Being harrassed by competition, not sure what to do!

[Jazzah]

Ok most of you know my story, my only competition used thier mum and appealed our planning permit, costing us about $25,000 in lost rent, planning fees etc.

It's a new year right? This year i resolved to get over it and move on. So what do they do, use their mum to post crappy comments on our facebook page? They have used friends in the past to post negative comments, liek I have heard it is crap there etc. I have jsut deleted them, but it still goes to my fans. They have used several friends. What do I need to do to get these people to leave me alone? It is totally unprovoked.

Can I do anything, how do I respond?


(without driving my car through their front window which is what I really deep down want to do! lol)

Jazzah

[David@Verve Recruitment]

Just thinking...

If you KNOW who's harrassing you and have any way of proving it, get the police / lawyers involved.

If you don't KNOW or can't prove anything, be the bigger person and let it go. You're only other option is to let the situation frustrate you.

Let them have their fun, and in the meantime you concentrate on your own business.

[Jazzah]

What if it has an impact on our image. Like their friends posting that parties are terrible at our place, that the face painting we did was bloody aweful etc etc. It is on Facebook and our customers see it straight away, they don't know who they are. I have blocked 3 people so far, who are connected to them. I keep deleting the posts but I am also aware that people must wonder if we jsut delete anything negative!

[Rico]

I would publish a post on my Facebook explaining the situation, and asking to my own fans to help me to find a solution.
Who knows... If you have enough good fans you may organize a huge payback to THEIR facebook page. Probably you would just escalate the situation, but at least you will have some fun doing it!!

[p4tricia]

First off.. if you are so sick of the attack, you can just disable public post on your facebook page. So only you can write on your wall.

Then.. you could always post a 'big as' message on your wall saying that:

1. You have been attacked or wrongly accused by some people. Name and shame them if necessary. Make sure it's valid accusations, with screenshots!

2. Say what these people are doing is not cool and appeal for them to stop by saying that they would not want this to happen to their mum, friends and families business.. and that karma will bite them back.

3. Ask your existing fan base and prospective customers to check and validate their accusation is true before making their decision.

4. Then Ask for your facebook friends and loyal customers' help to defend you and post real testimonials of how cool your party is.

5. Lastly.. turn it around.. say that.. well I guess if my competition decided to post defamation, it must be because they're scared and that your party must be much better and cooler then theirs. Don't forget to post photos and testimonials below this message..

---

6. If they don't stop... make a big thing out of it on your website. Post a news saying... "Your party is so good that people attacked you." Grab a screenshot and feature it on your wall. You can even talk to the media about it.. go for 'facebook, an avenue for unhealthy business rivalry' angle.

7. If they stop, and delete their post, thank them for stopping.

[David@Verve Recruitment]

Originally Posted by Jazzah

What if it has an impact on our image. Like their friends posting that parties are terrible at our place, that the face painting we did was bloody aweful etc etc. It is on Facebook and our customers see it straight away, they don't know who they are. I have blocked 3 people so far, who are connected to them. I keep deleting the posts but I am also aware that people must wonder if we jsut delete anything negative!

Oh I see the damage, and the heart ache and frustration that this must cause. But if you can't do anything about it, you can't do anything about it.

Like I say, first point of call would be Facebook, the suspected offending parties, and from there the police or lawyers. I personally can't think of any other direct action you could take to stop their actions.

You might want to write something on your facebook page saying something like

ATTENTION: We have been receiving multiple false negative comments which we believe to be from jealous competitors.

Or perhaps you can start a war on their facebook page, but I can't see that ending up well.

I'm not too familiar with Facebook but by the sound of it if they want to attack you, and it seems that they do, that there aren't too many options available for you, as such you kind of have to put up with it and hope that they get bored and move on.

Perhaps you could contact other competitors and see if they're suffering the same fate, and if so you could come up with a plan of action together.

Another thought (don't know quite how facebook works though), perhaps you could reply to negative comments with:

If our parties are so bad, how come this customer gave us this referal... Jane says the party was great etc....

Basically that would be an attempt to both show that you have good referals and show that their complaints are bogus at the same time.

[t-shirt fan]

Hi Jazzah,

I'm sorry to hear about all this stuff. That's just nasty! Personally, I'd involve the local police and seek their advice. You may also seek some legal advice. You can also report abusive posts to Facebook and they may have their accounts suspended/banned. There's no use stooping to their level as it could just escalate the situation. Just protect your name and protect your business! Good luck, keep us posted!

[t-shirt fan]

Originally Posted by t-shirt fan

You can also report abusive posts to Facebook and they may have their accounts suspended/banned.

To do this, hover over the offending post so you can see the X. Click the X and select "Report as abuse". Submit then delete the post.

You might also like to consider disabling public posts on your wall as a temporary form of damage control.

[Couple It]

Hi Jaz

In Google Analytics you can get the IP address of visitors...perhaps you can do the same on fb? If that's possible, you could post something like "we have had some fraudulent posts to our page attempting to discredit our business. The IP address where these posts have originated from has been passed to local police and we will be monitoring future posts carefully. Please be assured that all legimate posts will remain on our wall."

Good luck !!

Wendy

[David@Verve Recruitment]

Originally Posted by Couple It

Hi Jaz

In Google Analytics you can get the IP address of visitors...perhaps you can do the same on fb? If that's possible, you could post something like "we have had some fraudulent posts to our page attempting to discredit our business. The IP address where these posts have originated from has been passed to local police and we will be monitoring future posts carefully. Please be assured that all legimate posts will remain on our wall."

Good luck !!

Wendy

Nice.

That will scare the bejeebers out of them.