ResellerRatings.com ResellerRatings Extortionists, Bait and Switch Tactics, Internet

It is disturbing that a company like ResellerRatings is able to exist.  

ResellerRatings provides a platform for consumers to leave a review of a particular company on their website.  This is nothing new.  Where ResellerRatings is different is that if a customer leaves a company a review on their website, the merchant is REQUIRED to pay in order to reply to it.  

For example - RR allows John Customer to leave a bad review of Banana company.  This review will likely be a first page google result when customers search "Banana company review".  In order for Banana company to have any information about the customer that left this review, or write a follow-up, Banana company must pay RR a LOT of money.  

Our subscription began as $29 per month about two years ago and is now a staggering $499 per month.  They do not reveal their pricing tier information and will decline if you ask.  There are people with complaints about this company that are paying RR $499 per month and do $40,000 in annual sales.  This is $6,000 out of $40,000 that is going to this effort.

Another bad thing is that even if you have been a member for years, the day you cancel your service, ALL reviews that have been left during the course of your subscription that were solicited by your own company will be removed.  This leaves you with:

cancel your subscription, and only "organic" reviews will remain.  in our instance, our rating, which is visible on the first page of google, will drop from a 9/10 right now to a 3/10 if we cancel, even though we have been paying for it for years.  

The way they notify their merchants of a price increase is insane as well - numerous people have complained about this online.  Our most recent price increase, from $99 to $499, was at the second to last paragraph of a very long newsletter that was advertised as a letter informing merchants of all the new features RR has added and how much business they are doing now.  At the very bottom, as if on purpose, is a sentence (from a newsletter with hundreds of them) nonchalantly informing you that your rates have increased, in our case, from $99 to $499.  

When we argued with them, they stated it's based off Alexa re: traffic visiting out website but refuse to disclose pricing tiers.  incidentally, I went to leave them a bad review on their own website, and it a) wasn't on there and b) was deleted after i made a review, within 24 hours.

IN A NUTSHELL -

*  two years ago our service was $29 / month, then $99 / month, and now $499 / month.  all three instances were attempted to be brought to our attention through an intentionally deceiving email.

*  even if you use their service for 10 years and solicit thousands of reviews, they will all be removed when you cancel.  I was informed after wanting to cancel that our first page google rating would drop for a 9/10 to a 3/10 if we cancel because they only leave "organic" (non-solicited) results, which tend to be bad.

*  their customer service is lousy, and incredibly rude.  

*  they claim to be in this business to protect the consumer and the companies, but the companies are forced to pay them outrageous fees per month, or have a clearly visible bad rating with them on a first page google result.