Posted a one star review for a van and man firm I used back in 2013, got notice of complaint for Deformation of Character Act 2013 from the independent reviewing site on behalf of the van and man company !
in the written reply the Van and Many company claim that I am bogus, they've never heard of me etc which is a complete lie, I have emails from them on a BT server where I have corresponded with them using exactly the same name on the reply, they still have the same business name, same web site and same email I used to correspond with them back then.
Story goes small transit van job was needed for a PC and some books and clothes, from central London to the North on a working day, I paid £150 deposit via electronic bank transfer to them (still viewable on my online statements even), called them up on the next day informing them that the parking reservation for the van may be difficult to obtain for the agreed future date but that there should be parking space outside on the day or nearby but he wasn't having it, he said get it sorted with the Local Authority or he wasn't doing the job and he would keep the deposit, I then requested a refund as I informed him that the Local Authority couldn't guarantee a future booking date early on but he was obstinate and wouldn't budge and said that he would keep the money, so I naturally informed him over he phone that I want the job cancelled and sought an alternative removals firm. A few days later he decided to ignore my request to fully cancel the job and sent and invoice for the remainder of the money for the job and also his van registration number to book the parking space with ! I spotted this surprise email and replied back stating that we had agreed to cancel this job a day after I paid the payment for the deposit and that's the last I heard of them.
Thing is he is claiming that he's never heard of me, I am bogus etc, I'm doing quick videos of the reviews I wrote and the replies he wrote stating these allegations towards me. Now I now that £150 isn't much to a contractor etc but I don't like being screwed over. This Van and Man van is a nutter I did a search and he accused an ex-politician of putting his own rival business phone number onto the business web pages of his van and man company and it was in the local newspaper etc, also there's an old archived yelp review that mirrored his odd, stubborn behaviour with a client where a simple job was not to his liking so he just put the phone down on the potential customer abruptly etc that review got deleted but it's on the web snapshot archives, I'm sure he threatened the reviewer in a similar way.
Thing is the reviewing company is asking me for my full name, address, whether I am willing to disclose my address to the van and man company etc, or give my consent to removing the review. I obviously won't even phone the guy as I don't trust him so he's not getting my address, I'm not happy about giving my address to the independent reviewing company as a court order from the Van and man company could reveal it. There is a funny twist to this and that is that I am not a British National and have not been resident in Britain for a few years, I have no plans to go back either although I do have strong family ties there !
I'm wondering whether it's just worth letting this go and letting the review be taken off automatically and see if he tries to find me and take the fight to me (insanity !), if I do let it go he could go sucker some other poor unsuspecting client and then try and bully them with lies to stop them ever posting any negative reviews like he is doing now.
What would you do ? I was thinking of replying to the review site stating, I'm not comfortable providing you with my home address but I can provide you video evidence of the email correspondence by logging into web mail and maybe get a letter from my bank manager confirming that money had been paid to the Man and Van company. Or would you let it go ? I know time has passed but with extreme stress at the time with moving, then moving again abroad I haven't found the time to do anything, also the public independent review entries for this business have only been up 4 months to 2 years so I had no option to even post a review back then. I should have taken to small claims court back then but hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it....
in the written reply the Van and Many company claim that I am bogus, they've never heard of me etc which is a complete lie, I have emails from them on a BT server where I have corresponded with them using exactly the same name on the reply, they still have the same business name, same web site and same email I used to correspond with them back then.
Story goes small transit van job was needed for a PC and some books and clothes, from central London to the North on a working day, I paid £150 deposit via electronic bank transfer to them (still viewable on my online statements even), called them up on the next day informing them that the parking reservation for the van may be difficult to obtain for the agreed future date but that there should be parking space outside on the day or nearby but he wasn't having it, he said get it sorted with the Local Authority or he wasn't doing the job and he would keep the deposit, I then requested a refund as I informed him that the Local Authority couldn't guarantee a future booking date early on but he was obstinate and wouldn't budge and said that he would keep the money, so I naturally informed him over he phone that I want the job cancelled and sought an alternative removals firm. A few days later he decided to ignore my request to fully cancel the job and sent and invoice for the remainder of the money for the job and also his van registration number to book the parking space with ! I spotted this surprise email and replied back stating that we had agreed to cancel this job a day after I paid the payment for the deposit and that's the last I heard of them.
Thing is he is claiming that he's never heard of me, I am bogus etc, I'm doing quick videos of the reviews I wrote and the replies he wrote stating these allegations towards me. Now I now that £150 isn't much to a contractor etc but I don't like being screwed over. This Van and Man van is a nutter I did a search and he accused an ex-politician of putting his own rival business phone number onto the business web pages of his van and man company and it was in the local newspaper etc, also there's an old archived yelp review that mirrored his odd, stubborn behaviour with a client where a simple job was not to his liking so he just put the phone down on the potential customer abruptly etc that review got deleted but it's on the web snapshot archives, I'm sure he threatened the reviewer in a similar way.
Thing is the reviewing company is asking me for my full name, address, whether I am willing to disclose my address to the van and man company etc, or give my consent to removing the review. I obviously won't even phone the guy as I don't trust him so he's not getting my address, I'm not happy about giving my address to the independent reviewing company as a court order from the Van and man company could reveal it. There is a funny twist to this and that is that I am not a British National and have not been resident in Britain for a few years, I have no plans to go back either although I do have strong family ties there !
I'm wondering whether it's just worth letting this go and letting the review be taken off automatically and see if he tries to find me and take the fight to me (insanity !), if I do let it go he could go sucker some other poor unsuspecting client and then try and bully them with lies to stop them ever posting any negative reviews like he is doing now.
What would you do ? I was thinking of replying to the review site stating, I'm not comfortable providing you with my home address but I can provide you video evidence of the email correspondence by logging into web mail and maybe get a letter from my bank manager confirming that money had been paid to the Man and Van company. Or would you let it go ? I know time has passed but with extreme stress at the time with moving, then moving again abroad I haven't found the time to do anything, also the public independent review entries for this business have only been up 4 months to 2 years so I had no option to even post a review back then. I should have taken to small claims court back then but hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it....
Comment