I recently moved cities within Germany and hired a moving company to carry out the move. From start everything was a bit chaotic. Sometimes I would send them messages or emails and not get a reply back for a couple days and I had to go after it. Eventually my contact person stopped replying to me and even my messages stopped being delivered. I thought it was odd but okay. A few days before the move I got called and they told me they would bring the boxes on the agreed date and everything would be as planned. The date arrived for the boxes to be delivered and no one showed up. I called and send messages but got no replies. At 10pm on that same day they called saying there was an incident and the boxes could not be delivered and they would only bring it on the day of the move. That was not ideal because I was also going to start packing in advance (which was agreed with them). They arrived with two men at around 2pm at my house (which I thought it was odd since I lived in a big house) and looked at everything. They were very surprised by the size of it and started saying they didn’t expect to be that big and that they needed more men. I was quite surprised by it all because one of their employees came to my house to give me the quote, he saw everything, made videos, pictures and only after sent me a quote.
They didn’t stay long that day and said they would come back next day with 8 men to finish packing and finally move to the other house. Next day they came back. Long story short, they said the quote they gave me was wrong. The person that I initially spoke was in the hospital due to illness and he made the mistake with the quote. Things this person told me would be included, were not anymore and I would have to pay extra. They left a lot of items behind, which I had to move myself after. They damaged many items I had and that was a whole other thing because when I claimed the damages, they said by law I was too late (the move went on until March 5th evening and I sent an email about the damages on the 7th.) There was a whole discussion about it where they even accused me of insurance fraud, when I asked them to send someone to come check for all the damages. Well, I posted a bad review on google that said the move was pure chaos, that was always getting different excuses. That I called many times, different numbers, sent emails and never get a response. And finally that the move was a complete disaster. And that I do not recommend! This was yesterday. I woke up this morning with a message on whatsapp saying that if I didn’t delete the review I would hear from their lawyers on the grounds of defamation online. Can they actually do that? So I cannot leave a review for a service I am not satisfied with? Not sure it is relevant, but I (F35) am not from Germany and don’t speak german.
by alinerg88
11 comments
You poor thing. This sounds like a threat and nothing more. If I were you I would ignore the texts (but do not delete them! Keep EVERYTHING you have ever gotten from this company and anything you get in the future. EVERYTHING.
You don’t specify here but it sounds like you paid for this nonsense. If everything you say is true and you paid whatever they asked you to in the end, you’ve been bamboozled! If I were you I’d pay a few euros and talk to a lawyer (or use your lawyer insurance for that. If you don’t have lawyer insurance, get it TODAY. It will save you one day). It sounds to me like you have much more legal standing to sue them than they do you. If you simply don’t want the hassle, then leave it but the threat for suing you over defamation/a bad review? They don’t have a chance.
TL;DR
They can infact use lawyers. They won’t be successful if your review is truthful, but they can get a lawyer. On your end, make sure to document everything you can, pictures, print e-mails and screenshots. Make sure you fulfil your end of the contract. If they refuse to pay for the damages, consider getting a lawyer yourself if the money is worth it.
Do not discuss anything regarding the review with them at all and ignore the threats.
They can. But I am convinced they won’t spend money on lawyers and a case they could potentially lose over an online review.
Like everyone else already said, document everything.
If they had a chance to delete the Google Rating they wouldnt threat you via whatsapp 🙂 they know you are right after your experience. If I receive a Message like this I personally would do some more ratings on other websites than Google, like golocal or 11880.com
If your comment is truthful and you can prove it, proving is having a witness, material proof, photos whatever, it’s just a threat. Let them come at you and don’t be intimidated, you can also tell them that trying to sue someone for defamation on false pretenses is equally punishable. Especially if they did that knowingly.
Wait a couple of days to show you are keeping your cool and then write them a letter, by post, per Einschreiben (guarantee of delivery), in which you politely thank them for their comment and remind them of the problem of defaming under false pretenses and that you prefer to avoid them the disagreement of a costly lawsuit they will loose, since you are telling the truth..
You could finish by saying this is a free country, liberty if expression is guaranteed by the constitution (das Grundgesetz), which is why you like so much Germany.
If you are so inclined, you could add that criticism is also an opportunity to improve oneself, and, after all, don’t we all try to get better day by day…
Change the review to „they threatened me with legal action over a bad review“ … that way they still habe a negative review AND you have the prove written down by their own messages 😂
I doubt you are the only one. From what you are telling they sound very unprofessional and probably had other peoples reviews removed. Stand you point, if everything you wrote was the truth, don’t erase your review and have proof.
If you have a Rechtsschutzversicherung you should ask a lawyer for advice.
If not, you may get some help from the Verbraucherschutz.
In my opinion you should be careful with just ignoring things. Maybe this works, but sometimes legal ways are strange ways.
The Message ist written so bad, you should not worry. A cheap bluff, not even the Period ist set right. Get yourself a lawyer and Check with him, If there really ist no insurance. It sounds like: Uh, we in Trouble – let’s threat.
Worthless threat 😀 you could sue them for this or what I would do .. Add this to your review. Just don’t reply them, it will just waste your time.
They convienently leftout the part where in order for it to be “Verleumdung” you had to have known about your statement being wrong.