What Course Of Action Can I Take Re: Customer Slandering My Company

lawndart

Some of you may have read a post I made about two months back, about a crazy customer filing a complaint with the BBB, without even attempting to contact me about any issues she had before hand. After going back and forth with the BBB I explained my case and they filed the case as administratively closed. She was supposed to take me to small claims court, but I've yet to recieve any notices to show.

Low and behold I open my email today, and guess who filed a report on Angies list about my company. I take my business seriously, and it pisses me off to see someone have such easy access to smear my company image all over the internet. I believe that I have the right to take this women to court for slandering my company. Afterall she made no attempt to contact me, or notify me of a problem before trying to hold my company hostage for $1,000 in repair bills. Has anyone had a lawyer contact a person like this in the past? What is my best course of action?

Sorry for the rant, I'm really upset. Thanks in advance.

ewingpainting

I think you can send a cease and desist letter to them, usually that stops It especially if you have a lawyers company letter head. I had a painting competitor slam my name around town. I gave him one of those and never had another problem

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Riverside County Painters

AtlanticWBConst

I agree with this advice. Lawyers letter's often work.

Don't waste too much of your valuable time fighting with her, that will just feed her spite and her motivation to do more to you.

Additionally, you're assuming that people are actually listening to her, when they may not be. Put your valuable time towards making your business grow and taking care of your current and future, "happy" clients.

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Ed the Roofer

Excuse me Maam, it has now come to my attention after all previous efforts to iron out your problem with our company, that you still feel that some problems are left unresolved.

Please let me know what ever it is that it will take to resolve this ongoing concern.

If I did not come across previously as being deeply concerned, I apologize sincerely. The past is behind us and I would like to provide you with a much more appropriate way of resolving the issues that you have.

I personally guarantee that I will do what ever it takes to attempt to remove this bad taste image of our company from your thoughts.

So now, would you like to make a list of things that we can do to arrive at a better solution for both of us?

Thank you very much. You will be placed on our expedited schedule and we hope that you feel that our rediscovered committment to your individual customer service issues will allow you to be one of our many happy customers who could feel confident in refferring us to their friends in the future.

As a token gesture of appreciation for you allowing us to curtail any previous problems and put them behind us, please accept this gift certificate for a liesurely day at a health and relaxation spa for you peace of mind. (Restaurant Gift Certificate, Store Gift Certificate, etc...)

Ed

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AtlanticWBConst

Wow, that is no olive branch you're offering, that's an olive TREE!

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Ed the Roofer

If acted on properly, without her slamming the door completely on that gesture, this customer can and definitely should be turned around.

One vocal bad reference is worth more than 10 good solid referrals and it certainly sounds like she knows how to get attention.

Attention is what she wants, so, give it to her, in the most sincere and accomodating way you can.

If this works, she could provide some of the best reference material ever to be found.

Everyone can exclaim that they have happy customers all of the time, but who can proclaim a resolute admiration from a previous customer, where things just seemed to go South completely?

I do not know the particulars of her complaints, nor am I privvy to the extent of point-counter-point that went on with the BBB written documentation letters sent back and forth and re-responded to multiple times.

If he put her and her actions in a bad light during those writings, then there is little hope for resurecting the satisfaction level.

But, on the other hand, if he acknowledges where he came up short in this particular instance directly with the home owner, then he has a unique opportunity to reclaim his prestige from her, begrudgingly at first, but with the proper follow through, the results shoulld be accomodating for both sides.

Ed

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Heritage

Call her in to your office and tell her that you want to give her a cheque for the damages that she claims.

When she comes in, lock the door and beat her up.







Either that, or um, let her be. It will cost you too much and aggravate you even more. Like someone else already said, nobody is listening to her anyways. She's just trying to get under your skin, don't let her.

But if you really can't let it go, call HER place of work from a payphone and ruin her reputation at work without identifying who YOU are.

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AtlanticWBConst

I am all for trying the best to mend fences immediately with a disgruntled client, or ex client.

It just seems that this one is far beyond the scope of even addressing an effort to reconciliate with.

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JumboJack

I would try the letter.If it is worded right it might make he drop it.

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in texas with framing and cornish people will do it for 3.00 a foot. What do yall think about that? Just laber

Ed the Roofer

The only thing I know for a fact, is that if you don't try, you are guaranteed of knowing the results.

