This time it’s about a lady who posted a negative review of
a company that she did business with on Ebay, who is getting run through the
wringer by that company’s lawyer for her negative feedback.
On February 12, lOB, Nicholls paid for the item and shipping via Pay Pal. Promptly after receiving Nicholls' payment, Med Express took the equipment to the Valley City post office. where it was weighed and shipped to Nicholls. Med Express paid the full amount of the shipping cost, but for some reason unknown to Med Express, the equipment was received by Nichols with $1.44 postage due.
7. When notified of the problem, Med Express immediately offered to reimburse Nicholls for the postage due amount. Despite this offer, and before giving Med Express a chance to reimburse her, Nicholls on February 26, 2013, apparently as a result of the $1.44 postage due, posted negative feedback and comments for the transaction on Ebay's website and gave Med Express low ratings in the Detailed Seller Ratings section of Ebay's Feedback Forum, resulting in an unfavorable feedback profile for Med Express. In so doing, Nicholls falsely and deliberately slandered the good name and reputation of Med Express
I would like to point out that regardless of whether she was reimbursed for the postage due, she was still inconvenienced by that, and had every right to post about that on Ebay. The lawyer for this company admits that she didn’t do
anything illegal, and even goes so far as to hint that she will win if the
thing goes to court. However, he snidely
reminds the woman that the lawsuit is filed in Ohio – far from her home – and that
the lawyer fees and cost of travel will be far more of a burden to her than to
just remove her negative feedback from Ebay.
I contacted James Amodio, Med Express’s lawyer, to explain to him the many ways in which his lawsuit is untenable. He readily admitted that, as the complaint admits, everything that the customer had posted in her feedback was true; he did not deny that a statement has to be false to be actionable as defamation; but he just plain didn’t care. To the contrary, he told me that I could come up to Medina, Ohio, and argue whatever I might like, but that the case was going to continue unless the feedback was taken down or changed to positive. And he explained why his client was insisting on this change — he said that it sells exclusively over eBay, where a sufficient level of negative feedback can increase the cost of such sales as well as possibly driving away customers
This is absolutely unforgivable, and I think that this
company, Med Express Sales, needs to be introduced to the Streisand Effect,
post haste. You want to talk about driving away customers, pal? How about filing bumptious lawsuits against your dissatisfied customers? If you do business with
them, the decision is yours whether you choose to continue to do so now that
you know the way that they will comport themselves if you ever find yourself
dissatisfied with their services. The
decision is yours, but I know what I would do.
Go to the Popehat link.
Retweet, repost, and link to it in any way you can. Let’s make sure that Med Express Sales is
made to realize that we won’t tolerate censorious thuggery.
IMHO the buyer has acted irrationally as the Med Express had no way of knowing about the postage due until it actually happened, and it wasn't their fault. Med Express, in their comments to said feedback, was rather courteous, unlike some other eBay sellers. I view this whole incident as an excellent publicity for Med Express, and will definitely buy from them in the future should the need arises. Only not through eBay but through Med Express website. Enough said.
ReplyDeleteCourteous? They threatened to sue her!
ReplyDeleteOver doing something that they admit she had every right to do!
You don't see the problem there?