Dealer Threatens to sue Camaro5 member for his post ! ! !

[v6sonoma]

Tell him if he doesn't send you an apology you'll sue him for refusing to honor the warranty. Trust me the bad press for him isn't going to help him. It's his poor service that's the problem. The truth hurts. His dealership sucks!

[Mr_Draco]

Originally Posted by VULTURE

A Camaro5 member received a threatening phone call at his work place (!) for posting a true story about poor service he received at the service department at ARNOLD CHEVROLET in West Babylon, NY.

The "management team and owner" called him and said they would sue for his post about poor service from the service department manager! [POST http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39758 ] The post was put up after he voiced his concerns with the dealer and GM after a week of leaving several unreturned messages for the dealership management respectfully asking them to please call him back.

The message ARNOLD CHEVROLET left at his job said "We were going to address your issue, but we saw on the Camaro site that you badmouthed us. Very simply put if you don't stop this kind of activity we'll have a lawyer contact you for 'defamation of character'(!), whatever you are stating is not true. We spoke the service manager and GM. If you continue to post you will be served with a legal letter, if you don't remove. Please refrain from bashing - that is our courteous phone call to you".

Wow - so this is how the "new GM’s dealer’s" operate – same old, same old ! ! !

Just for that, if I was him I would make a copy of the message, contact the local newspaper and the local news tv station. If they didn't like the bad review on this site, I would love to see what they would do in response to this.

And no they can't sue a customer for expressing his experience with their terrible customer service.

[nova]

"Cease and Desist." Two words that ensures whatever you're trying to remove from the internet, lives on forever.

Originally Posted by Mr_Draco

And no they can't sue a customer for expressing his experience with their terrible customer service.

Ehh, you can sue anybody for anything. Winning is another story however....

[Banshee]

The dealer would have alot to prove. I see nothing other than voicing one's opinion in the original post...nothing slanderous or defamation of character.

A person has the right to take his car in for service if there is a problem and has the right to voice his opinion publicly if he feels "shined on".

It is a he said, she said issue...

Let's say for instance that he takes the Camaro to another dealer and there is a problem with his Camaro. Where is Arnold Chevrolet's position?

On the other hand, lets say there is no problem with his Camaro. Arnold Chevrolet still IMO has no position because of how the dealer went about treating him, taking into account the "service" aspect and tone of the employee.

Now lets say this board member was completely rude, totally off base, demanding and crass and the percieved "shine on" by the dealer, its employees and subsequent non-response from the owner of dealership..then he posts here...Who is right, who is wrong?

Yes, posting to a board could get hairy becuase only one side is effectually represented here. But the burden of proof lies upon Arnold Chevrolet to discredit our members accusations and dissatisfaction and IMO is not subject to any form of legal matter.

Now, if Arnold had performed a road test, hooked up the PCM, done diagnostics and exhausted all other avenues and the problem had persisted without answer, would Arnold Chevrolet have some sort of position. If they refused to take the car and check, that's on them.

[Dan3]

My guess is VULTURE is KJS. Hes probably unsure of exactly where he stands legally. By posting under a new name, the dealer has no more ammo to assault him with. It could be a friend, or someone who just happens to know about it, but that doesnt matter. Let's see the dealer prove who a screen name on a foum actually belongs too.

As for it being true... The poster may or may not be overstating exactly how bad the service was, but I don't see anything way off-base in the original post to make me think the poster is making it up. If it's not 100% true, I would bet good money its at least 70% true. And that would be enough for me to get pissed off about.

[live2well]

Originally Posted by VULTURE

A Camaro5 member received a threatening phone call at his work place (!) for posting a true story about poor service he received at the service department at ARNOLD CHEVROLET in West Babylon, NY.

The "management team and owner" called him and said they would sue for his post about poor service from the service department manager! [POST http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39758 ] The post was put up after he voiced his concerns with the dealer and GM after a week of leaving several unreturned messages for the dealership management respectfully asking them to please call him back.

The message ARNOLD CHEVROLET left at his job said "We were going to address your issue, but we saw on the Camaro site that you badmouthed us. Very simply put if you don't stop this kind of activity we'll have a lawyer contact you for 'defamation of character'(!), whatever you are stating is not true. We spoke the service manager and GM. If you continue to post you will be served with a legal letter, if you don't remove. Please refrain from bashing - that is our courteous phone call to you".

Wow - so this is how the "new GM’s dealer’s" operate – same old, same old ! ! !

That is actually funny. The dealership has no grounds to take legal action. If anyone does (Based on your story) you do. No need to hide. They were wrong for trying to pass off what they did. It is you who should be taking action and spreading the word about this horrible manager and now dealership.

[FenwickHockey65]

If this is real, I'd contact GM about this...shoot a PM to Scott or something and see if he can help...

[Dan3]

GM may or may not do something about it. If the story is true, contact your local paper and get the story printed. Journalists love drama so make sure you give a good description of the shit service, then tell them about the lawsuit threat. If the dealer calls again and threatens ANYTHING, just reply "bring it" and hang up. Once they figure out you wont be bullied, watch them transorm into kiss-ass mode.

[shroomjohn]

HAHA no worries

[DDustiNN]

This sounds like a great way to make money! I could just start up some sort of business, give terrible customer service, then wait for the reviews to show up on the internet... and then...

[canadian ss]

When you get your CSI (customer satisfaction info.) in the mail, you make sure to check off VERY UNSATISFIED and in the comments section tell them why. Service managers hate those negative CSI's because GM actually gets involved with the dealer and makes sure someone repairs the vehicle properly with all concerns being acknowledged! Usually the dealer principle gets involved and asks alot of questions to why the service department hasn't taken care of THEIR customer! Thats when the service manager gets a talking to.

[ASTEDA]

The only grounds for cause would be “libel.” However, since the customer is expressing a personal perception, clearly stated as “My story” in the original thread, the dealership would have little to stand on. In fact, there are several sites out there that consumers can use to express their own personal experiences with a company and it’s all perfectly legal. Libel can only be claimed if the customer’s accusations are PUBLISHED- say, in a magazine or news paper and stated as FACT. A public web-site is not “published” material and the consumer did not state that EVERYONE receives shoddy customer service from the service department.

When a person/company sues for libel they have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the accusations are completely unfounded and malicious. For example… say someone calls you a rapist. In a court of law, the only way you would be considered a rapist is if you had an actual conviction for rape. In this case, the customer is stating that he/she received poor service- hardly a defamation. If this dealership has ONE, just ONE complaint registered from another customer- they're shit out of luck.

In fact, if I were the consumer in this case I would probably contact a lawyer and start a harassment suit if the dealership continued to leave nasty messages. People are entitled to their opinions- and so long as those opinions do not have malicious intent (unfounded and for no reason), the dealership should just STFU before they lose more than just a few customers who read this website.

[talwell]

Defamation of charactor is very difficult to prove and in most cases never result in any action at all. The legal definition of defamation of charactor is as such:

"The term defamation of character is often used to describe accusations of slander, libel or both. Slander involves verbal derogatory statements, while libel involves written ones. In a court of law, the plaintiff pursuing the lawsuit would charge defamation of character to cover any form of false or damaging allegations"

In this case - the dealership in question would need to prove not only that the comments made about thier company were false but also that they were damaging to thier reputation. So basically, this person has not worries. The only downfall is that if they do hire an attorney it sometimes can cost money to defend yourself against such allegations.

[CloudXTC]

camaro5 is famous!

lots of ppl read us yay!