Ecommerce Merchant who bullies customers to raise Google rankings
I have just learned of a shocking practice. An ecommerce entrepreneur named Vitaly Borker with a website called DecorMyEyes.com actually had a sales strategy of negative advertising. Apparently even furious online chatter raises site rankings in Google search results, and he made a conscious decision to raise web traffic through complaints! As he put it, “I never had the amount of traffic I have now since my 1st complaint. I am in heaven.”
For example, a customer placed an order for a pair of designer eyeglasses and contact lenses. He charged her credit card, and then called her to tell her that they were out of what she ordered, and she should pick another brand. When the customer asked for a refund instead, the merchant said, “What’s the big deal? Choose another brand!” She was then overcharged by $125, and when she told the merchant that she was going to contact her credit card company to dispute the charge the merchant said, “I know your address. I’m one bridge over”…and physically threatened her. A few days later, he even sent the customer an email with a photograph of the front of the apartment building where she lived! He said “Close the dispute with the credit card company if you know what’s good for you. Do the right thing and everyone goes away. I AM WATCHING YOU!”
According to Borker, Google is unable to distinguish between adulatory buzz and scathing critiques when it scours the digital universe and creates rankings. There was a question of whether “sentiment analysis”, which would give points for praise and subtract for denunciations, was raised, Google won’t disclose its algorithm (for competitive reasons).
Through his unscrupulous practices, Borker has actually outranked some of the eyeglass designer’s own websites for their own products!
DecorMyEyes doesn’t stock the merchandise it sells; it simply takes orders, then buys from a variety of merchandisers, including several on eBay. An additional tactic used by Borker is to punish eBay sellers who won’t ship to his addresses (because the addresses have not been “confirmed” by PayPal, eBay’s online payments system) by leaving negative feedback, which damages the reputation of the (ethical!) eBay seller.
Although steps are being taken to bring Borker down, the DecorMyEyes website is still up and running. Beware!
To learn more, click here.
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