Wed, November 30th, 2005 by Miles
"I will make sure you will never be able to place an order on the internet again." "I'm an attorney, I will sue you." "I will call the CEO of your company and play him the tape of this phone call." "I'm going to call your local police and have two officers come over and arrest you." "You'd better get this through your thick skull." "You have no idea who you are dealing with."
These are all direct threats that I received today from an individual who identified himself as Steve Phillips, the manager of PriceRitePhoto in Brooklyn, New York when I called to inquire about my order with them. My crime? Telling him that I planned to write an article about my unfortunate experience with his company regarding the camera order I had placed with him yesterday."
Read the full article over at Thomas Hawk's blog.
I rather think the abusive salesman at PriceRitePhoto had no idea who he was dealing with when he tried to strong-arm Thomas Hawk. A compaint is on file with the New York Attorney General's office and outraged internet users have flooded the company with phone calls, emails, and even DOS attacks. None of these tactics are at Thomas' direction of course, but it's easy to understand the indignation when you read about the way Thomas was treated by this store. Not only was he repeatedly threatened, but the salesman even had the affront to call and harrass Thomas' boss!
It is simply unbelievable that a company could behave like this, and expect to make money doing it. It makes you wonder how many people have been pressured into spending far more money than they wanted to by unscrupulous companies like PriceRitePhoto. It really is a staggering story. If crooked salesmen are trying this pressure scam on the kind of people who would buy a Canon 5d, people who you would think, like Thomas, are well aware of what accessories they need or don't need, then I hate to imagine how many less well informed people have been taken in when buying consumer electronics over the internet.
If it wasn't for the overwhelming response of the blogging community, who have risen to challenge this assault on one of their own with such energy and commitment, this would be a sad sad story. It's wonderful to think of this bully being put so firmly in place by the defiance of ordinary people, an uplifting tale from the digital trenches.
Now it seems that picking on Thomas Hawk will be the last thing this company does.
For a play by play on developments check out Thomas' original post and the commentry on Digg.com.
New server!
November 30th, 2005 at 9:02 pm
This is the most dugg story of the year. Amazing!
http://digg.com/topstories/thisyear
December 1st, 2005 at 1:10 am
They knew exactly who Thomas Hawk was when "steve" went ballastic on him. I was actually sitting next to him when he was on the call and he was very clear from the get go that he intended to write about his experience and would be publishing to even larger sites then the Hawk. Unfortunately, the guy completely overreacted and started to threaten him. Tom even told him that the bloggers were going to eat this up, but the guy continued on his psycho rant. While we never expected the response that we got, I do think that the company brought this upon themselves. I mean seriously calling our boss. Seeing Tom try to explain this to our manager this morning was very entertaining. Luckily, we work for some cool people who understood that they were in no way liable for something that Tom choose to do independently. It does make me think twice about having packages shipped to the office however.
December 1st, 2005 at 3:18 am
Slightly off topic, but if it's too good to be true, it usually is. Stay away from online shops with that addage. I would recommend you check out Reseller Ratings and see what others have to say about any online retailer.
December 1st, 2005 at 7:40 am
yeah, the bloggerkrieg went after these slime with guns blazing.
http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/archives/2005/11/30/digg-users-take-revenge-at-bad-online-store/
blogger justice.
December 1st, 2005 at 9:15 am
Davis said:
> They knew exactly who Thomas Hawk was
> when “steve” went ballastic on him.
Even though Tom told him this would be blogged about, Steve couldn't have known what was in store for him, heh. I mean, damn! This seems to set a new precedent for blogging and consumer activism.
In any case, with all that has happened now Tomas Hawk could probably be the new Internet Spokesperson for Consumer Justice... if he really wanted to.
December 1st, 2005 at 4:32 pm
An update from Thomas, he's had an apology from PriceRitePhoto.
http://thomashawk.com/2005/12/apology-letter-from-ed-lopez-owner-of.html
December 1st, 2005 at 4:49 pm
it's a terrible story with a fascinating result. the reach a single person can have these days via blogging is simply amazing. it's gotta make you wonder though... if you have story that's compelling enough, and can strike a chord with enough people, you can have an army fighting for your cause. in this case it's a worthy cause... to bring down a corrupt businessman. what if the next thomas hawk makes the story up to unjustly slam someone?
December 1st, 2005 at 5:40 pm
I've thought about the same thing, Zac. It's kind of scary to think of what might happen if a situation like this was used to wrongly accuse someone. It could really be a nightmare. Hopefully if and when that happens people will be smart enough to call "bull" before anything gets out of hand.
It's obvious that Tom is the good guy in this particular case, though... especially since he said this:
"I believe that the power of this story and the ultimate outcome, whatever that may be, will carry much more weight if as a public we handle things responsibly and do not resort to illegal tactics or harassment. Although there is a sense that we all must feel that these folks have gotten what they deserved, I think it would be a far greater legacy for this story to have if change takes place in legal and legitimate channels."
December 1st, 2005 at 8:01 pm
oh i certainly wasn't doubting tom - and i'm glad to see him take such a responsible stance. hopefully this crazy scenario will make people think about this stuff... so if this kind of power falls into the hands of the wrong person, the community at large will be more prepared to analyze the situation before potentially hurting a faultless victim.
December 1st, 2005 at 8:56 pm
Yeah... I never thought you were doubting him.
December 1st, 2005 at 10:23 pm
I would be placing a claim with the Better Business Bureau. It should cost you nothing, also I would keep close tabs on your American Express card and clue them in on what happened.
What a bullshit way to conduct business.
December 2nd, 2005 at 1:13 am
"Even though Tom told him this would be blogged about, Steve couldn’t have known what was in store for him, heh. I mean, damn! This seems to set a new precedent for blogging and consumer activism."
I'm sorry but you are wrong. I was there when Tom talked to the guy and he had originally said that he was going to write the story for *********.com (which is a MAJOR website that Tom freelances with) It was the fact that he told "steve" that he was going to publish to this site that caused him to go ballastic and call our boss. (who has nothing to do with ********.com) Tom ultilmately choose to publish this on his own blog instead (to limit the liability of *******.com I would suspect), but Digg was the one who really broke the story. If this wasn't a common place practice I doubt that the response would have been the same. Steve knew who he was dealing with and should have been more apologetic. At the very least he shouldn't have threatened him. I mean seriously you threaten a blogger and you expect what?