Man Threatened With Defamation Lawsuit Over Negative Yelp Review (+video)

Photo Credit: Getty ImagesMany people use Yelp to find out about a business before they give them their business, but one Midtown business owner threatened to sue over some bad reviews.

As CBS 2’s Sonia Rincon reported Friday, Matthew Brand saw the great reviews on Yelp for Ron Gordon Watch Repair, at 280 Madison Ave. So he decided to take his watch there for repair.

But Brand was not thrilled with the service, and posted his own review on Yelp. In the April 2013 review, he gave the repair shop two stars, claiming that the staff at Gordon’s shop said they could not repair his antique pocket watch, and would have to send an Ebel watch back to the manufacturer – and claiming further that a competing store was able to repair the two watches onsite.

But to Brand’s surprise, he received a letter from Gordon’s attorney last week, asking him to take down the review or face a defamation lawsuit.

The letter said Brand’s review was “misleading and in certain respects false and defamatory of Ron Gordon in his profession, (and) has also appeared on Google and has detrimentally affected his business and sales.”

Read more from this story HERE.