Hi

I am in no way concerned but I find it amusing that a client somehow manages to misread an advertisement and then threaten to take legal action for false advertising.

The scenario is, We are offering a free domain name with hosting and reseller plans, The client has taken the free domain code and used it to claim a free domain but hasnt ordered any hosting, The advertisement is quite clear that they are offered with the hosting/resellers.

Should I be at all concerned?

He says you are legally obliged to register the domain or I will take legal action for false advertising, Why should I suffer for his misreading of an advertisement.

He says" Well, that was not stated anywhere on the site, in your Free Webspace offer, or in your Terms Of Service. So legally you must give me the domain that i ordered or else i will have to take legal action for false advertising.
The decision is yours whether you register the domain or not. But be warned if you don't your not going to like that happens."

I beg to differ as on the company blog it clearly states there on offer WITH hosting and resellers,

What sort of reply should I give to his email, and I adjusted our terms so were not responsible for their misreading of an ad. I myself think its just scare tactics to make us register the domain for him.

Plus its only $8.88

Regards,

If it's a good domain, register the domain and point to your website.
Just joking :D

No one is going to sue you over $8.88 :)
Also, I don't think you can sue someone over "False Advertising". You can sue someone for damages against you or your business. False Advertising complaints would probably have to be filed with the FTC or BBB

Don't take my advice as being legally accurate, but I wouldn't be bothered enough even to contact a lawyer at this stage. Just ask him to send in a legal notice, refund any money he paid you and close his account. I wouldn't be bothered to talk with him further

He didnt even pay any money, He just expects me to register it. Im just not contacting him any further, I told them once on the support ticket the offer was to be used with the hosting offer only.

I would probably nullroute him from the website, so he thinks he got it taken down and will leave you alone permanently.

How would you nullroute his IP as our site is hosted offsite from our 2 servers

lol, sounds like a punk kid trying to get a free domain. :emlaugh: :rolleyes:

Thats great isn't it. Short version tell the client to take a hike.

Long bit but IANAL. Lets assume that both you are the customer are both in the UK (as I know you are). I had a look at what I believe to be the advert and you state something like "Free domain with the coupon code blah" meaning that customer has to signup. IANAL but basically as I see this as you have made an "offer" in terms of the advert and for it to become binding the other party has to accept the contract, which is done when they make payment. As they have not paid, no contract has been formed therefor there is nothing legally they can do.

Ah, just register the domain.. Just don't give it. :-)
Maybe that teaches the 10-y old to stay nice to people.

I would wonder what he would say if you said he may start legal actions.

I would invite him to take legal actions, and threaten him with registering the domain for myself.

In this case,
- he will register the domain to save it, so you can claim "it was already registered :rolleyes: "
- he won't register the domain, so you will register and say "i already registered the domain, i don't see why you are angry at me :rolleyes: "

In both case, you won't lose the case, so the kiddie will have to pay the lawyer bills, which should be a lil higher than $8.

In short, there is nothing you should be worried about, he can't claim anything, especially without a contract between you and him.

Thanks for your info Rus and everyone else, I feel at ease now :)

How would you nullroute his IP as our site is hosted offsite from our 2 servers

do this on both servers
ip route add blackhole <his ip address>
or
route add -host <his ip address> reject
assuming you are using a Linux/Unix Host. Either one works, I use the second one more frequently.

"If you would, sir be so kind as to forward me the contact information of your mental health consultant it would be my pleasure to discuss it with him"

This won't even get to litigation, let alone past it. Judges apply common sense to every case.

IMHO you shouldn't block his IP, it looks rather unprofessional.

LMFAO.

Reply saying that YOU will take legal actions for *make up some crap here*. If he is a kid, I guarantee you he will back off cold turkey, which would be halarious.

If he's not a kid and recognizes that you are toying with him, he will send an email back calling you a retard for the crap you made up. As far as I can see, you aren't going to take this person in as a client anyway...so screw with him! lol.

Ive made no further contact with him since he threatened action

My standard bit of advice whenever someone goes legal is to say something like "Please provide the name of your appointed legal representative so we can make contact. All further discussion must go via appointed legal persons".

NEVER give your lawyers details to start with otherwise your "client" can ring them up, complain and then the lawyer sends you a bill. Also most people who sue you don't tell you before hand

As I see it, that "client" of yours can either:
- Have lots of money, so he can spare the $888 that legal stuff would take (at least!) just to get a $8.88 domain.
- Have no money at all, or at least a normal quantity, so he just wants to get a free domain and would never sue you if he doesn't get it (he doesn't have the money to do it).
- Be an attorney, which could be supposed to get free legal support, in which case it's easy to assume he would be busy working and wouldn't have time to punk around for a $8.88 domain (do attorneys know what's a domain?)
:D

Will he complain over $888 legal fee for that $8.88 peanut domain ? Maybe he had some mental problem?

Now he says he wants compensation for the time he has chosen to waste on the support ticket,

Im finding this amusing

Whats the name of this joker so we can avoid him?

I will not reveal at this stage. He found us on another forum so I wouldnt worry. I suggesr just making your advertisements super idiot proof though :P. Although xx amount of customers seem to grab the concept of free domain included with hosting

He's too cheap to order a domain name but is threatening legal action?
Ignore him from this point on & let him be.

He'll get over it, without legal action ;)

He's too cheap to order a domain name but is threatening legal action?
Ignore him from this point on & let him be.

