Has anyone ever been threatened by a business owner who you wrote a bad online review about?

[MrsBugi]

I won't name names at this time, but I was recently contacted by a business owner who discovered my poor review of her company and her services. She posted heavily edited (the material we received was not edited at all) private material of mine online for everyone to see in response to the review and when I asked her to remove the private material (which I never gave her permission to put online or to share in the first place and explicitly asked her to take down), she responded:

"I wish that you hadn't chosen to express your a disappointment in such a public, and insulting way. If you're going to post these kinds of comments about my work, I'm going to show people what the video looks like so they can judge for themselves instead of just taking your word for it.

If you'd like to remove your post or edit it to be more civil, I'd be happy to remove the link."

IMO the message has a threatening tone - that unless I "remove my post or make it more civil," she won't remove the link to very private and personal material which she does not have permission to put up.

What kind of recourse, if any? I was brutally honest in my review but not slanderous and very matter-of-fact about the innumerable ways in which she did not deliver services as promised. I have legal resources I can tap into if necessary to have her remove the material but I'd much rather this be resolved as peacefully as possible.

Ideally I'd like a full or partial refund since she did not deliver a quality product but she has not yet made this an option. All I want at this point is for the material to be removed.

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: MrsBugi
I won't name names at this time, but I was recently contacted by a business owner who discovered my poor review of her company and her services. She posted heavily edited (the material we received was not edited at all) private material of mine online for everyone to see in response to the review and when I asked her to remove the private material (which I never gave her permission to put online or to share in the first place and explicitly asked her to take down), she responded:

"I wish that you hadn't chosen to express your a disappointment in such a public, and insulting way. If you're going to post these kinds of comments about my work, I'm going to show people what the video looks like so they can judge for themselves instead of just taking your word for it.

If you'd like to remove your post or edit it to be more civil, I'd be happy to remove the link."

IMO the message has a threatening tone - that unless I "remove my post or make it more civil," she won't remove the link to very private and personal material which she does not have permission to put up.

What kind of recourse, if any? I was brutally honest in my review but not slanderous and very matter-of-fact about the innumerable ways in which she did not deliver services as promised. I have legal resources I can tap into if necessary to have her remove the material but I'd much rather this be resolved as peacefully as possible.

Ideally I'd like a full or partial refund since she did not deliver a quality product but she has not yet made this an option. All I want at this point is for the material to be removed.

Links to said review?

 

[Kanalua]

Where did you post this review? On their website?

 

[Ramma2]

ATOT Effect Negative Review Storm Action Force Go?

 

[MrsBugi]

My review:

"MSP, 8/4/2009

We just received our wedding video filmed by Gretchen S., owner of MSP and... wow. If I'd given my little cousin (or a monkey, for that matter) a camcorder, he could've done a better job than MSP did.

I discovered MSP while searching online for an affordable wedding videographer in Western Massachusetts and decided to go with Gretchen's services based on price (which was a baaaaad idea). We worked out a deal for $750 for 6 hours of taping without editing.

Wedding Day: Gretchen arrived on time for our 3:30pm ceremony. She was unobtrusive during the ceremony and during the reception I requested she go around and get cheesy "congratulations to the bride and groom"-type interviews from guests. I had to keep reminding and requesting that she go back and interview people as she'd agreed to but she continually returned to me and whined "Nobody seems to want to say anything!" Um, wow. How about you try a little harder to do your job? After the wedding, several bridesmaids and groomsmen actually came up to me and asked why the videographer didn't come up to them asking if they'd like to say something to us on our wedding video. Very unprofessional and disappointing that she didn't try a bit harder. After filming the toasts, she asked if she could leave a little early and did so.

ACTUAL WEDDING VIDEO RESULTS: It was a disaster. We were appalled when we watched the DVD she finally mailed us (regular US mail, it was apparently "lost" the first time she shipped it and didn't arrive until almost 2 months after our wedding - I'm curious as to why it wasn't sent sooner since she didn't have to do any editing to it).

Fun highlights of our wedding video include:

- Extremely poor sound quality, lots of scratching sounds and random hisses and bumps which made it difficult to hear many parts of the video.

- A person who was actually interviewed was filmed from such a terrible angle in the sunlight that his/her face was completely washed out. My husband and I couldn't even tell who they were and we were shocked that Gretchen didn't realize she should've positioned the camera better or at least asked the person to turn slightly out of the sun, initially or during the filming of the interview.

- Filmed interviews with wedding guests were CUT OFF MID-SENTENCE... including the interview with my husband's mother! MID. SENTENCE. I don't know if Gretchen accidentally hit "stop" or if she was just being lazy/careless but that is just unacceptable.

- During the cake-cutting scene, Gretchen zoomed in on the knife cutting the cake and... stayed there. All you see is an extreme close-up of a knife cutting a cake for almost 30 seconds straight. She missing us leaning forward together, smiling and being sappy while doing it. In my wedding video, I don't want to see a full-screen close-up of a knife going through a cake for 30 seconds, I want to see a zoom-ed out version of my husband and I, our faces, our facial expressions, and our hands actually cutting the cake! This should be Wedding Video 101 and apparently Gretchen forgot to take that class.

- The scene of my walk down the aisle was almost completely obscured by someone standing in front of the camera who was in the way. I wish that Gretchen had either moved a few feet to the left so that she could've gotten a clear shot of my walk down the aisle or at least had the balls/brains to ask the person in front of her to move. I'm sure he wouldn't have minded since she was the WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHER. She had extremely poor positioning and missed a majority of capturing my father walking me down the aisle. Really, really not cool.

