After months fighting with my cellular service provider and the fact that I was
getting dropped 20 times a day my complaints continued to fall on deaf ears. It
wasn't until I promised a web site documenting exactly how poor their service
was that I recieved an offer to settle. It is sad that one must go to this
extreme to get a company to operate honorably. On the other hand I can testify
that this tactic is very effective. However, I am not sure if you aren't
opening yourself up to other types of litigation by using this method.
At 02:22 PM 1/10/99 -0600, Kelly Pierce wrote:
>Here's an option for those groups working on considering advocacy: learn
>html and let the world find your issues online. As the article shows, it
>really works.
>
>kelly
>
> from the New York Times
>
> January 8, 1999
>
>
> By CARL S. KAPLAN
>
>Unhappy Customers Find a Complaint Site Pays Off
>
> It's a familiar tale: Joe Consumer gets poor service and complains
> to the large company. But his gripes fall on deaf corporate ears,
> and Joe gets no relief.
>
> That could have been the script for George Musser Jr. and Talia
> Schaffer, a couple who moved from San Francisco to Hoboken, N.J.,
> last year with the help of Bekins Van Lines Co., then discovered
> that some of their property had been damaged or lost in transit.
>
> The couple did one thing that resulted in a happy ending for them,
> however. After letters and phone calls to the company got them
> nowhere, they set up a Web site (www.bekinsbeware.org) and posted
> their story of woe. Their lawyer brought the site to the attention
> of the moving company, and the couple's claim for $1,734 was
> immediately settled in full -- on the condition that Musser and
> Schaffer take down their gripe site.
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> Complaint sites have the potential to bring pressure on companies that
> may not listen to small-fry consumers.
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> "The Net gives consumers a lot of leverage," said Herbert I.
> Waldman, the couple's lawyer. "The Web site obviously motivated
> Bekins."
>
> Waldman was so pleased with his client's experience that he now
> believes so-called complaint sites have the potential to become
> effective legal tools to bring pressure on companies that may not
> listen to, or settle the legitimate claims of, small-fry consumers.
>
> "If you bring a suit to a cleaner and they do a lousy job, you can
> seek damages and picket in front of the store," said Waldman, a
> lawyer at Stern, Dubrow & Marcus in Maplewood, N.J. "Or you can go
> to a newspaper and publicize your claim. But those perfectly
> legitimate tactics have limited impact. Go on the Net, though, and
> your speech capability is magnified."
>
> Complaint sites where consumers air their beefs about large
> companies have existed on the Web for several years. Among the many
> examples are sites about the Walt Disney Co. and America Online.
> Companies have targeted some complaint sites for legal action. So
> far, however, no such sites are known to have been used by lawyers
> when negotiating with companies on behalf of consumers.
>
> Lawyers and experts on legal ethics agreed with Waldman that
> complaint sites could be used in the future as bargaining chips in
> settling claims.
>
> Some lawyers warned that consumers who publish complaint sites run
> the risk of a lawsuit for libel if the posted information contains
> false and defamatory information. There could also be other risks,
> including the threat of trademark infringement suits for complaint
> sites that use company names or logos -- although the law on that
> issue remains unclear.
>
> The libel trap didn't bother Musser and Schaffer. "We knew what we
> had written on our site was the absolute truth," said Schaffer, an
> English professor on leave from San Francisco State University who
> is currently teaching at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia. Her
> husband is an editor at Scientific American.
>
> Scott Ogden, president and general counsel at Bekins Van Lines,
> said in a written statement that Bekins was "concerned that we
> disappointed" Musser and Schaffer, but added that only a small
> percentage of the company's shipments result in claims. "We're
> sorry that this customer and his attorney felt the need to develop
> a Web site, even prior to Bekins having the opportunity to resolve
> this claim," he said.
>
> Musser and Schaffer's account, which was first reported this week
> in the New Jersey Law Journal, began in June, when the couple
> decided to move across the country with the help of Bekins, based
> in Hillside, Ill. When the moving truck arrived at their new home,
> they scanned the unloaded boxes quickly and signed an inventory
> form acknowledging that everything was in good order, their lawyer
> said. When they started unpacking, however, they realized that some
> of their property was broken, and other things, including a bed
> platform and the legs of a desk, were missing.
