Posted on 10/11/2019 12:35:23 PM PDT by simpson96
A Michigan woman who shared her gripes with the services of a local company has been sued by the company for making “defamatory statements.”
Lisa Agostino left a negative, one-star Yelp review of North Wind Heating and Air Conditioning on the crowd-sourced review site in July, claiming it had “gouged” the price of a capacitor she’d purchased, INSIDER reports.
Agostino reportedly wrote that she’d been charged $100 for the piece, but later learned from employees at Lowe’s that she could have purchased it for a cheaper price from the home improvement store.
The suit was filed days after Agostino left her review, and also after company owner Carrie Szajna responded in the comments section, saying that the price had been explained to Agostino over the phone, but that she “would not give me a moment to speak and then hung up on me.”
Szajna tells PEOPLE in a statement that Agostino had agreed to the $100 price three separate times. But after it was installed, she reached out and claimed that she’d found the part for a much cheaper price at Lowe’s.
To settle the dispute, Szajna says she offered to remove the part and told Agostino she would not be charged.
“I did this because I could see there was no pleasing her and she was trying to get something for free and I wanted to make her happy and diffuse the situation,” Szajna says.
(snip)
North Wind is seeking $25,000 in damages, arguing that Agostino’s review has led to a loss of six or more potential customers a day.
(Excerpt) Read more at people.com ...
Next she’ll leave 7-11 a bad review because 2 liter bottles of coke cost more there than they do in wal-mart.
I hope she loses ... I am all for the ability to express yourself, but you cannot just badmouth a company for your own stupidity.
Especially when the company tries to give you your money back.
I wonder how many of these people call and complain JUST TO GET free stuff. How many business owners cave in and jut refund their money just to keep a perfect review record.
Any site that have reviews should allow a response from the owner, and the ability to have negatives removed by a 3rd party.
Lisa Agostino may pay a lot to find that out.
Was the Lowes employee going to buy the part and install it too?
If I buy something that I later sell to a client, I automatically add 25%.
That’s just the cost of running it through our books
Auto repair shops charge upwards of 60% over their costs.. don’t want to pay Harry’s Garage $25 to change a sparkplug? Go buy one at NAPA and do it your damned self
I assume that $100 was just for the “part”? Friends of mine just had an HVAC guy over recently for an AC unit that was a little over 5 years old that conked out. He was charged $500 for that same $20(+/-)part(capacitor)...including diagnose/labor of course.
Our justice system is hosed up every which way, and any sane businessman goes way way out of his way not to get sucked into it.
And ruin your own clothes with grease and spend your own damned 2 hrs getting the grime out form around your nails.
Around here, $85 just for them to pull in the driveway
“but you cannot just badmouth a company for your own stupidity.”
Uh, YEAH you can!
Unless you can cite the part of the constitution where that is forbidden.
Sometimes there is a reason the price is cheaper at Lowes.
And it’s not always a good thing.
I experienced this from buying a water heater at Home Depot.
It was a GE, which is actually made by Rheem. A solid brand, manufactured in Alabama.
However, to meet the Home Depot price Rheem subbed out production of the Home Depot models to a contract manufacturer in Meh-hee-ko. The thing crapped out on me in just over 2 years.
Home Depot made good on the warranty but we were all taking cold showers for a week as I went back-and-forth with someone in Atlanta trying to get the replacement unit installed.
Had I bought the unit initially from a local plumber it would have cost me more. But it would have been better quality, and they would have been out to replace it same-day.
The key with these reviews is to avoid CHARACTERIZATIONS and just state facts.
Characterizations will land you in court.
In this case “gouging”.
Bought a ballast for my florescent tube lamps from Home Depot at an obscene price. Lowes was the same. I ordered two more as reserve from Amazon for about 1/3 the price. A few months ago I needed to use one of my reserve ballasts on another light. It worked perfectly and still is.
Note: This is not criticism of Lowes nor Home Depot. They have immense overhead of a brick and mortar store. They have a business model they must follow or they will fail.
On things that one does not need “right now” the prices are good. On things you must have “right now” the prices are high.
I hate Jeff Bezos’s politics. However, he has built a magnificent marketing machine in Amazon. I respect that. Brick and mortar stores have been forced to also offer online purchasing to compete. The customer is the winner of this competition thanks to Bezos. I still do not like him.
Capitalism works for the people and improves their life. The socialism of the Democrat left such as in Bernie, Warren, Slow Joe, Willie Brown’s old squeeze aka Kamala Harris, etc. degrades the life of the nation and its citizens. Just look at what socialism and Marxism did to the most prosperous nation in South America. Today Venezuela is a failed state! I lived their in the 70s. It was great but corrupt. Our great nation is no less corrupt today.
MAGA+
You obviously haven't worked in a retail enviro.
It's not nearly everybody, but the ones that do, do it again and again.
$100 is price gouging.
Sorry, Agostinos; ya pays her money (to Yelp), ya takes her chances. A simple reply to the angry customer on the yelp site, would have been sufficient. Maybe the lady didn’t like the way you part your hair; she has a right to express her opinion, even if it’s wrong.
A giant ship engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.
Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.
Two of the ship’s owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!
A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.
“What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”
So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill.
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer………………….. $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap…………………….. $ 9,998.00
Most service calls during business hours run 100 -125 for HVAC problems and after hours and weekends the price goes up. On most central air systems the unit outside has the compressor and a fan enclosed in the housing, this is where the 20 dollar capacitor is located and when it goes bad the fan won’t run. Then your house gets hot and your spouse even hotter. At this point paying some tech 150 to come to your home on a Saturday or Sunday evening to diagnose your problem and get it running is good deal.
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