@LouisIngenthron Was it just a threat or did it actually go to court? Thats bonkers!

@freemo I had to pay a lawyer to file a motion to dismiss. It was a meritless lawsuit meant to intimidate me, so after we filed that, they gave up.

@LouisIngenthron Just getting filed in court at all is a serious enough threat.

@freemo Yup, I got served and everything.

@LouisIngenthron Over a god damn amazon review... what the fuck did you say!?

@freemo It was an expensive item and they marked it as shipped in the system, but didn't give me a tracking number. When I asked for one, they cancelled the order.

So, I basically just posted that, mentioned how it was suspicious, and told others to look out for a possible scam.

@LouisIngenthron Sounds fair and not at all libel/slander.

@freemo Oh no, I know my 1A jurisprudence. I was very careful not to make any false statements of fact.

You should see the response I wrote their lawyer before they sued me proper. I tore him a new one about how meritless the threat was. I ended with something along the lines of "Is this really what you went to law school for?"

In hindsight, that may be why they went through with the lawsuit, lol.

@LouisIngenthron The thing iis even if you explicitly and knowingly lied that is still no libel or slander which has additional conditions... so even then the suit was pointless.

I would have loved to be a fly on that lawyers wall.

@freemo From what I understand, there are entire law firms that make their living sending bogus legal threats to people to take down reviews. Most folks don't lawyer up like me... they just fold. And once you delete a seller review on Amazon, it's permanent. You can't re-post or edit. So, these firms sell subscription packages to sellers. "Have a bad review? Let us know, we'll send a scary threat."

It's scum work, but there are apparently plenty of lawyers willing to abuse the law to make money 🤷‍♂️

@LouisIngenthron honestly id imagine if you didnt fold or lawyer up and just ignore such things in most cases nothing would happen. Once it got in front of a judge and you didnt show the judge would quickly recognize there is no case and dismiss it...

Maybe im a bit naive but that is probably how id play it. I mean they cant win a lawsuite at most they **might** win an injunction for me to take down the comment.. Good luck they just spent thousands to remove a comment. Then within 24 hours id have a bot net going with 100,000 comments of spam :)

@freemo From what I understand, if you just don't show up, you're likely to get a summary judgement against you.

Now, at that point the plaintiff would have to spend even more money to try to enforce that, but still.

@LouisIngenthron Generally speaking not showing up will work against you if they have even the slightest hint of a possible case.

But as a non-lawyer with only the vaguest of clues I have to beleive that when the case is as absurd as it is here that even then not showing up would wind up with a dismisal.

I say that because if you dont show you cant argue your case, but to any half-competent judge you wouldnt need to argue your case for them to know enough to dismiss it.

@freemo From what I understand, that's the "summary" part of "summary judgement". A summary dismissal can mean they didn't even look at the merits of the case, because the judgement is based on something more procedural (like not showing up).

@LouisIngenthron Honestly only a lawyer would really know, if that is the case i think thats a pretty messed up part of our system then. A judge should at least review the merits superficially

@LouisIngenthron You should link me to the amazon product in a DM so I definately will not leave 20 bad reviews.

@freemo It was a seller review in this case, not a product review, but yeah.

@freemo @LouisIngenthron Many powerful groups keep a hit squad of legal professionals at the ready. Such firms don't always play by the rules and act more like a PMC. Don't underestimate these groups but they have a history of actions and clients. Know your enemy better than they know you.

@AmpBenzScientist

Good I hope thats the case. if they try to sue me ill just add that to my review

@LouisIngenthron

@freemo @LouisIngenthron Obliterating a law firm isn't that rewarding compared to forcing corporate's hand due to the threatening of their brand. They might pay everyone off and forbid such actions in their revised ToS for sellers.

I didn't study business but I'm pretty sure the customers are the group that one wants to keep.

@AmpBenzScientist

Im more than happy just destroying them in reviews and calling it a day.

@LouisIngenthron

@freemo @AmpBenzScientist I wish I had that option. Amazon doesn't allow for review updates for seller reviews.

@LouisIngenthron

I'd probably buy a 1$ item and then return it just to be able to leave a new review :)

@AmpBenzScientist

@ericjmorey actually ive seen this happen before. It isnt that they switch the product. Its that when a product is sold in various sizes then the reviews for all sizes show in one space. In and of itself it isnt suspicious as I see it constantly on products i buy.

It also wouldnt make much sense as a business model… you’d have to spend time and money selling legit products only to sell a handful of bad ones before scrapping it. They would make more just keeping the original listing, especially when the pricing is similar.

@ericjmorey On closer inspection I think your right. Two reasons.

1) There is no size selection on this page, so my earlier explanation doesnt make sense

2) even though they are the official distributor of this brand I noticed when i go to their brand page all (except one) of their products are either 1TB or 0.5 TB.. This suggest they did what you said but across all products at once.

@freemo

The branding policy of Amazon has caused a lot of trouble for the USPTO too. Resellers (companies that stamp a brand on generic products or simply unbranded products) are overwhelming the USPTO with trademark applications to create brands using strings of random letters.

@ericjmorey probably something like what they did here.