Quick question GD, as Google isn't helping.
I made polite enquiries with a company I bought from, asking for help with one of their products. I was polite, concise and praising of them. Over the course of a number of emails I was told I seemed to have 'a tone', and that over subsequent replies my questions and statements were variously 'rude', 'offensive' and so on. I'd only asked a question! It seems the lady was having a bad day, or didn't like being questioned. Who knows?
Throughout the entire exchange (9 emails) I had done nothing but praise their product, company ethos and customer service - and ended up apologising two or three separate times in effort to reinforce my good intentions and smooth any perceived slight. No effect.
Her husband, the other company owner, has since emailed me to say he's not happy I made public my dissatisfaction. He says I didn't have "consent" to make public a quote from one of their emails, and that I was misrepresentative.
Now I don't feel I was at all. I simply posted in an industry-relevant forum to say how shocked I was to be spoken to like that by a company I pay money to. I had also offered to make available the entire unabridged exchange to anyone who felt I might have been biased in my OP's presentation. No trade secrets spilled, no harm done except to voice my dissatisfaction of the way I was spoken to when making simple enquiries of a company I already purchase goods from.
Amusingly, the final email telling me they weren't happy had one of those proforma 'confidentiality' footers attached. Now since I'm a private individual (i.e. not business to business) I'm pretty confident I have a right to expression/free press/review/complain and that by pasting a couple of paragraphs from their reply (which in no way violated IP, or anything they might legitimately want to moan about) I have done nothing wrong.
Google-fu suggests that 'confidentiality/intended recipient only' footers are legally pretty worthless anyway, as you have to read the email before you find out their 'terms'. As an aside, their emails don't comply with Companies Act requirements either (display of company registration details, head office address etc) so I can only 'assume' the emails were sent as personal - not business - correspondence anyway.
I replied to the chap and told him I have every right to share my own correspondence, and that in the case of his wife offence can only ever be taken, not given. I had been nothing but polite in asking for their help and the moment his wife said I had 'a tone' I went to extended lengths to ensure she knew I had only good intentions and wanted some help with their product. I asked if, in the interests of fairness, he'd prefer me to amend my post on said forum to include his dissatisfaction and the full PDF of the entire unabridged exchange for the public to make up their own minds if I was misrepresentative, biased or whatever else. I also pointed out they had every right to join and reply if they wished. He didn't send any further email(!).
What say you, fellow forumites?
I made polite enquiries with a company I bought from, asking for help with one of their products. I was polite, concise and praising of them. Over the course of a number of emails I was told I seemed to have 'a tone', and that over subsequent replies my questions and statements were variously 'rude', 'offensive' and so on. I'd only asked a question! It seems the lady was having a bad day, or didn't like being questioned. Who knows?
Throughout the entire exchange (9 emails) I had done nothing but praise their product, company ethos and customer service - and ended up apologising two or three separate times in effort to reinforce my good intentions and smooth any perceived slight. No effect.
Her husband, the other company owner, has since emailed me to say he's not happy I made public my dissatisfaction. He says I didn't have "consent" to make public a quote from one of their emails, and that I was misrepresentative.
Now I don't feel I was at all. I simply posted in an industry-relevant forum to say how shocked I was to be spoken to like that by a company I pay money to. I had also offered to make available the entire unabridged exchange to anyone who felt I might have been biased in my OP's presentation. No trade secrets spilled, no harm done except to voice my dissatisfaction of the way I was spoken to when making simple enquiries of a company I already purchase goods from.
Amusingly, the final email telling me they weren't happy had one of those proforma 'confidentiality' footers attached. Now since I'm a private individual (i.e. not business to business) I'm pretty confident I have a right to expression/free press/review/complain and that by pasting a couple of paragraphs from their reply (which in no way violated IP, or anything they might legitimately want to moan about) I have done nothing wrong.
Google-fu suggests that 'confidentiality/intended recipient only' footers are legally pretty worthless anyway, as you have to read the email before you find out their 'terms'. As an aside, their emails don't comply with Companies Act requirements either (display of company registration details, head office address etc) so I can only 'assume' the emails were sent as personal - not business - correspondence anyway.
I replied to the chap and told him I have every right to share my own correspondence, and that in the case of his wife offence can only ever be taken, not given. I had been nothing but polite in asking for their help and the moment his wife said I had 'a tone' I went to extended lengths to ensure she knew I had only good intentions and wanted some help with their product. I asked if, in the interests of fairness, he'd prefer me to amend my post on said forum to include his dissatisfaction and the full PDF of the entire unabridged exchange for the public to make up their own minds if I was misrepresentative, biased or whatever else. I also pointed out they had every right to join and reply if they wished. He didn't send any further email(!).
What say you, fellow forumites?