Slander or not?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Allegra
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Allegra

Guest
A couple of months ago I ordered a dress from an online boutique to give to my daughter as a Christmas gift. I had never used the company before, but I didn’t check into it properly as a few of my facebook friends had “liked” it. BIG MISTAKE!

A couple weeks before Christmas, I had still not received the dress, so I went to their website in order to find the shipping date. I looked up my order on their website and where there ought to have been a tracking number, there was a simple “unfulfilled” with no explanation.

I clicked on “contact us” and I got an uneasy feeling when I realized that they did not have a posted phone number, email, or physical business address. The only means of contacting them was to write them as message through their own website. :eek: I sent them a message and received no reply. Four days later, I sent a second message and after two days I received an automated email response that did not address my issue and directed me to read their website for more information. So, I had a pretty good idea that I was being scammed at that point. I sent one more email and received no reply. This put me at about a few days before Christmas and I had no idea if I would ever get the dress at all. I was still seeing the “unfulfilled” remark on my order, but no one would respond to me.

I went to the BBB website and looked up the company and they had a zillion complaints from other people who had also concluded that they had been ripped off. I felt kind of dumb for not having checked up on the company prior to ordering, but I was glad my husband only let me get one dress because I wanted to get more and they were crazy expensive! I added my complaint to the BBB website, but the company never replied to them either. The BBB did have a phone number, but when I called it, it rang indefinitely and no one ever picked up and I never got a message.

When Christmas came and went and I still had no dress and no response, I officially declared myself “ripped off” and I took three courses of action. First, I posted a warning to my friends on facebook, detailing my experience. I did this because I had been required to “like” the company in order to get a discount and I wanted to clarify that I no longer “liked” them. I reported the company’s facebook page to facebook and informed them that I believed the company was defrauding it’s customers and using facebook in order to lure people into placing orders that were never filled.

I also added my comments to the company’s facebook page to the scores of other people who were claiming fraud. I made three comments on three different postings. (The company posts about three new advertisements a day) The first one was a warning to prospective customers that explained that I had paid for an item, never received it, and was unable to get any communication from the company for over three weeks. I included a link to the BBB website. The second comment was to ask how they had time to flood people’s inboxes and facebook feeds with advertisements if they don’t have time to fulfill the orders of the dozens of customers who had already paid them. My third comment was admittedly snarky. They had a post advertising “Deals and Steals” and I commented that “steals” was the operative word.

Anyway, today I received a notice in my email that they were finally going to ship the dress I had ordered. It was another automated email and it included a fairly excuse-y, woe-is-me general apology from the company CEO that included phrases like “I’m a single mom…” and “I never wanted to be so successful…” and “God has been with me through this ordeal…” She also accused those who had left negative comments on facebook of being “nasty and slanderous” and ruining her Christmas by making her cry. (And that’s not my normal exaggeration either, she literally accused people of making her cry.) 🤷

So, I guess this is going to be one of those did-I-sin-when-I…threads. Everything I wrote was accurate and while I didn’t use the kindest of tones, I didn’t use profanity, threats, or anything like that. My intention was to warn other potential customers that there was a good chance they were going to get ripped off if they ordered something. I attempted several times over the course of several weeks to deal with the company in private and they refused to respond. Does what I did actually constitute slander? Am I responsible for ruining this woman’s Christmas and making her cry?
 
No , you were more than patient.
And she should be glad you did not return it.
She chose to run a business and she has no right to blame you on her excesses or inability to run it.
Sorry to say , I do not even believe her story.
That is what I think…
 
No I dont think you sinned…

She is the one in the wrong for taking your money and not contacting you to let you know the dress would be delayed to the point that you would think you were never going to receive it…infact she should give it to you for free or heavily discounted as a goodwill gesture because after all what about YOU and YOUR daughters Christmas being ruined when the dress didn’t come…and what about the worry she put YOU and YOUR husband through when you thought you had been scammed (if I were you id still check my paypal/credit card /bank account or however else you paid to make sure…and notify them not to make anymore payments to her )

She is lucky you didn’t involve the police by reporting it as a scam …i doubt she sat there crying on Christmas day…if she was able to read the comments and bad reviews then why didn’t she email each of those customers instead of taking their money and ignoring them?..you are the innocent one in all of this so don’t let her story about crying on Christmas day guilt trip you into feeling bad…that’s probably what she intends it to do,.

dont do business with her again…and when ordering from anywhere online google for reviews first to see if they are genuine and have good customer service
 
NO, you did others a service by warning them, and you also taught her a huge lesson.
We see this all the time on Shark Tank, Little people go into big business without understanding the work and the inventory it takes.
Don’t fret over it. The email is designed to make you feel bad and drum up another sale.

