January 21st, 2009 @ 9:05 am
Well – I guess Garden Girl has “made it”. We now officially have a fake Rip Off report complaint. If you search “Kristin Miller Garden Girl” on Google the first thing that pops up is a very lunatic-sounding complaint on Rip Off Report. For those of you who don’t know, RipOffReport.com is a “supposed” better alternative to the solid and experienced Better Business Bureau. The tragic thing is that RipOffReport has the ability to damage a company’s reputation purely based on false testimonials.
Hence now there is one that I have from “Bob” in Salt Lake City, UT. Check it out – it’s actually pretty comical. Whoever wrote it is clearly a little bit of a loon. But that said – I have never had a customer named Bob from Salt Lake City. Further – I literally have not ever (truthfully) had anyone complain to me about rashes or any other skin irritations. Further still, there are so many other false statements in there – we do not test on animals, we don’t load up with synthetics and I go well beyond FDA requirements so they would not possibly have an issue with Garden Girl.
For anyone who has purchased Garden Girl products, you know that we are all about customer service and making our customers happy. We guarantee it. I have no idea why there are people so inherently nasty but that’s a fact of life. I won’t be surprised if similar postings show up from made up names. There are simply people out there with too much time on their hands that search for things to amuse them.
My suggestion is that you avoid using RipOffReport – simply for the reason that you cannot trust what is posted on there. It is incredibly easy to post something under an alias and there is no way to trace it back to you. And I always recommend that if you have a problem with a company you contact them directly. It’s the best way to get things resolved.
Similarly, there are companies out there that are doing the same thing with people’s personal reputations. There is one site that allows you to anonymously report on what you think of your fellow students in college. People are called all kinds of names, secrets are revealed etc. that can instantly ostracize students from people they previously thought were friends. Websites that host these types of forums are able to slink out of any legal responsibility. But in the meantime, they are prospering on ruining the reputations of countless people. Really – can’t they find a more ethical way to make money?
Anyway – that’s my rant for today. I’d love to hear what you think!
Chris
said,
January 21, 2009 at 6:48 pm
That’s just horrible! What a nutjob “Bob” is. I’m sure no one will take him seriously. On an up note, I agree that it is proof you’ve “made it”
Ginny
said,
January 23, 2009 at 2:34 pm
While customers should always try to contact the company first to work out any issue, many people find that it still gets them nowhere. I had such an issue, and reporting it at Ripoff Report helped me see I wasn’t the only one. Interestingly, the company contacted me about 2 weeks after I posted and vowed to work with me, so go figure.
Anyway, people who post falsely are scum, I agree, but the site does help the rest of us at the very least to vent our frustration and feel like we’re doing something. It sucks that someone would want to harm your reputation that way, and one has to wonder why. If it’s only one, I wouldn’t worry about it, and slowly but surely it will fade to the back pages of SE results.
In any case, be sure you’re tracking your name regularly with Google Alerts to see if this person is posting his/her bunk elsewhere on the net!