Why bother pursuing high levels of customer satisfaction through good service and quality product when you can just sue the snot out of anyone who bitches about you on an Internet forum?
That appears to be the tactic pursued by PetsWarehouse against some folks on an aquarium discussion board who complained about the service they’d received. They — along with CompuServe and the Long Island Better Business Bureau — are being sued by PetsWarehouse for $15MM for defamation.
Don’t think it can work? Some of the defendents have already settled, agreeing to take down posts that they made, run banner ads on their site for PetsWarehouse, or otherwise pay damages.
In the litigation biz, this seems to be what is known as a “SLAPP” (strategic litigation against public participation). A number of states have passed laws to prevent this. New York does not seem to be one of them.
Got a few bucks? There’s a legal defense fund started up for this one.
(Via Boing Boing)