>
> Subsequent calls and letters to Bekins failed to get results,
> Schaffer said. At the end of July, the couple filed a formal claim
> with the company seeking $1,734 for the damage and losses. Bekins
> declined liability, saying that the couple had essentially waived
> their rights because they signed the inventory receipt after the
> move, Waldman said. The couple maintained they were pressured into
> signing the form and did not have time to look into every box
> before the truck left.
>
> In what they said was an effort to warn other consumers, the couple
> created the Web site on October 22. "We felt helpless because
> Bekins was not responding to our letters or phone calls," Schaffer
> said. " And we couldn't find a lawyer to take our case because the
> [claim] was small. We wanted to warn other people that this is what
> the company did. I don't think it occurred to us at that time that
> Bekins might settle."
>
> The site, topped with the headline "Beware Bekins Van Lines,"
> explained the couple's story. "When we recently moved from
> California to New Jersey, Bekins broke or lost a significant chunk
> of our stuff," it began. Web surfers seeking information on Bekins
> could easily stumble across the complaint site. Even now, for
> example, search results for "Bekins" on the AltaVista search engine
> list the site as the tenth entry.
>
> In November, an article about moving companies in The Chicago
> Tribune mentioned bekinsbeware.org, and the couple's site began
> receiving 75 to 100 hits a week, Schaffer said. Also, at least five
> people sent e-mail relating their own bad experiences with Bekins
> or other moving companies, she said. The couple revamped the site
> and solicited more e-mail complaints, but did not post any of them
> for fear of exposing themselves to libel suits.
>
> Waldman, who is distantly related to Schaffer, met the couple at a
> family party in November. "They told me the whole story," Waldman
> said. "I told them, 'That's a very interesting thing you did with
> your Web site. I bet Bekins will settle with you in return for
> taking down the Web site.'"
>
> On Dec. 1, Waldman spoke to a claims supervisor at Bekins, who
> offered a settlement of a few hundred dollars. Waldman responded
> that his clients were very upset and had set up a Web site that
> could be harmful to Bekins. He also said his clients were
> considering posting the names and addresses of other people who had
> sent them tales about their experiences with the company. He then
> told the claims supervisor to go to a computer after their phone
> call and punch up "Bekins" on a search engine.
>
> "Ten minutes later I got a phone call saying we would get full
> replacement for everything, on condition we take down the site,"
> Waldman said. "That sounded fair to me."
>
> Two days later the company signed a settlement agreement, and it
> sent out a check the following week. Musser and Schaffer replaced
> the opening page of bekinsbeware.org with the statement: "This page
> has been removed as part of a legal settlement."
>
> Mark Pruner, a lawyer and president of Web Counsel, which gives
> advice to lawyers on Internet issues, said he believes the
> leveraging of a complaint site to help along a claim is legitimate.
> "I think what this does is significantly change the balance of
> power between claims-dispute executives and people with small
> claims," he said. "Basically, it brings social opprobrium to bear
> on the company."
>
> Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law
> and an expert in legal ethics, said he believed a lawyer could
> ethically advise a client to set up a complaint site as a way to
> strengthen a lawsuit. "There is a First Amendment right to post
> information on a Web site, so long as the information is not
> defamatory," he said. "As part of a settlement, you could negotiate
> for the withdrawal of that information" on the complaint site, he
> said.
>
> Gillers added that besides vetting for possible libel claims, a
> lawyer should make sure that any threat he makes about exposing
> damaging information on a Web site to win a settlement does not run
> afoul of state or federal extortion laws.
>
> At least one lawyer said he would not recommend to a client that he
> establish a complaint site to win a settlement. "It's a very risky
> technique" because it might invite lawsuits for libel or other
> claims, said Martin H. Sampson, a lawyer at New York's Phillips
> Nizer Benjamin Krim & Ballon.
>
> But Waldman is undeterred. Assuming there is no defamatory material
> on the complaint site, and the victims don't inflate their claims
> to unethical levels, "I might use this tactic again," he said.
>
>
> Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
>
>
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