No business, no matter how honest and upfront, can be around for 10 years without having some legitimate complaints. Real CARCHEX complaints have appeared from time to time. More often than not, they are simple misunderstandings of the contract and what is covered in it or the extent of our influence on the issue. We do our best to achieve constant customer satisfaction, but sometimes a stated issue is simply out of our control or not our fault. Especially if it is fabricated.
There is a major problem for businesses on the Internet that needs to be addressed, since it actually interferes with handling honest complaints. It’s a dishonest marketing tactic that involves making false negative reviews and fake complaints on websites intended to represent legitimate customer opinions. The goal is ultimately to discredit your competition.
False Complaints—What They Are and Who Actually Loses
Essentially, one business will enlist an individual marketer or team of marketers to write false complaints about a competitor. They spin a story of being a customer that supposedly received bad service from the targeted business and exploit the credibility of the host website for exposure. This is legally defined as “libel,” and it is more than “playing dirty.” The victimized business can pursue legal action and get compensation. False CARCHEX complaints are not the only fake reviews out there. This ploy is used in all online business niches and can appear at nearly any website where user opinions can be made.
A major problem for the victim is that they have to keep alert to this possibility. More than that, they have to respond to the comment, expose that it’s fake and possibly follow up with legal action. Most of the review and complaint website owners have no way of knowing if a complaint is true or false, so confronting the issue is up to the victimized business. Once the truth is uncovered, many website owners will remove the false complaint, since this kind of activity damages the credibility of their website.
Let’s make some things clear—this is not just something that happens between two businesses. There are legitimate reviews, questions and concerns from real people that can get buried underneath this rubbish. Their questions can go unanswered for some time, and these people could suffer personally and financially for the delayed response.
Also, every second spent digging through fake reviews, addressing them, exposing them, and the rest of the process is time better spent helping people with their questions. Fake negative reviews are not simply aggressive competition in business, everyday people are caught in the crossfire. From the customer who asked a legitimate question to the review website’s owner, innocent bystanders become victims themselves.
Eventually, the fake reviewers get revealed as frauds, so ultimately, they discredit themselves. After all, if a business tries to scam consumers into thinking their competitors are scam artists just to compete, what does that ultimately say about their company, products and service?