Cliffnotes: Gretchen fucked up our wedding video.

Bottom Line: Do NOT trust MSP with anything important you want to capture on film... weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, baby births, etc.

This isn't really something that can be repeated or done over and both my husband and I were shocked, saddened and terribly disappointed with the extremely poor quality and execution of the filming. It was so awful it was almost laughable, except the joke's on us.

UPDATE: Gretchen responded with the following after I sent her an e-mail detailing my concerns as I did in this review:

"I think that the only way to fix these issues would be to edit the video. This would give me a chance to fix the audio, cut out the bad shots and give it a better pace and look. I realize that at this point you may not be too interested in spending more money on the video, but if you decide that you do want it edited I can give you a break on the price. "

Um, no thanks.

I already lost un-salvageable wedding memories and $750 (plus tip which I wish I hadn't given her because she definitely didn't deserve it). I don't want to waste any more time or risk any more money on such an unprofessional and talent-less individual/company. Shame on you, Gretchen and MSP."

 

[iotone]

Can you tell her you'd like the refund and see what the response is? Maybe you can agree to that and amend the post saying you did receive a refund.

 

[DesiPower]

Just give ATOTers the name of the business, I am sure she will make a career switch within a week.

 

[MrsBugi]

Originally posted by: iotone
Can you tell her you'd like the refund and see what the response is? Maybe you can agree to that and amend the post saying you did receive a refund.

This is a good suggestion. I'll send it and see what she says.

 

[Capt Caveman]

You didn't ask for references or ask to see prior weddings that she had taken? Sounds like you got what you paid for.

 

[MrsBugi]

Originally posted by: Kanalua
Where did you post this review? On their website?

On a popular review website where consumers are encouraged to post their experiences with services, vendors, etc.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

can you get a copy of the unedited footage?

 

[MrsBugi]

Originally posted by: Ramma2
ATOT Effect Negative Review Storm Action Force Go?

Power rings activate?

 

[MrsBugi]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
You didn't ask for references or ask to see prior weddings that she had taken? Sounds like you got what you paid for.

We saw a sample of one prior wedding she'd taken and it was decent. Ours was awful and nothing like it.

 

[MrsBugi]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
can you get a copy of the unedited footage?

What she sent us was a poor-quality DVD with a basic menu and no other editing. Raw footage would cost $500+ extra. If it was decent I would've paid extra for it and have friends help with the editing... if the raw footage itself is crappy I don't think we can salvage much from it.

 

[Soundmanred]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
can you get a copy of the unedited footage?

I doubt it would help, Media Shower Productions sounds fully incompetent.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

she is willing to edit the video at a reduced price though

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
can you get a copy of the unedited footage?

Sounds like that's all the OP got, considering that was their original agreement. I think the gripe here is the quality of the actual camera work and quality of the content caught.

 

[lokiju]

How pissed would you be if I posted the video?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Was there a close up of the dinner rolls while vows were exchanged?

 

[OCGuy]

Damn, those are some hot brides maids!

 

[Old Hippie]

On a popular review website where consumers are encouraged to post their experiences with services, vendors, etc.

I'd like to see for myself.

Were there other reviews of this company?

 

[NoCreativity]

Originally posted by: MrsBugi
I won't name names at this time, but I was recently contacted by a business owner who discovered my poor review of her company and her services. She posted heavily edited (the material we received was not edited at all) private material of mine online for everyone to see in response to the review and when I asked her to remove the private material (which I never gave her permission to put online or to share in the first place and explicitly asked her to take down), she responded:

"I wish that you hadn't chosen to express your a disappointment in such a public, and insulting way. If you're going to post these kinds of comments about my work, I'm going to show people what the video looks like so they can judge for themselves instead of just taking your word for it.

If you'd like to remove your post or edit it to be more civil, I'd be happy to remove the link."

IMO the message has a threatening tone - that unless I "remove my post or make it more civil," she won't remove the link to very private and personal material which she does not have permission to put up.

What kind of recourse, if any? I was brutally honest in my review but not slanderous and very matter-of-fact about the innumerable ways in which she did not deliver services as promised. I have legal resources I can tap into if necessary to have her remove the material but I'd much rather this be resolved as peacefully as possible.

Ideally I'd like a full or partial refund since she did not deliver a quality product but she has not yet made this an option. All I want at this point is for the material to be removed.

I think the facts speak for themselves. The monkey comment was a bit much and cliffs were a bit harsh.

I know how pissed you must be though. My wife and I didn't get our wedding album until about a year and a half after the wedding. Not to mention we didn't even like most of the 2000 pictures the photographers took. And we didn't cheap out either, we actually spent more to go with a "reputable" company.

 

[Soundmanred]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie

On a popular review website where consumers are encouraged to post their experiences with services, vendors, etc.

I'd like to see for myself.

Were there other reviews of this company?

Here

 

[Kadarin]

That review is pretty damning. How bad or sensitive is the personal info she posted, and is it worth just giving in? A little Google-fu and I find this:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/media-...roductions-northampton

Note that Gretchen's response in the link points to an edited version of the video:

http://mediashowerproductions.com/clients.php?cid=44

My apologies to MrsBugi if she thinks I'm posting inappropriately. This is information that is publicly available on the internet, and by bringing this to our attention in her thread, it becomes fair game to post.

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie

On a popular review website where consumers are encouraged to post their experiences with services, vendors, etc.

I'd like to see for myself.

Were there other reviews of this company?

Looks like hers was the only one.