Cyber-Venting

Be careful what you complain about online. As NBA stars have found out, social networking can get you in some hot water if you're famous enough, but who would think a college kid's complaints about a towing company would get him sued?

You can look at the Facebook group that Justin Kurtz started here.  Kurtz started a legitimate group complaining about a towing company with poor service, and did not attempt to maliciously defame the company, but rather warn others about them, and allow others to chime in.  From the looks of the FB page, not many people in Kalamazoo are a big fan of T&J towing, and from the NY Times article, it appears that the suit is going to get thrown out, but this use of legal bullying by companies should be stopped.

Most suits like this end when the person who posted the complaint online removes his comment or page, and things never go to court.  Of course, the defendant may win if he took the time and effort to fight it, but probably doesn't want the trouble involved in a legal battle.  This kind of frivolous lawsuit by the company being defamed is basically an intimidation technique.  It bothers me that companies think they can just push their own unsatisfied customers around rather than working with them to fix the problem.

I had a similar situation crop up not long ago on Twitter.  I posted a complaint about Comcast, and their poor service in our apartment, and received a direct message from a Comcast account on Twitter, offering help.  This is the way that these problems should be handled, and it made me feel like Comcast was listening to me rather than fighting me.