HARRISBURG, N.C. — Kristen West said her family’s business, West Renovation and Construction, does solid work so she was shocked when it got several one-star reviews on websites, including Facebook and Yelp last weekend.
She also got unfamiliar emails.
“The email was basically extortion,” West said. “It was basically a ransom. You pay me this money or I’m going to continue leaving bad reviews. It started out as $150 and then it went down to $100 and then he continued with the threats every day.”
West said she didn’t want to give any PayPal information.
“He would drain our bank account, all of our life savings, so I just wasn’t going to do it,” she said.
The negative reviews disappeared from Yelp but were on Facebook, she said.
West said she received a message saying Facebook did not remove the post because the content did not go against its community standards.
West wants customers to help the Harrsiburg business by outweighing the bad reviews with more positive feedback.
“If you get good service, good review, it takes five seconds to leave a good review,” West said. “If you had outstanding service, just give them a shout out.”
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