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Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

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Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#111

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

greenyoda wrote: post #81
baddox wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that act that's being threatened have to itself be illegal in order for the threat to qualify as extortion? Yelp reviews aren't illegal.

I don't think the act has to be illegal. For example, if I threaten to tell someone's wife that he's having an affair unless he gives me money, I think that would qualify as extortion. The language of the law doesn't say anything about the act being illegal: "Extortion is a criminal offense of unlawfully obtaining money, property, or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion." "Which Kinds of T…

Threatening to hurt someone's reputation qualifies as extortion though, and the victim doesn't have to necessarily go along with it for it to also qualify as coercion. He actually did hurt their reputation, so technically, the restaurant can call the law right now and get this dude to spend a night in bookings, but, I don't see this really getting there and I don't think it should be.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#112

Post by cabalamat »

ulisesrmzroche wrote: post #60
jeremybencken wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a story about Groupon except insofar as they hire unprofessional, immature sales reps. The sales punk didn't like how he was treated, so he gets revenge by (threatening) to leverage his own personal network. It's pretty unlikely this is some organized practice at Groupon.

That's true but what a huge PR blow, plus they hired the guy in the first place. This could get ugly if something isn't done right away.

> This could get ugly if something isn't done right away.

What might happen: front page of Reddit, followed by the guy being sacked shortly afterwards.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#114

Post by mbreese »

baddox wrote: post #61
droithomme wrote: post #6

Isn't this a protection-money racket (extortion) from a legal perspective? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_racket > "Extortion is a criminal offense of unlawfully obtaining money, property, or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion." > "In the United States, extortion may also be committed as a federal crime across a computer system, phone, by m…

Does that act that's being threatened have to itself be illegal in order for the threat to qualify as extortion? Yelp reviews aren't illegal.

It could also be considered tortuous interference if they are intentionally trying to disrupt the business of someone. In this case, if the sales rep did somehow get people to leave many negative Yelp reviews, that could be considered interfering with the business.

All in all, it seems like just another bad PR day at Groupon.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#115

Post by jusben1369 »

ulisesrmzroche wrote: post #67
jusben1369 wrote: post #59

He's not saying "Use Groupon or I'll trash your business" he's saying "You treated me poorly and now I'll get my revenge" This guy's a goofball for putting it in writing but social media has definitely changed how businesses have to treat whacky, unreasonable prospect's and customers. (The Groupon angle is a red herring)

I don't think the prospect was unreasonable at all. Hanging up happens all the time. It's whatever. The problem for Groupon is that this guy reps them. They need to explain to their customers fast what happened because this looks viral to me.

Oh right. Not defending the sales guy. Saying that all businesses are now vulnerable to social media attacks by folks by folks who in the past you could ignore. Should have been clearer.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#116

Post by avalaunch »

talklittle wrote: post #104
avalaunch wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The do not call law doesn't apply to nonprofits (including those seeking political contributions). It most certainly does apply to businesses. For each offense after asking to be placed on the do not call list you're entitled to 500-1500 dollars. You just need to take a lot of notes and take the offending party to small claims court.

Does not apply to businesses for incoming calls, which is the relevant interpretation of "applies to businesses" in this situation: a restaurant business receiving unwanted calls from another business. Of course it applies to outgoing calls from businesses, as that's the entire point of the law.

Ah. I see what you're saying. Thanks for the correction!

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#117

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

cabalamat wrote: post #112
ulisesrmzroche wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true but what a huge PR blow, plus they hired the guy in the first place. This could get ugly if something isn't done right away.

> This could get ugly if something isn't done right away. What might happen: front page of Reddit, followed by the guy being sacked shortly afterwards.

True. Isn't anyone from Groupon reading HN? I thought they'd pull a Nathan Bedford Forrest and get in here the fastest with the mostest mea culpa, but so far, I don't even think they know what's going on.

Re: Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

#118

Post by protomyth »

ronilan wrote: post #11
Irishsteve wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I guess Negative reviews = No sale Positive review = Sale Indifferent review = ???

Indifferent review = actually went there. You should patent this: "a system and method to filter Yelp reviews based on Groupons offered in locale" :)

Actually, I could see small businesses paying for a service that tracks Yelp and other review sites for "interesting" activity based on patterns like this one. Perhaps getting information from other sites to figure out who the reviewer works for.
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