Gamepal threatens to sue me
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EdNovember 11th, 2007 |
I seem to be a lighting rod of litigation lately. The latest stems from our friends at Gamepal who don’t like the fact that I have shared my experiences with their service. As some of you might recall, I used their service for a World of Warcraft account to level up a character for me. While they had control of the account, it was banned. It could have been because they used bots, or maybe some sort of foreign IP detection, or whatever. But the end result was that I was banned.
After complaining to Gamepal about my account, I was told that they were not responsible. They wouldn’t even issue a refund. So I wrote a post about my experiences. That post has become one of my more popular posts, in large part because I now rank #2 for the term, “Gamepal”. Not too far below me is a Rip off Report about Gamepal.
So at 1:06 AM on a Sunday, I get an email from their “corporate counsel” demanding that I take the post, which now has over 70 comments, down. Here is a little quote:
“We have repeatedly asked Ed Shull, owner and administrator of the domain http://www.oneblogtoomany.com to stop spamming, defaming, slandering, providing damaging and harmful information including Gamepal, Inc. employee and location information, posting ways to fraud our site, posting false information across the internet about Gamepal, Inc., and allowing false accusations against our company.”
That is one long sentence! Well, I have not spammed them or done anything else here. I posted my own experiences with their company. Obviously the comment section is filled with a lot people who have shared negative experiences as well. My response is below:
“This is a blog post I wrote about my own experiences. It is 100% accurate. This is my blog and I am certainly free to share my personal experiences with the world through it. If you don’t like what I have to say than you should have treated your customers better. I have received comments that contained personal information (phone numbers and addresses) about your management. I have not posted those as a courtesy.”
They have given me a deadline of 11/25 to take down my blog post. Obviously I’m not doing any such thing. This is my blog, I have been 100% honest, and I have every right to say what I like. And to be honest, some of the most popular blogs out there got that way because they were sued by idiots just like these. So I guess I hope they do file a lawsuit.
To be fair I should mention that a couple months back someone from Gamepal offered up a refund. And to be nice I gave them a chance to clear their name. How I was unwilling to take down my post, I did offer them the chance to level up a character to prove they don’t get every account banned. They decided they didn’t want to accept the challenge. I think it’s clear why.
Here is some friendly advice for Gamepal. If you want to protect your brand online, start by treating your customers well. And when you see something from a customer that is negative, try to resolve the situation amicably. All you’re doing here is fanning the flames. There is now another negative post about you that will strengthen my position in the Google rankings for your name. And I have once again referenced the Rip Off Report article, which will make that possibly move up another spot in Google. This is also being tagged in Technorati, which will now go out to anyone who checks for info on Gamepal, or World or Warcraft. And if you file a suit, this will get picked up by other news agencies, and you will have a lot of very popular sites talking about my review of your service.
And another tip, a real lawyer cost about $100 to send out a short email and a certified letter. It’s well worth the expense if you’re trying to intimidate someone. Your letter looks cheesy.