He'll get over it, without legal action ;)

I second this. Don't waste your time by saying something to him that can be used against you. I highly doubt anyone would sue over a 8 USD conflict or if the judge would even accept that in Small Claims Court.

Even if he does sue, I am sure you would win anyway - if your ad was idiot proof so don't assume if you get sued by him you will automatically lose - just think of it as a sale that was really hard to make :)

Its not even $8 :P, He misread the advert and thought he could purchase a domain for $0.00 and use our free domain code to claim 100% off the domain aloan, When the ad was quite clear you have to purchase hosting.

So basically he hasnt payed even 1 cent

Its not even $8 :P, He misread the advert and thought he could purchase a domain for $0.00 and use our free domain code to claim 100% off the domain aloan, When the ad was quite clear you have to purchase hosting.

So basically he hasnt payed even 1 cent

So he's not even a client, why are you wasting your & our time by posting this?

I dont know anymore, We can consider this thread closed then :)

should have told him to put in more hours on his morning paper round to earn extra cash to buy a hosting account, which funnily enough comes with a free domain.

owm

Isn't false advertising when you pay for something but don't get what you pay for? Or you sign up for something and it is processed successfully and you don't get that? If I signed-up for x product at y company and they don't have that service even though they advertise it, that's false advertising.

But like the others have suggested, don't waste your time. If you want to have fun with them, request their lawyer information so your lawyers can contact them.

We didnt mis-advertise though, We havent proccessed anything, he hasnt payed us anything, he misread thats all and wants to blame us. I doubt ill ever hear from them again

We didnt mis-advertise though, We havent proccessed anything, he hasnt payed us anything, he misread thats all and wants to blame us. I doubt ill ever hear from them againThat's my point -- sorry I wasn't clear on that.

Now he says he wants compensation for the time he has chosen to waste on the support ticket,

Im finding this amusing

Wow, this is getting entertaining. :).

Say. "OK I'll give you a full refund, oh wait.."

Is this guy called Younes Bouazza by any chance? And was the domain gtamuslim.net, or similar?

So he's not even a client, why are you wasting your & our time by posting this?

Entertainment?
Boredom?
Up for a laugh and wanted to share?

Is this guy called Younes Bouazza by any chance? And was the domain gtamuslim.net, or similar?

Not even slightly similar, Was a forum domain

Not even slightly similar, Was a forum domain

Could you share his name with us? I know you don't really want to but it could helpm others out if he comes along to them next. :)

I'm curious to see the ad, I wonder how he got the wrong inpression.

And FYI, though I don't really see any way that he can sue you, he could definitly contact the BB or another government agency, which is of course free so him not being able/wanting to hire a lawyer doesn't really work into this situation.

The easiest thing to do is once they threaten legal action tell them politely that under advisement of council you should no longer speak directly with them and all communications should be directed to "insert law firm here"

Of course, that requires you to know a lawyer or someone who can represent you and that they are on retainer.

99% of the time those people will never be heard from again as once they try to contact your lawyer they will be told they cannot contact them directly and it must be done through their lawyer which of course means them having to cough up cash.

this jerk is just trying to threaten you for a free domain. I'll ignore his email if I were you

An advertisement is an invitation to visit and not an offer that can be held up in a court of law. This has been set in stone in cases over and over again, specifically with car dealerships.

You don't need to worry about this, it's not an issue.

Could you share his name with us? I know you don't really want to but it could helpm others out if he comes along to them next. :)

I'm not sure if that would be ethical though.

To the TS, just ignore him, nothing will come of it

He has already made it clear that he has no intention of buying anything, so just dont waste your time on him and dont respond.

Or maybe do what he asks, register it, and tell him he can get it as soon he signs up for webhosting. :)

The easiest thing to do is once they threaten legal action tell them politely that under advisement of council you should no longer speak directly with them and all communications should be directed to "insert law firm here"

Absolutely NOT. That leaves it wide open for this idiot to call up your attorney and run up your legal fees. You should always request that they send the contact information of their attorney. Tell them you will no longer communicate with them directly, but will have yours contact theirs.

--Tina

Ive heard nothing for days now, I recon its just a kid with nothing better to do.

Ive heard nothing for days now, I recon its just a kid with nothing better to do.

Good on you Dediwebspace :) I'm glad it all worked out in the end.

You did the right thing by ignoring this visitor, congrats, never waste your time with this people :)

Yes I agree:

As a policy, the moment any person or entity squawks "Lawyer or Legal Action" we null route any and all contact with them. We keep notes and emails from them filed and simply do not respond. In each and every case they go away.

An advertisement is an invitation to visit and not an offer that can be held up in a court of law. This has been set in stone in cases over and over again, specifically with car dealerships.

Of course an advert can be upheld in a court of law, otherwise there would be nothing to stop someone blatantly false advertising their products or using bait and switch techniques.


As a policy, the moment any person or entity squawks "Lawyer or Legal Action" we null route any and all contact with them. We keep notes and emails from them filed and simply do not respond. In each and every case they go away.

In the isolated case where the person does take it further, you would only make things worse by just ignoring them from the beginning. You are much better off doing as previously suggested and inform them that any further communication should be sent directly from their lawyer, then ignoring any further communication from them. (Unless it is from their lawyer of course)

Thread can be closed

Wow this was entertainment.

What a retarded person :D

Tell him to get a life. Any judge would throw this case out. I would do what PremiumHost (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/member.php?u=103677) said and register the domain and point it to your site.