Help! We are having an issue with a disgruntled ex-employee posting damaging content about us on facebook and other review sites such as Yelp!
The sad part is, he was dismissed almost twelve years ago. He and the owner were friends and his dismissal caused a huge falling out between them.
Then, out of the blue, he contacts the owner on facebook and immediately goes on the attack against the owner personally, against his business; against the caliber of the employees and essentially vowing to get even with the owner and his business. To this end he has been posting very negative stuff on facebook , seemingly whenever and wherever he thinks he can do the most damage and on other sites such as on Yelp and Citysearch.
I have contacted Yelp and given them a heads-up on the situation.
Is there any other action we can take to keep this person from spreading his vindictive bile? We have already banned him from our facebook page; but we’re concerned about the damage he can do to us on other sites and in other venues.
We are about to embark on a major campaign to grow our business. The last thing we need is for potential customers to be turned off from us because someone still has problems over things that happened back in 1999.
Your best policy is to completely ignore him. Of course ban him from posting on fb, and passively do what you can there, but there is no way to beat a troll or the people who will be swayed by one. You got rid of the guy 12 years ago, anyone who knows him knows that as well.
I believe Yelp has a “filter” that will assist you in weeding out the HIGH and the LOW ratings. It knows when someone is really going out of their was to PRAISE or HAZE.
You could also encourage your loyal customers to post positive reviews about your store. Why not ask them to provide feedback. If you recognize them on the site offer them something extra next time.
You can filter or ban him all you want but he/she will just use other on-line web sites or forums to bash you.
Nobody can stop this person except by law. You will need to use a lawyer and send them a letter to CEASE otherwise face a suit. They can be sued for Interference with Business Expectancy and Libel and typically a letter will make them stop, and you can put a large value such as $250,000 in expected damages to scare the heck out of them. If it goes forward, they will need to hire a lawyer and it will cost them, typically they see this and will stop. If is does go forward you will need to show damages which unless sales are dropping this might be tough, but any damage can be shown. This is the only way to stop these folks once and for all. Slander is oral - Libel is written as in your case.
Law. Libel
a.
defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
b.
the act or crime of publishing it.
c.
a formal written declaration or statement, as one containing the allegations of a plaintiff or the grounds of a charge.
2.
anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents.
If this person is telling the truth and they can prove all is true nothing can be done, but if they are making references that cannot be proven then he will pay.
You should also be signed up with Google Alerts. Each day you can receive an e-mail from Google listing any sources where your business name was posted in the past day or so. There may be places you haven’t thought of where someone could be slandering your name and business and Google searches them out and lets you know where they are.
Google alerts are SO important for all business owners to utilize. Put your business name in quotation marks and have daily alerts sent to your email address. I also have alerts for “Pizza + mycityhere” so that I can read any posts about pizza in my hometown.
In my case, I contacted the employee directly and let him know that I had taken screen prints of his posts, printed them, and had let all of his former co-workers know what he had written, and that they were letting their families and mutual friends know. I explained that this alone would ruin his reputation with his future employers, and cease any past friendships that he had with our staff.
I also let him know that he had exactly one hour to remove those posts or I would serve him papers for libel, demanding $50,000, and that he knew that I had the money to back it up and that it would cost him thousands in legal fees to fight the charges.
He denied that he had ever written anything, but of course, the posts disappeared within minutes.