Well, the sh*t hit the fan. Or in the case, the router hit the fan? Maybe the sh*t hit the router. Regardless, router-making company Mediabridge has been kicked off Amazon. Companies of the world, you've been warned. Guess we can add Reddit to Texas in "the list of things you don't mess with. Here's the backstory:
A story is blowing up on Reddit right now about a user named "trevely" who posted a review on Amazon back in September about a router made by a company called Mediabridge. In his review, he pointed out that the router looks identical to another one on the site being sold for less and provided a link to FCC filings from Mediabridge that confirm it is, in fact, the same product (the link has since been taken down). He also questioned the validity of the product's "73% 5-star perfect rating," suggesting that the company may have paid for good reviews (The original review from the Redditor has been deleted, but there is a screenshot available).
On May 5th, the user trevely received a letter from Mediabridge informing him that the company plans to take legal action against him for posting "false, defamatory, libellous and slanderous" comments about their product. They stated that if he does not remove his review from the site within three days, the company will take legal action against him and "all other persons who can be identified as participating with you in this wrongful conduct." That last bit is a particularly lofty threat. The company stated that the fact that the review "so quickly gathered such an abnormally high number of helpful votes indicates to Mediabridge that there was likely a concerted campaign by you and unknown others to ram this review up to the top of the list of 'helpful reviews' in order to more effective in damaging Mediabridge."
Yeah maybe that's what happened, or, maybe the argument against the router seemed legitimate enough to users that they decided to upvote it of their own volition? I'm no legal expert, but it seems like it would be difficult for Mediabridge to prove that the upvotes were solicited rather than genuine. Although, this type of thing can and does happen on the internet. For instance, "meatpuppetry" on Wikipedia is the term for "soliciting other people to come to Wikipedia in order to influence the editorial process in a topic or discussion" and is strictly forbidden.
Redditors have urged trevely not to back down. One user, CrymeScene, shared his story about a similar experience: "The same thing happened with a company I ordered a jacket from. Received a threatening email. Amazon customer support was very interested, took my side, and threatened to remove them from their website. They also CC'd me on the emails they sent to them. You have to fight this. If you need crowd funding I'll start it off with a $50 donation to your defines." Several other users have stated that they will financially support traveley if he fights the suit.
Furthermore, almost every other commenter in the thread agreed that Amazon takes "vendor bullying" very seriously and will usually side with the customer. Especially because cases like this call into question the integrity of their reviews section.
Already the reviews section for the product on Amazon is overflowing with negative reviews and obvious trolls from users supporting trevely's side. However, trevely is asking that people not leave negative reviews, perhaps out of fear that it could be used as further evidence against him.