Woman gets $3,500 fine and bad credit score for writing negative review of business
In 2009, Jen Palmer’s husband bought her some Christmas gifts from KlearGear.com. When the merchandise still hadn’t arrived a month later, PayPal closed the transaction and refunded her money.
Palmer tried to contact the company to inquire about the order, but couldn't get in touch with anyone. Frustrated, she wrote a critical review of the company on RipoffReport.com and moved on.
But as KUTV reports, KlearGear.com resurfaced three years later and has turned Palmer’s life upside down, slapping her with a $3,500 fine and reporting her to the nation’s three major credit agencies.
"This is fraud," Palmer told the station. "They're blackmailing us for telling the truth."
Here’s what happened. Tucked away in the agreement language almost no one ever reads, was a clause stating that anyone who buys something from the website agrees to never publicly criticize the website.
The exact language reads:
"In an effort to ensure fair and honest public feedback, and to prevent the publishing of libelous content in any form, your acceptance of this sales contract prohibits you from taking any action that negatively impacts kleargear.com, its reputation, products, services, management or employees."
However, on some review sites individuals claim that the clause only went into effect in 2013, meaning that Palmer should be exempt from the fine policy. Interestingly, review sites also contain a number of mixed to negative customer reviews but only this one mention of the company actually issuing a fine to a customer.
And the actual language from the clause has since been removed from Kleargear's website.
In fact, the company may be facing some heat for bragging about it's own reviews. The Better Business Bureau has issued an alert against KlearGear saying the company has falsely claimed to have received an A+ rating from the BBB. "As of November 28, 2012, the BBB became aware that the company's website is displaying a BBB Accredited Business logo and BBB Rating A+," reads a statement on the BBB website. "However, the company is not an accredited BBB business and the BBB rating is not A+." See more at: BBB
Still, someone from the company contacted Palmer’s husband via email and told him he had 72 hours to remove her critical review from the site Ripoff Report, or face the $3,500 fine. Her review read in part, "There is absolutely no way to get in touch with a physical human being" at the site, adding that they have, "horrible customer service practices."
Nonetheless, Jen Palmer actually contacted Ripoff Report but that site demands $2,000 to remove a post.
Naturally, Palmer refused to pay the fee. Then, she found out that not only had Klear Gear imposed its arbitrary fine, but they had reported the “failure to pay” status to the major credit bureaus.
And the credit bureaus haven’t been helpful either, refusing to remove the mark from her husband's credit score. Jen Palmer says that she and her husband are now receiving rejection letters from lenders as a result of the negative mark on their credit score.
So, the Palmer's now find themselves at the mercy of three unresponsive entities: the website that fined them for exercising their First Amendment rights, the review site that refuses to remove her post and the credit bureaus, which are taking the side of the website over a customer who may be the victim of corporate fraud. In the meantime, KUTV has put the Palme'rs in contact with a media relations representative at Experian, in an attempt to resolve the situation.
"I have the right to tell somebody else these guys ripped me off," Palmer said.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
As Gunshots Shatter Lives
The recent tragedy at the mall in New Jersey gives us all pause. Mass shootings in America are increasing.
My fear is this: That President Obama will use this spate of recent shootings and future shootings as an excuse to seize guns from the hands of the American people. Under the PATRIOT Act, he already has authority to do this. All he has to do is declare a national emergency of some kind and assume the authority granted by President by Bush's treasonous PATRIOT Act.
Why these shootings are occurring is a different question. Whether these shootings are initiated by a conspiracy of The Powers That Be or whether they are initiated by Satan or whether they are merely a coincidence or a function of the new American Way of Life, the fact that they are coming more rapidly, at an increasing pace cannot be denied. America is in a state of siege.
Confiscating the guns of Americans would be the wrong path to take. The right path would be a massive renewal of faith, a returning back to Jesus Christ our Savior and repenting of the sins of our nation. Without this mass revival, it is most likely that any other measure would fail to provide any actual safety although the illusion of safety may be instilled.
If current gun violence is a function of higher powers whose goal is to rid America of guns, then confiscating guns would quell the violence of guns. If the current gun violence is not a function of higher powers but rather a function of the current American Way of Life or some form of tragic coincidence, then the confiscation of guns will do little to quell the spate of mass shootings.
It is curious that the rash of recent tragedies in America have all coincided with a Federal drill mirroring the same type of incident as the real tragedy. For example, the bombings at the Boston Marathon coincided with a federal drill based around a bombing by terrorists at the Boston Marathon. In fact, the timing of the bombings matched the drill bombing timetable exactly. The tragedy of 9/11 coincided with a federal drill in which armed terrorists would hijack commercial airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Capitol building. The shooting at the Washington (D.C.) Navy Yard coincided with a federal drill in which an armed attacker fired shots near the Washington Navy Yard.
Each recent major event seems to coincide with a federal drill based on the same incident. I may believe in coincidences, but this is stretching coincidence to an extreme.
If federal planning coincides with each mass shooting and terrorist incident over the past 11 years, would this be indicative of some sort of planning of these incidents at a high level of government?
I leave the answer to that question to you, for me, I have already reached a conclusion.
My fear is this: That President Obama will use this spate of recent shootings and future shootings as an excuse to seize guns from the hands of the American people. Under the PATRIOT Act, he already has authority to do this. All he has to do is declare a national emergency of some kind and assume the authority granted by President by Bush's treasonous PATRIOT Act.
Why these shootings are occurring is a different question. Whether these shootings are initiated by a conspiracy of The Powers That Be or whether they are initiated by Satan or whether they are merely a coincidence or a function of the new American Way of Life, the fact that they are coming more rapidly, at an increasing pace cannot be denied. America is in a state of siege.
Confiscating the guns of Americans would be the wrong path to take. The right path would be a massive renewal of faith, a returning back to Jesus Christ our Savior and repenting of the sins of our nation. Without this mass revival, it is most likely that any other measure would fail to provide any actual safety although the illusion of safety may be instilled.
If current gun violence is a function of higher powers whose goal is to rid America of guns, then confiscating guns would quell the violence of guns. If the current gun violence is not a function of higher powers but rather a function of the current American Way of Life or some form of tragic coincidence, then the confiscation of guns will do little to quell the spate of mass shootings.
It is curious that the rash of recent tragedies in America have all coincided with a Federal drill mirroring the same type of incident as the real tragedy. For example, the bombings at the Boston Marathon coincided with a federal drill based around a bombing by terrorists at the Boston Marathon. In fact, the timing of the bombings matched the drill bombing timetable exactly. The tragedy of 9/11 coincided with a federal drill in which armed terrorists would hijack commercial airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Capitol building. The shooting at the Washington (D.C.) Navy Yard coincided with a federal drill in which an armed attacker fired shots near the Washington Navy Yard.
Each recent major event seems to coincide with a federal drill based on the same incident. I may believe in coincidences, but this is stretching coincidence to an extreme.
If federal planning coincides with each mass shooting and terrorist incident over the past 11 years, would this be indicative of some sort of planning of these incidents at a high level of government?
I leave the answer to that question to you, for me, I have already reached a conclusion.
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