Ok....My previous post re: Rip Off Report was meant to show everyone that you CAN'T just trust anyone that reviews your business or a business you are looking to get involved with. If you are considering to work at home, join a business, then just make sure you run it through the BBB. They have nothing to gain or lose. They are here to tell us what company is legit and what company is not. That's their job. To inform us.
Now, since anonymous commented on my previous post. I will take a brief moment to explain a few things.
1) Yes, that's an old photo.....But it is him. Did not have time to go searching for an updated photo.
2) Hundreds of companies that have negative feedback are coming out and saying that ED will clear their name and negative feedback, "For A Price".
3)I have nothing personal against Ed. I don't know him, never met him and he's never commented on me. But a scam is a scam. No matter how pretty the package.
4) What does get me angry about this is when people are trying to find a legit business and come across false, negative comments about a company. Again, everyone.... Just go to the BBB.
The economy is terrible right now.....Between Ohio and Michigan, I don't know who is worse off. We are losing jobs left and right. So when someone decides that they have had enough and would like to join a business, they should not base their decision on a company and their credentials from some guy that requests a little pay off to remove any negative comments. Makes me wonder how some of those negative comments got there to begin with.
We are dealing with peoples lives here. There are honest business's that have Ed and his rip off report plastered on them. And this Ed seems to think that he has the power to play with and ruin peoples lives.
Now, with that said, I will say there is ALOT of scams out there as well. And when you can't tell the difference between what's legit and what's not..... I suggest that you get the company name you are considering to join and call the better business bureau and check that company out. Hmmm, I wonder what happens when you call the BBB about "Rip Off Report"?
If you need more info, click here.
Or Here or Here
1 comment:
I'm back because I want to clarify a few things, too. I can appreciate that you are to some degree retracting the strength of your previous comments, but the fact remains that just because someone said something about Ed doesn't mean it's true either. You are jumping to the conclusion that since you've seen numerous posts about Ed being a bad guy, you've decided they're right. The truth is Ripoff Report NEVER EVER REMOVES ANY REPORTS even if someone offers him millions. Every report ever filed still remains on the servers, and that's because Ed believes (you'll see this at his website) that people should make informed decisions based on how a company responds over time. People have tried to sue him over this, but he has never lost a lawsuit because he has never altered or removed one single report. He does add an Editor's Note to reports against companies who join his CAP program (http://ripoffreport.com/corporate_advocacy.asp), but he will tell you that's what they pay for--an investigation into the report, contact with the person filing the report and the ability to resolve the issues. He calls what he does Public Relations or somesuch because he sees his work as an extension of their customer service/marketing department, which everyone would expect to pay for. It's his site, and if he wants people to pay him to investigate claims which he knows will take time and effort, why shouldn't he? If he wants to charge for posting an editor's note on every complaint against a certain company, why not? How is that any different from paying for other types of internet advertising or PR?
Calling the site a scam or defaming Ed ignores all the good the site does. Who knows how many people have been saved from lottery scams or "government loan" scams or any other scam because the media found a trend there, followed it up and broadcast it to warn the general public. Who knows how many scammers have been prosecuted because they were caught through the diligence of people reporting there and law enforcement was paying attention. Who knows how many class action lawsuits have been initiated to attain justice for people ripped off by scammers (or lately, mortgage lenders). The site does good things for people, and unfortunately there is occasionally collateral damage, but that's no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And that doesn't make it a scam.
As to your comment that hundreds of companies are saying something, I see lots of blogs saying it, too, but I know that many, many of them are the same people posting in lots and lots of places. They always say the same thing.
As to the BBB, while that works for some, the BBB has its own internal problems, and they only maintain records on any company for 36 months from the first complaint, plus they rule in favor of their member companies more than 80% of the time. They also don't maintain records consistently, so if a company has multiple offices in different counties, they may have complaints in one county and not in the other, making them very difficult to track. There's a good article about the issues at the BBB here: http://www.smartmoney.com/investing/economy/investigating-the-better-business-bureau-23879/
In the long run, I agree with you that people ABSOLUTELY must spend the time to do some homework on companies they do business with. We must ALL be careful about believing everything we read anywhere and take into account that one or two or even three generalized knocks against a company don't mean it's bad, but you should look further into it (I seriously wonder about companies with 5 or more!). ROR is just one source, and we should all look at multiple sources, particularly if we're considering at-home business, or if the knocks against the company use appropriate language and give specifics about what went wrong. People should also read the rebuttals to see how the company handled these issues, and if they state in an adult way that it's a false post, use that as more data to encourage more research.
I don't know why this got to me so much, but I guess it's because I use the site for research regularly. I see some really sad stories there, and I see what a few say about Ed and the site, and it bugs me because I'd hate to see it go down when the good by far outweighs the bad.
I do hope you publish this so people can see how you're objective and open to disagreement and willing to present the other side. Thanks.
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