Groupon sales rep threatens restaurant with negative Yelp reviews

Post by tripzilch » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 9:03 PM UTC

kitcar wrote: post #12

I honestly don't know why this is even on the front page... It shouldn't surprise anyone that companies with thousands of low-paid roles are bound to sometimes end up with people which act unethically - we should be judging these companies based on how they deal with these employees, rather than the mere fact that these employees exist.

Post by ww520 » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 9:34 PM UTC

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)

Post by guelo » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 10:10 PM UTC

jeremybencken wrote: post #16

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…

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.

Post by josteink » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 10:55 PM UTC

Post by arbuge » Sat, Aug 17, 2013, 11:30 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #33

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…

It might not be extortion, because one of the elements of extortion is coercion, and the sales rep's mail wasn't coercive, but instead spiteful. Had the rep instead said "maybe all this could be avoided if you would simply make the time to talk to me for 15 minutes on the phone tomorrow", it might be more cut-and-dry.