🤷 Phfft. 😉
 
I think if she has so much trouble fulfilling orders, she should state clearly the estimated amount of time it will take for customers to receive their products. That would certainly clear up these problems. And if not that, at least respond to inquiries! She may not have wanted to be successful but she’s going to ruin her business if she keeps operating the way she is. She’s leaving customers with the impression they were ripped off. That’s her fault; not yours.
 
Allegra said:
A couple of months ago I ordered a dress from an online boutique to give to my daughter as a Christmas gift. I had never used the company before, but I didn’t check into it properly as a few of my facebook friends had “liked” it. BIG MISTAKE!

A couple weeks before Christmas, I had still not received the dress, so I went to their website in order to find the shipping date. I looked up my order on their website and where there ought to have been a tracking number, there was a simple “unfulfilled” with no explanation.

I clicked on “contact us” and I got an uneasy feeling when I realized that they did not have a posted phone number, email, or physical business address. The only means of contacting them was to write them as message through their own website. :eek: I sent them a message and received no reply. Four days later, I sent a second message and after two days I received an automated email response that did not address my issue and directed me to read their website for more information. So, I had a pretty good idea that I was being scammed at that point. I sent one more email and received no reply. This put me at about a few days before Christmas and I had no idea if I would ever get the dress at all. I was still seeing the “unfulfilled” remark on my order, but no one would respond to me.

I went to the BBB website and looked up the company and they had a zillion complaints from other people who had also concluded that they had been ripped off. I felt kind of dumb for not having checked up on the company prior to ordering, but I was glad my husband only let me get one dress because I wanted to get more and they were crazy expensive! I added my complaint to the BBB website, but the company never replied to them either. The BBB did have a phone number, but when I called it, it rang indefinitely and no one ever picked up and I never got a message.

When Christmas came and went and I still had no dress and no response, I officially declared myself “ripped off” and I took three courses of action. First, I posted a warning to my friends on facebook, detailing my experience. I did this because I had been required to “like” the company in order to get a discount and I wanted to clarify that I no longer “liked” them. I reported the company’s facebook page to facebook and informed them that I believed the company was defrauding it’s customers and using facebook in order to lure people into placing orders that were never filled.

I also added my comments to the company’s facebook page to the scores of other people who were claiming fraud. I made three comments on three different postings. (The company posts about three new advertisements a day) The first one was a warning to prospective customers that explained that I had paid for an item, never received it, and was unable to get any communication from the company for over three weeks. I included a link to the BBB website. The second comment was to ask how they had time to flood people’s inboxes and facebook feeds with advertisements if they don’t have time to fulfill the orders of the dozens of customers who had already paid them. My third comment was admittedly snarky. They had a post advertising “Deals and Steals” and I commented that “steals” was the operative word.

Anyway, today I received a notice in my email that they were finally going to ship the dress I had ordered. It was another automated email and it included a fairly excuse-y, woe-is-me general apology from the company CEO that included phrases like “I’m a single mom…” and “I never wanted to be so successful…” and “God has been with me through this ordeal…” She also accused those who had left negative comments on facebook of being “nasty and slanderous” and ruining her Christmas by making her cry. (And that’s not my normal exaggeration either, she literally accused people of making her cry.) 🤷

So, I guess this is going to be one of those did-I-sin-when-I…threads. Everything I wrote was accurate and while I didn’t use the kindest of tones, I didn’t use profanity, threats, or anything like that. My intention was to warn other potential customers that there was a good chance they were going to get ripped off if they ordered something. I attempted several times over the course of several weeks to deal with the company in private and they refused to respond. Does what I did actually constitute slander? Am I responsible for ruining this woman’s Christmas and making her cry?
Click to expand...
I agree with the others: You did the right thing and did not sin at all.
 
IN addition, reporting is not the same thing as slander.
Slander sets out to destroy, reporting merely states facts. Be at peace.
 
It wouldn’t be slander, because slander involves maliciously making up lies in order to destroy someone’s good name.

It could be detraction … if the people you speak to have absolutely no right to know about your ordeal.

… but I think people definitely have a right to know if a particular business appears to be scamming its customers. Alerting people to criminal activity is a good thing. In fact, not alerting someone who might be taken in by a crook is pretty bad.

While I think it’s sad that someone’s Christmas may have been ruined by complaints, it’s also true that people have an obligation to accept responsibility for their actions. This person apparently could have done just a little bit more to insure good customer service.

Also, it seems that you acted based on the information you had available, and that information clearly seemed to be pointing towards a problem. It’s not like you waited two hours after ordering and suddenly started bashing the business because you didn’t receive a confirmation email.

I think your intuition on this is correct: you did nothing wrong, and even if you were angry, perhaps there’s a justified anger here.
 
Report this to the office of the attorney general of your state and the postmaster (because it may be seen as possible mail fraud). I had a similar thing happen and although it took a while, action was taken and I got my money back.

No it is not slander. You are reporting the facts.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top