Loading ...Have you ever complained on Twitter? Most everyone has, but one lady is being sued for doing just that. Chicago resident, Amanda Bonnen, sent a tweet to a friend in May that said in part, “…Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”
Although her account has since been deleted, Bonnen only had 20 followers at the time of the tweet. Nevertheless, Horizon Realty Group filed a 50,000 lawsuit against the former tenant this week claiming she defamed the company.
Upon news of the lawsuit, Twitter users from all over have voiced their opinions on the incident. WebProNews caught up with a few to see their reaction and found that most everyone view the lawsuit as preposterous. Adam Martin of Martin Design Studio even suggested that the Horizon could have turned the tweet into an opportunity to improve their customer service.
What do you think about this incident? Do you believe other businesses will follow suit and try to cash in on complaints they see online? Will this affect your future tweeting?
The negative publicity from this lawsuit will put Horizon out of business.
Which is good because a cleverer less aggressive company will take their place.
That one dude thought a realty company cared about customer satisfaction! That’s hilarious!
If that was a picture of her apartment… I would be doing more than twitting about it…
I would love to see Horizon be put of of business, they have no right to sue a tenant for voicing an opinion. I hope this brings them a lot of negative attention and that the public berates them.
With luck and some common sense this will rebound on Horizon and they will go out of business. I would also hope a court, if this ever gets that far, would award Amanda not only her costs but damages as well.
You’d have to be an absolute idiot to sue over a Tweet read by a few dozen people and wind up with bad publicity seen by millions. No one knew about the mold. Now everyone knows.
Complaining on twitter can have other ramifications as well. I dobbed some bot-generated spam/scam accounts to twitter admin, and also advised followers how to combat it. Next thing I know all my web sites were badly hacked and my twitter account was suspended. I can’t even get a response out of twitter. I would have thought twitter would be as interested in fighting spam/scam as the rest of us, especially as they themselves have been hacked, but apparently not.
Well, I think more people are hearing about the complaint since the lawsuit was filed. If they had just ignored it, it would of been here today gone tomorrow news.
Whereas only a handful know of Horizon’s poor practices, now the entire blogosphere and beyond knows. There’s absolutely no win in this for Horizon.
http://www.twitter.com/divinemisswhite
Well if she said the truth, plainly, without embellishing and without trying to harm the company but only trying to defend herself, I don’t see how a judge can decide she’s wrong, unless there are some strange laws available …
“sue first and ask questions later type of organisation”????
More like a ‘begging to go bankrupt organisation’ with those business morals.
As everyone else has said, if they had either used it as a customer service oppertunity or just plain ducked out of sight for a few days only a few would have known about it.. Now the whole world knows about Horizon Realty.. and not for the right reasons either!
Wow, these guys are pretty stupid. No one heard about it until they sued her. Now everyone knows. I would say that she did at most $50 of damage (but was likely within her rights). The great thing is that the company has done far more damage to themselves by suing her!
This just goes to show you how low Americans will stoop to be recognized. After all its all about money now right? Whats funny, is how are you going to sue someone for something that they don’t have. Go figure. This is a sure way to boost up their reputation now. In any case, i think she should counter sue for having to live in that condition.
With all these comments here with many of them having their views about negative impact on Horizon, is Horizon planning to sue all those who have commented against Horizon?
Com’on grow up Horizon!
I want to side with the business. Anything can be damaging on the web. But seriously like 1 woman’s bitching (although valid)is not going to hurt the company lets face it they are not web based like us.
I agree with everyone else they did more damage creating news around their screw up. As well as now anyone googleing the company will now eventually have this come up. Would I do business with them if I needed a new building for 1 of my smoke shops? Hell No.
On the other side I assume she is American, and I believe we are still born with a first amendment right? You know the 1 Freedom of speech. Yea I think if the judge has a clue (some don`t trust me) he or she, will side with the twitter woman.
Well firstly shame she couldnt have posted some photographs so we could see what she was saying was the truth but then the whole thing begs the question about freedom of speech which is the whole thing that the USA was built on, as I see it this company have done this tenant a favour as when she is in court and she is asked to prove what she was saying she will be able to then not only Twitter will have the details but every newspaper in the USA will have the story that hopefully will go in the tenants favour. She can then get herself a nicer apartment as she will be rich, a few million $ should do it Horizon.
Horizon’s option to sue now and ask questions later seems knee jerk at the least. If this lady is truly out to lunch then they have every right, if not, they have just created the world’s worst David & Goliath scenario that could have a very negative knock-on effect them.
In this situation “any publicity is NOT good publicity”…
It is a great lesson to everyone in business. Put the customer first – at all costs. The internet is a fast way to share your concerns with the world and human nature dictates that we are more likely to share negative things first!
Yeah I think this is crazy… I guess anyone can sue anyone nowadays… but if they win… THEN THAT’S CRAZY!
Is freedom of speech the newest freedom that’s going to be stripped away from the american people?
I have to wonder if there is more than meets the eye with tenant. It might be fun to follow the results.
Real estate scum are one very big reasons that our economy is so screwed up.
These property managers know that they can win (the rental game) in the long run because they have the bureacracy and the lawyers nailed.
Best thing that could happen here is for one of the FOX or MSNBC or CNN consumer advocates to get ahold of this story and ream these weasels with a hyperbolized “news” story.
It would serve them right for their pompous BS.
I guess I’m lucky … I had issues with the management of my former apartment building when they repeatedly failed to do anything about major noise issues (until I finally had to move out). I told anyone I knew about how I was treated, and to avoid those buildings. But I wasn’t on Twitter at the time. If so I would have probably done what that woman did, try to warn other tenants to avoid an uncaring apartment management company to save their health. What if I had been sued? If the woman’s apartment really was moldy, that’s a statement of fact, and they have no right to stop her from telling people about it (and in fact they should be working to fix the problem). It definitely looks bad on Horizon … now instead of 20 (and maybe a few more) people knowing about their alleged mold issues, thousands of people worldwide now know. Bad move on their part from a business perspective (even if their apartments are mold-free). It’s bad PR, and they open themselves up to lawsuits for unhealthy living conditions.
She’s only speaking the truth, so I think Horizon should have resolved the issue, not bring about a law suit. Law suits like that are frivolous because Horizon is the one at fault. Defaming isn’t the issue, their just mad that she told all her friends, and telling your friends things like that is a normal part of life.
Horizon should just fix the health hazard, and stop whining!
Looks like we are expected to just grin and put up with any poor service we get from anyone, less we be prosecuted. Heaven forbid, we are stressing the poor companies we complain about. Maybe we will find companies sueing individuals for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
As to Horizon, well, they have certainly brought the complaint to the attention of a world audience – she told 20 people, Horizon has informed millions.
All she needs to do is counter sue. I’m sure that the mould is a direct violation or health hazard which is breaking the law. Plus she needs to sue for 10 times what they sued her for as a social site is a tool of use that for people to say, vent, advertise, speak, converse, blah, blah, blah…about anything because everyone makes use of it for all sorts of purposes. Unless what she said was not true…then it is defaming their company or bringing a bad name to it, BUT in this case it’s true. SO SHE SHOULD COUNTER SUE>>>BIG@!@!!!