Help- How Do I Respond/react To This????
Business By mjsirhunter Updated 25 Feb 2012 , 12:25am by vtcake
That kind of thing is just hurtful (and usually sprung from the author's own insecurities) because it's easy to say you're licensed when you know you are; you can say you don't have animal hair sticking to your cakes because you know you're clean; but it's hard to refute and say "my cakes are well decorated" because that's a matter of opinion and if you are always striving to be better then you see where you need to improve. Sorry, that's a really long sentence but it just aggravates me a lot. I'm glad the posting was taken down and I hope that anyone who may have seen it recognized the blatant antagonism in every unfounded word.
I'd flag the comment, then go back and add that you're licensed and inspected or whatever you want to add to your listing, and that you're happy to let all customers view your certificates.
I have been a member here for quite some time.
Up until now, I have contented myself with sitting on the sidelines and gleaning knowledge from the many diverse bakers and decorators here. In the real world, I am a professional chef. I also provide my restaurant with baked goods that are scratch made.
On to the topic.
This person has slandered you and opened himself up to a Defamation of Character lawsuit. If it were me, I would pursue it without delay. This type of cyber-bullying is gaining momentum because those on the receiving end usually choose to do nothing.
Hoping it will somehow fix itself or that Craigslist "may" delete it achieves nothing. The damage will be done and most assuredly will affect your future business unless you act. Even if you merely threaten legal action, it will have some effect, showing that you will defend your business tooth and nail. There are attorney's who will take your case with no up front fee's and with today's technology, it is easy to identify who the perpetrator is.
Omg! I saw that response!! I'm from OH too and that's not the first time I've seen someone respond harshly to people who advertise cakes on CL! That's the first time they mentioned pet hair though, but I bet it's the same person. And I bet it is someone who does cakes as well and is trying to stop people from purchasing cakes from anyone on CL in hopes that they will get more orders.
I'm glad that the comment was removed, but I still would respond back and let him and everyone on CL know that you are licensed and fully compatible with OH's requirements regarding your cakes. His words were extremely malicious and sadly, that tends to stick with people. I'm so very sorry this happened to you.
I did see the other day that someone responded to him and said that we were a cottage law state and could legally sell cakes here and told him to better educate himself. Was that you? I hope so. It left me thinking "you go girl!" when I read it! 
I would also start a website if you don't already have one. CL can reach some people, but there are a lot of people who don't use it as well and you could be missing out on future customers by not reaching out to more people. Good luck!
This person has slandered you and opened himself up to a Defamation of Character lawsuit. If it were me, I would pursue it without delay.
While I agree that this person posted in poor taste, it sounds more like their opinion and from what I read no incorrect facts were stated in clearly non-general terms, so winning a defamation suit might be tough given that benefit of the doubt is given to the first amendment.
You would also need to find out the identity of the poster, which would itself be difficult and expensive.
This person has slandered you and opened himself up to a Defamation of Character lawsuit. If it were me, I would pursue it without delay.
While I agree that this person posted in poor taste, it sounds more like their opinion and from what I read no incorrect facts were stated in clearly non-general terms, so winning a defamation suit might be tough given that benefit of the doubt is given to the first amendment.
You would also need to find out the identity of the poster, which would itself be difficult and expensive.
This quote taken from the original post is a direct accusation on the part of the perpetrator.
It is not written as an opinion.
These licenses are in place to protect the public from eating the dog or cat hair floating in the air in your trailer, attaching themselves to the icing on the cakes you are selling to the public.
It's nothing to me if you eat the cat and dog hair on your cakes but it's a lot to anyone who might actually buy a cake from you.
In addition, you violated CL TOU, in trying to sell unpackaged foods, and posting a link.
As far as locating anyone on the Web...nothing is private anymore.
There are attorney's who specialize in this type of claim.
Here is a good place to start.
http://www.internetdefamationlawblog.com/
I believe they offer a free consultation to see whether a case should be pursued or not.
In order to bring a cause of action for defamation, a plaintiff must establish that the defendant:
Published a statement about the plaintiff that was defamatory while acting with either actual intent or reckless disregard, i.e. malice (if the plaintiff was a public official or public figure) or negligence (if the plaintiff was a private individual) regarding the truth of the statement
The only direct accusation is that OP violated the Craigslist Terms of Use, everything else is either a hypothetical or generalized statement or could be argued as such.
Of course OP is free to get a consultation with an attorney, but I doubt any attorney would be willing to pursue this case. The case might be worth it if the poster can be identified and served (posting anonymously from a public location with free wifi would make this pretty much impossible) AND damages could be quantified AND the statements are found to be sufficiently specific to be considered accusations AND sufficient damages are awarded to make this worthwhile to the OP after legal fees AND the judgment can actually be collected. Plus if OP does file a lawsuit (regardless of win or lose), this person could potentially escalate and make it their personal mission to ruin her business, not to mention giving this person free publicity for their complaints.
Please note that I am not defending the actions of the person who posted the message on CL, I'm just saying that a lawsuit is probably not worth it.
That comment sounds like came from some (very jealous) competition. I had a local bakery owner once tell me I had "no talent" and to "get out of the business." Why? So she can corner the market?? Nope, she'll have to contend with me and deal with it. Period.
Maybe spending some time to create a "signature" for your ads... like thumbnail photos of the kitchen while baking, your license, and the state law links..
So the bottom of each ad has (for example), "From my state licensed and inspected certified kitchen to you", along with the above mentioned thumbnails (blurry on purpose).
Glad it resolved, as least for now....
Thank you everyone for your feedback and advise. I do advertise in several different places and am going to look into a few more. I will still keep my ad on Craigslist but it will be a simple one and thats it. I have a website that I direct everyone to and on it I have a page with a message from me. Im also gonna change it up a little with more info about me. Im thankful for now that Its resolved and got a kick out of how my webpage hits that day was triple what it usually is. People tryin to see all those dog and cat hair trailer decorated cakes I guess! lol If nothing else people who would have looked that day did- hopfully I seen from my website that im nothing like what this guy said. Thanks again all!
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