Good reviews can revitalize a struggling business, but a string of bad reviews can absolutely ruin it!

Especially if those reviews are about people being mistreated or cheated out of payment, it’s a safe bet that very few people will want to work with you in the future.

That’s why its important to treat your customers (and workers) with the utmost respect, because you never know who might leave a review that will ruin you!

The church in this story learned that the hard way after a contractor left a review saying he hadn’t been paid.

But when they attempted to sue him for what they claimed was a false review, he only wrote another review that absolutely sealed their fate!

Check it out!

Church wants to sue me for a review?

I’m from Germany. We are a very litigious society, so much so that businesses can sue individuals for writing bad reviews.

In fact, per German law, it’s up to the individual to provide evidence that what they wrote actually happened.

If the individual fails to provide evidence, they can be forced to take down the review and pay legal costs to the business.

But OP said after a church he renovated didn’t pay him, they were more than deserving of their bad review!

I’m a tradesmen and did some renovation work for a church in a small town.

The church did not pay me. I take 50% upfront and the church had cheated me out of the second half after I had completed the job.

The church only had one other review. I wrote a review stating that I had been cheated by the church.

The church was none too happy, and threatened to take him to court if he didn’t take the review down.

I promptly got a legal letter from the church demanding to take it down unless I wanted to be brought to court.

The church could easily argue that they paid me in cash and I would be out of luck according to German law.

Okay. I complied with their demand.

And in complying with their demand, OP posted a second review that explained the situation even further.

I took down the review and posted a new one stating that I’m a tradesmen and the church threatened to sue me for writing a simple review.

I also attached the legal letter from the church as an image in the review.

Fast forward a few months, I received an angry call from the clergyman.

He said my review had caused several tradesmen to either ghost him or ask him for complete payment upfront.

The clergyman even went a little “fire and brimstone” on poor OP for his review!

He claimed that I had ‘cost them thousands’ and that I would ‘burn in hell for hindering God’s work.’

I then asked him, ‘What is your religion’s founder’s view on honesty, compassion and forgiveness?

Cue a moment of radio silence, followed by him hanging up the phone.

No legal letter yet, anyhow I can now substantiate my review.

Talk about a mic drop! Seriously, its always the people who tell other people the dangers of lying and scamming that end up being the liars and scammers themselves!

Reddit loved his revenge, but many were confused about Germany’s strange libel laws.

And this German user added that the church could even get in trouble for failing to record how much they paid (or didn’t pay) their workers.

And for all those up in arms about German law, this user came in to give a simple explanation.

And finally, there were some who actually appreciated Germany’s strange law, saying it protected against baseless lies.

Can’t say I’m with the last user, you have to give hard evidence for every opinion you have about a business?

That sounds exhausting.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.