetzie]

Quite aside from this, but was putting extra charges on your bill a common thing? If I went to a place and they charged me more than the bill was, I'd be on the phone to Visa to get that shit sorted out so fast.

[AresKrieger]

1 minute ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

I've also never heard of this happening before in the US in my entire life.

 

Me either if they did I'd suspect they would be reported to somewhere like the BBB hence why I'm confused that this law needed to exist, I think I should look at what the law actually says

[Belgarathian]

Good. 

[Matias_Chambers]

Negative feedback (if it's actually true what people are saying) is better than positive feedback. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

8 minutes ago, Kloaked said:

This is a running problem on Amazon as reviews will show up even though the reviewers aren't verified buyers. Every now and then I'll see a "Verified Buyer" badge or something like that but not too often. I don't even know why they allow reviews there if someone didn't buy the product from the website.

Well, if I bought something on NewEgg and they had it on Amazon (say a Samsung SSD), and I reallllllly wanted to tell the world about it, why can't I write a review of the product?

 

They should at least have a field for "If you did not buy it here, who did you buy it from?"

6 minutes ago, theninja35 said:

It's not legitimate if there is literally nothing they could have done and the customer is just upset about their product. 

 

What if, and this has happened, the customer ordered the wrong color but thinks that they didn't? That's an un-needed bad review and probably wouldn't be removed.

Or what about reviews that complain about shipping? The package has nothing to do with the company once it leaves their warehouses, but people still complain about the shipping and handling regardless.

Then a good store will rectify the problem? Maybe send the item the customer intended? Maybe tell the courier to get their asses in gear?

 

I complained to Amazon that a package didn't get delivered even though it was marked as delivered. They resolved it. I'm a happy customer. If Amazon told me to go talk to the courier instead, I wouldn't be happy. Amazon themselves promised me the product, not the courier. If Amazon talked to the courier and the courier is snippy, then we have a problem with the courier.

 

6 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

I wasn't aware that companies could "punish" people for negative reviews in the first place. I've also never heard of this happening before in the US in my entire life.

 

Unless you signed a contract agreeing to not leave negative feedback then on what basis can a company charge you?

 

This doesn't really make sense to me...

 

3 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

Me either if they did I'd suspect they would be reported to somewhere like the BBB hence why I'm confused that this law needed to exist, I think I should look at what the law actually says

The original article had pointed out a case about someone leaving a negative Yelp review and the business had a "gag" clause stating customers can't leave negative reviews or they'll get hit with a fine.

 

You can also find plenty of cases were businesses try take action against patrons who left legitimate negative Yelp reviews or similar.

[TidaLWaveZ]

12 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

Me either if they did I'd suspect they would be reported to somewhere like the BBB hence why I'm confused that this law needed to exist, I think I should look at what the law actually says

Well the article said that the companies terms of service had an agreement that you could be charged for a negative review. This makes the situation more clear to me, but then again I never buy from bunk ass sellers that actually try this kind of garbage. The reason so few people have probably heard of this is because no reputable company would every try this and if they did the public would eat them alive.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, TidaLWaveZ said:

The reason so few people have probably heard of this is because no reputable company would do this.

Yeah, this is mostly a problem with smaller businesses, not big name labels.

[Guest Kloaked]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

Well, if I bought something on NewEgg and they had it on Amazon (say a Samsung SSD), and I reallllllly wanted to tell the world about it, why can't I write a review of the product?

You could write a review on Newegg.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, Kloaked said:

You could write a review on Newegg.

But what if I wanted to tell everyone on every store that carried it?

[AresKrieger]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

snip

Oh Yelp is involved that adds a stain to this, but it is referring to contract clauses ok does this damage the power of NDA as a result or is it now a grey area since that could technically be described as "blocking review"

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, AresKrieger said:

Oh Yelp is involved that adds a stain to this, but it is referring to contract clauses ok does this damage the power of NDA as a result or is it now a grey area since that could technically be described as "blocking review"

I dunno, see if they let businesses do this, then what's stopping any business from having something in some fine print buried away somewhere that's super hard for a customer to access that basically says "I can be an asshole to you and ruin your life if you so much as disagree with me"?