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Re: Lawsuit

I have been pondering this for some time, but I think it is time to say
this. I seem some very close parallels between the Petswarehouse lawsuit
and another case in my area involving a music store. I am a secondary
band teacher in Canada, and we depend HEAVILY on music stores to supply
our programs. I estimate that my program alone sends about $150,000.00
to music stores for instrument purchases and rentals and the like.

There was one store in my area which dominated the market entirely. I
figure their sales were in the 20 million dollar range annually. It was
a family run business, and the business was handed down to nephew as the
previous generation retired. The service levels from the store began to
drop when the new manager took over. Any complaints made by music
teachers were responded to with threats and harassment. If teachers then
took their business elsewhere, lawsuits or threats of lawsuits soon
followed.

As you can well imagine, customers were flying out of the store faster
than you can blink. I hung in to the bitter end, because I had never
been intimadated or threatened in any way, and this store still had all
that I required. Unfortunately, as the company went under, they were no
longer able to meet the needs of my large program, as they no longer had
stock necessary. I was then forced to move the business elsewhere, and
guess what, I was threatened, too. Being an old Boy Scout, though, I was
prepared. I had previously checked with the legal department of my
school district who said I could anything that I wanted because there
was no written contract.

The end result was that soon the business went bankrupt because they
pissed off customers so much, that people refused to shop there on
principle alone. The deats were piling up and customers no longer came
in because the manager refused to change his approach. The "lawsuits"
did not amount to a hill of beans, and the company is now defunct.

The interesting part of it all is that the manager who ran the business
into the ground is now working for his competition, most of whom he also
tried to sue! People have good memories, though, and the other
businesses which hired this man are finding that music teachers are now
avoiding their stores as well!

The moral of the story, for those that missed it, is that businesses
that sue their customers do so at their own peril! The business may win
in the courts, (which is highly doubtful), but in the end, the business
loses, and loses big! Even in "socialistic" Canada, we understand the
principles of Free Enterprise enough to see that.

Ed