My cousin hired a company called Toscano Floor Designs in New York and the agreement states: Purchaser agrees not to attack/criticize or write negative reviews online about the seller. This should have been a red flag for what was about to come.
you want to know some history, companies went after glassdoor and some users for factual critical reviews, hence thats why they are doing this, trying to do a NDA on people. they are well aware of these review sites could hurt thier chances of potentially exploiting employees.
its also why indeed forums shutdown, where you can get some information based on your indsutry, or some career discussion. most of them were about thier unethical hiring practicies; includes salary baiting, or pretending to hiring when they arnt,etc. some niche grad program/school can be found.(probably the only place that discussing the CLS program, for example).
now glassdoor allows astroturfing with fake positive reviews, and requires datamining your account to(you can bypass this with using a fake email/temp email to look at reviews)
Yeah… that’s a huge nope. I’d have walked the moment I saw that even if it’s not enforceable, since they’re not confident enough to stand by their own quality.
Depends. For a $20 gift card? No.
Buy me a fully paid off house with homeowner insurance for the rest of my life? Maybe.
A billion dollars, tax-free? Hmmm yea I’d be very tempted, very likely to take the deal. I mean my voice wasn’t that loud anyways, I mean like… my one 1-star review weren’t ever gonna hurt them, might as well take the deal, I’d make sure to read through all the fine prints in the agreement.
It’s weird how terms/conditions can be clearly illegal but still count in some places.
It would take very little incentive to make me agree not to publicly criticize some small business. But it would take more than that.
bad reviews are how i evaluate the quality of stuff. Positive reviews cant be trusted most of the time but bad reviews might be more trustworthy. Any company that does this gives clear message that whatever they are selling is scam level quality.
Yep. I always immediately jump to the 1-stars/negative reviews to read the complaints. If they are serious and repeat them you know it’s probably shit. If there’s a huge spike from 2-4 to 1 star, then you can assume an associated high 5-star is artificially inflated pretty safely.
In Japan, a person can get sued for leaving an honest, negative review. One has to be careful with wording to avoid that completely (i.e. making sure that it’s clearly stated that the content is a personal opinion (as opposed to an accusation, I guess?)). Some people still do write them and some get scary take-down notices (which may or may not be real or enforceable). As far as I know, someone could leave a low rating on like a star-based system or whatever and be fine, but I am not a lawyer.
That’s awful for so many reasons. How are business/products expected to be held accountable? Obviously when you let free reign of negative reviews, you’re going to get some nonsensical ones or absurd ones, but people filter those out most of the time anyway. If you prevent (or there’s even a threat) for negative reviews, you’re just letting shitty companies and products get away with being shitty. It’s a loss for both consumers and the country wanting to have good businesses, though a win for shitty companies.
The Consumer Review Fairness Act makes it illegal for companies to include standardized provisions that threaten or penalize people for posting honest reviews. For example, in an online transaction, it would be illegal for a company to include a provision in its terms and conditions that prohibits or punishes negative reviews by customers.
Leave a bad review for them breaking the law. Each time they threaten you, append it to your review.
They should make a law that is upheld about things like this.
Visits White House
“Felt creepy, too much gold. Zero stars.”
FBI: hi there…
Sadly, this act only covers “form contracts” for the sale of services or products, and doesn’t look like it would extend to contracts of employment. That is, a consumer cannot be bound by a clause that prohibits writing reviews. And if a consumer of the company’s products is also an employee, then this act doesn’t prohibit a “no reviews” clause in the employment contract.EDIT: I goofed at reading comprehension of OP’s post. What I wrote is a correct but irrelevant analysis. This act appears to void the clause of the contract.
But that’s not the situation in this scenario. OP’s brother hired this firm to perform a service, and thus this law should apply
Whoops, you’re right. I misread the first sentence as though OP’s brother was hired by the company. In OP’s brother’s case, yes, this act would appear to void any clause that would restrict writing a review, whether good or bad.
I prevent my customers from leaving a bad reviews by trying to do a good job. I’d never sign a form like that, it’s a huge red flag and I doubt it’s even enforceable.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Yeah, if you stand behind your work and make it right in the event that something does go wrong you have no reason to fear bad reviews. Only thing we can assume from this contract is that they don’t do those things.
Most people will convert them to a 5 star in that event too as most companies won’t put forth the effort to listen to why you posted a 1 star in the first place. Those are my favorite anyway because 1) I don’t expect companies to be perfect (lord knows mine isn’t and I’m not) and 2) it shows you that they value their customers and want to make things right. Hard to find those these days.
A key to free speech is the freedom to make comment, outside of libel / hate speech etc., and the right to be called out for any comments made. I treat all feedback like I would making clinical records. I must be able to defend and explain what is recorded.
lmao
I would be giving them a negative review just for having that bullshit in their contract.
"One star
Literally made me sign a contract saying I would’t leave a negative review. Speaks for itself. "
I wouldn’t do business with them further. Even if they edited it out of the contract, shows how you cannot trust the existing reviews
Sketch AF, so, no.
I got something like a 70% discount on new triple paned windows for my whole house simply to be a neighborhood “demo” house. They still told me straight up if I didn’t like the work, to leave an honest review to that effect.
I had 2 sliders, 11 windows, 7 skylights replaced for under $10k and it made a night and day difference in heating, cooling, and noise. And because of my HOA at the time, I couldn’t abide by the “lawn signs” agreement so they waived it. And then COVID hit so I was excused from ever having to talk to anyone about the service.
I lucked out, yes, but all that to say they still said I should be honest in all interactions. If a company is enforcing not being honest, that seems suspect.
All that aside, did they do good a job?
Amazing job. I honestly would’ve expected shortcuts taken due to price, but a friend’s friend who had worked in that industry said it all checked out. I would have even accepted some cheapness and still been OK given the price, just to get off my single pane aluminum windows.
In the end, they were far less drafty, summer heat didn’t leak through, and road noise was down. No complaints at all from me and I left them a positive review.
Honestly, that sounds amazing, it’s good to hear of an occasional win!
Yeah to be honest I actually feel kind of bad for them (I know I shouldn’t). But they did a superb job and communicated well and then COVID shut everything down and I guarantee they saw no benefit from my job…
…and then I sold the house in like 2021 and moved in with family. So, yeah. It was great while it lasted but some part of me does wish there was a little more quid pro quo, they deserve it.
Agreements like that are not enforceable, and yeh they’re a red flag for sure.
I would never hire a company that had a clause like this. Just find someone else. There’s a reason they felt it necessary to include that.
I worked with an accountant for years and he got his ass bit by some asshole who left him a negative, and false, review.
He added a clause on renewal contracts with new language saying you won’t leave a negative review and to arbitration.
I told him I’m not signing this. I never leave reviews and I understand he’s trying to mitigate his losses and force arbitration but I told him that it wasn’t going to work.
these companies, sued glassdoors once for letting badreviews, now glassdoors allows astroturfing of it, thats why they are doing it now. this happened around early pandemic. the employers are very much afraid of glasdoor, indeed or another site allow bad reviews of thier illegal or unethical behaviour. they want naive employees to exploit.