If you do try, there may be a chance to resuscitate the relationship.

Ed

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BreyerConstruct

Along Ed's lines...1K in repairs is a lot more affordable than any lawyer out there.

Perhaps getting a complete list of concerns in writing, and signed is in order. It doesn't always hold up in court, but it's a great piece to politely discuss later, if needed.

~Matt

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lawndart

Let me clarify how this whole situation started. We did work for this customer in July of 07. She paid in full, and even tipped my installer. Fast forward to April of this year, I get a letter in the mail from the BBB stating that she was not happy with our work, and she was demanding I pay $1,000 to reimburse her for the repairs another contractor made on my work.

She made absolutley no attempt to contact me (she has my phone number, and email address) to make me aware of any issues she may have had. I don't claim to be perfect, nobody is.. I'd be willing to bet everyone has had to go back , and fix some issues from time to time. That said, I run a legitimate business, and take pride in my work. I always fix any issues within 3 days of notification.

I feel because of the situation that this customer is simply trying to extort money from my company, and I refuse to pay the $1,000, based on principal. I have a customer refferal list with well over 400 happy clients, and this is the first time I'm dealing with an unhappy customer..

OCRS

What exactly is she unhappy with, or do you know?

AtlanticWBConst

It could be an entire different situation. What if some crooked contractor conned her into the repairs, while doing something else at her house? If so, you owe it to yourself and her, to investigate it. Under the vague circumstances, I am now leaning towards you digging a little into this (tactfully) to find out what happened.

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OCRS

Agreed. Just like Atlantic said, maybe it's just a matter of some sheister tryingto take her for some $ and blaming it on you.

lawndart

This is the report on Angies list.

Being told it would take only two days for all this work, it still isn't finished and that was a year ago. Crown molding wasn't cut with the proper tool so the seams are very visible. The balustrades were installed incorrectly so that the cuts show when they should not. You can still see the pencil marks on the banister which should have been removed. Some of the board on the floor were broken upon installation and left in place. John spilled the top coat on the floor leaving spill marks. John excuses these issues by stating that he still needs to do another top coat. He has not come to see the damage and probably never will. I would not let them back in my home under any circumstances.

I just noticed in this report she states that the work is still unfinished, but in the letter from the BBB she stated that she had to pay another contractor to fix my work. This woman is crazy IMO. I don't care about the money honestly. That said I want to know if I have any legitimate recourse from her actions.

OCRS

Did you in fact finish the job? Is there any manner of truth in the defects stated by the HO? Customer interpretation aside, it reads that the finishing never happened.

lawndart

The job was completed, and paid in full. At the end of every job, I do a complete walk through with every customer, and inspect our work. She was happy, and cut me a check for the balance. This customer even tipped my installer for the "excellent work" he had done.

Like I stated above, I was not aware of any issues until, I recieved a letter from the BBB demanding I pay $1,000. I refused to pay it based on the fact that this customer failed to give me and my company the opportunity to correct the problem, before hiring someone else to do it.

I'm doing this work a long time. I think its a bit ridiculous when she states that I used the wrong tool to cut her crown moulding. A spilled top coat on a pre-finished floor WTF? I firmly believe that this customer is simply trying to extort some money from my company through pressuring me, by filing reports in various sources.

I welcomed her to take me to small claims court, and to provide pictures of these defects, but she had failed to do so, furthering my opinion that she is full of ****.

Ed the Roofer

LawnDart,

Do you do this End Of Job Walk Through with a form that needs to be signed off by the customer?

If you don't, I will send you a copy of mine so that you can paraphrase your line items and make your own list. Just let me know if you want a copy.

It helps a lot, especially for second guessing the workmanship down the road, plus it puts the HO's at ease at the end, prior to getting the final invoice.

It works even better if you also do in-job progress evaluation reports for customer evaluation too, since it gets them accustomed to signing forms for the ongoing tasks being done, plus it benchmarks certain phases of the job as being satisfactory, or even not, but it is easy to handle while you are still at the job site.

Ed

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kevjob

Ed has it nailed I was just thinking of a form to have the customer sign off everything is complete and they are happy this way when they do a 180 you can pull the letter out and whamo no more slandering. Angieslist has made me a lot of money but I can also see it is used as a slandering tool against us.

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