A story recently posted on Mashable today, discussed the young woman being sued $50,000 for libel- via Twitter! The suit is being filed by Horizon Realty against Amanda Bonnen for disparaging their company on Twitter. Keep in mind this women tweets every few days and had (page was removed) about 20 followers. Here is the Tweet in question:
“Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”
I believe that companies can truly improve their practices through things their customers post on Twitter, and other social sites. Just think if Comcast tried to sue everyone who ever said anything bad about their company via Twitter, insanity would ensue. Good thing they didn't.
I can see how Horizon Realty would be peeved that a customer was on Twitter bashing their company. Just like I'm sure Amanda was when Horizon allegedly ignored her mold problem. However, their reaction to sue before warning does worse for their reputation than the Twitter post did.
If Horizon wins, could it be an indication of how Internet libel is handled in the future? Would this case change the way people use Twitter? The Internet?
4 comments:
I monitor coverage of brands on social media sites such as Twitter, and at least our brands take the "negative" posts with a grain of salt. The thing about Twitter is that its basically a conversation out loud for all the internet to see. It would get quite nit-picky to sue everyone who talks w/ a friend about bad cable service, cell phone service, restaurant service, etc... but if that's the way it's headed on the Internet... well then things are going to get real sticky real fast.
There's an old axiom in retail that every problem is a great customer service opportunity - the ability to turn a sour experience into sweet redemption. And build an evangleist for your brand.
But that's too much work for some brands. So they sue. Let's hope there's no bailout for them or those like them and the marketplace makes them pay the ultimate price.
This is a poor idea in general for Horizon, as it took a complaint tweet seen by less than 20 people and brought it to eyes of thousands of people with this bogus lawsuit. I say kudos to the girl who's being sued, as Horizon is now likely to make sure they will never have mold problems again since they're getting so much bad spotlight.
P.S. Sue first, ask questions later? Who does that?
Well, if I were horizon, I would have contacted Bonnen and apologized if there was mold. And if horizon had in fact been defamed at all by the tweet, then they should have issued a statement through the press that was honest, saying that they will fix the problem.
People have the right to express their opinions about companies, public or not. Especially if it was true, which I believe it was. Why else would Horizon get on the defensive so fast?
Horizon looks even worse by the way they are handling all this.
Post a Comment