(Newser) – The petsitting company suing a Texas couple over their negative Yelp review now wants even more money from the couple. As Consumerist reports, Prestigious Pets' original lawsuit, which sought less than $7,000, was quickly dropped—only to be replaced with this new suit, which seeks between $200,000 and $1 million. Prestigious Pets originally argued that Robert and Michelle Douchouquette violated a non-disparagement clause in the petsitting contract by posting the bad review, in which the couple complained about some of the company's policies and alleged the petsitter may have harmed their fish. The new suit still alleges the non-disparagement clause was violated, and adds two more claims: defamation and business disparagement.
Prestigious Pets says the bad review and the ensuing bad publicity have led to threats and harassment and left the company a "shell of its former success,"
CBS DFW reports. "You’d think that what really damaged the reputation of the company was bringing the suit in the first place," says Paul Levy of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group representing the Douchouquettes pro bono. A warning that now pops up on Prestigious Pets'
Yelp page reads, "You should know this business has issued legal threats and/or taken legal action against reviewers for exercising their free speech. If your review accurately describes your firsthand experience, you have a First Amendment right to express your opinion on Yelp." A court will soon determine whether the petsitters' lawsuit is frivolous, in which case the Douchouquettes could seek to have it dismissed.
http://www.newser.com/story/224673/petsitter-now-wants-up-to-1m-for-negative-yelp-review.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=earthlink&utm_campaign=rss_topnews
I thought one of the points of Yelp was so you could read other reviews on services? When we have a petsitter we have her text us how the dogs are everyday and have used the same one for the past couple of years. Plus the dogs love her. I also checked with the neighbor who watches our house while we are gone and he says she spends a half hour to 45 minutes with them.
This pet sitting service doesn't stand a chance in hell of winning.
''Harmed their fish''? If these were tropical fish that could well be the case, since there are many things that can go wrong when you have tropical fish. Non tropical fish are not quite as sensitive but still require a lot of care.
I wonder what the mean when they say, ''harmed their fish''.
Apparently they have a camera mounted on their fish tank and it shows that the fish were over-fed and that the water got cloudy. Of course over feeding some fish will kill them (or so the story goes), so I can see them posting a slightly negative review. However the company (the pet sitters) just have to write that off as part of doing business. You can't please everyone. Instead they called a lot more attention to it by suing the couple then a negative on yelp is ever going to cause. Especially they up the lawsuit to $1,000,000. I mean it's like the hotel business. Sure a bad review hurts, but you don't sue unless you can prove there was some sort of blatant attempt to put you out of business.