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.
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.
They should make a law that is upheld about things like this.
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.
Leave a bad review for them breaking the law. Each time they threaten you, append it to your review.
It should be an illegal clause
Is it though?
It’s not enforceable. Contract law understands that sometimes contracts are garbage.
See the top comment
That’s just the company expecting to deliver you bad services/products before they even know who you are. Absolute clown behavior.
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.
You ever see a dump truck that says “not responsible for broken windshields”? Guess what. EVERY truck — this is US law anyway — is responsible for securing its load. So why do they have the sticker? So you don’t bug them about it. Or at least so most people don’t bug them about it. They also say stay back 200 feet. That’s not a law. It’s just a bumper sticker and is equally as enforceable. If they crack your windshield because they didn’t secure your load, you (or rather your insurance company) can go after them. But the truth is, most insurance companies just write off so many broken windshields per however long anyway, they won’t go after the company even if you have proof. But they could — and so could you.
Post the review anyway. Or at the very least post a review that says “the terms say I can’t post a negative review so believe me when I say the service was acceptable.” It’s not a negative review. It’s not a positive review either. It’s a neutral review and it calls out the clause. It is heavily implied to be opposite of what you said. You said the work was acceptable, implying it’s unacceptable. If you used the same tactic and said the work was great, the opposite would appear true, that it was not great. But acceptable is not great. So say it was acceptable and imply you were forced to say that. Thusly, an intelligent person will see your message for what it is.
The sign could be about missiles - rocks on the road kicked up by the truck’s tires - rather than the truck spilling its load.
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.
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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.
Yup! It’s dumb. Bonus one: one could get sued by posting on social media a pic/vid that shows someone cheating and they get caught. It’s profoundly stupid
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.
As the other commenters said, it is illegal. The most important thing is to be informed about your rights so that people and companies do not take advantage of you.
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.
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
It would take very little incentive to make me agree not to publicly criticize some small business. But it would take more than that.
Not sure I can give up that right where I live.
1 star is not negative; it’s probably positive. So yeah. Unless it defines what negative means, the ambiguity favors me. ;)
