Company threatening to sue me for filing complaint with BBB. What can I do?

Here's what happened yesterday: I won a gift certificate for a photography studio at a bridal show and received it in the mail today. There were NO restrictions listed on the certificate itself NOR on the letter that came with it. I contacted the retailer and the manager stated that he would only accept it for wedding photography packages, which start at $2000.

After receiving some advice on YA, I tried contacting the manager again and we have been emailing back and forth about this. He has been calling me selfish and accusing me of trying to degrade his business. I asked him if he would simply apologize for the misunderstanding and let it go. I told him that if he didn't, I'd filed a complaint about the situation with the BBB. He says that if I do, he will sue me. What can I do?

Truthfully, I just want to save others from being sucked into his web of lies. I really enjoy their photographic work, but the fact that he has lied about everything thus far and is threatening to sue me, I want to make sure no one gets sucked into this again.

If you think this vendor is doing these kinds of things in a very broad basis wasting a lot of peoples time and intentionally misleading people, then filing a BBB complaint may be worth it to warn others.

If it was just a sort of one-time contest or something, put their shoes on your feet for a minute and consider the business does have to make money and there is no such thing as free lunch.

These sorts of "bait and switch" are actually pretty common, almost getting to be accepted practice, and there are far worse things going on out there than this.

With respect to suing you, it will cost him probably a minimum of $4000 to sue you and if you file a BBB complaint, there are not many judges who will statistically view the filing of a BBB complaint to be a good basis for suing someone when the BBB mediation process is actually mean to help resolve these sorts of issues and keep it out of the courts in the first place.

But - for the most part ... my advice is just throw the thing in the garbage, forget about it, and don't do business with them anymore.

go forward with your course of action. Filing a complaint with the BBB gives no legal grounds for a lawsuit. He's a bad bullshit artist.

file it and tell them he wants to sue you

This is the land of the free, home of the brave, and anyone can sue anyone. Just because someone is sued doesn't mean the person who sues will be successful.

It's hard to imagine what his cause of action would be -- perhaps defamation. But if he sues you for defamation, truth is generally an affirmative defense. What that means in English is that, if you get sued for defamation (i.e., slander or libel), and you can prove that what you said was true, you're off the hook. So you'd almost certainly win as long as you don't say anything untrue. But who wants to get sued in the first place?

Btw, don't take too much courage from the advice on this thread that says he can't sue. If you say something damaging about him, and it hurts his professional reputation, that's the basis for a defamation case. That means the ball is in your court (i.e., in legalese, the "burden" shifts to you) -- i.e., if YOU don't prove that what you said was true, you're liable for his damages.

Maybe the BBB can give you some advice -- it seems like it would be in their interest to promise to defend any such lawsuit. Otherwise, nobody would ever report any bad business practices and their work would become meaningless. Good luck.

You can exercise your freedom of speech and tell the BBB the same story you tell here. If everything you say is true, he has no case.

But ask yourself, what are you trying to accomplish here? Why have you been having this fight?

Life is short. Is this worth all the effort you've put into it?

He can't sue you for filing a complaint with the BBB. I would suggest contacting law enforcement and/or the fraud division of the district attorney's office in your area. Present them with the letter and gift certificate and have them investigate the matter.

You may consider filing a small claims suit for the amount of the certificate based upon fraud.

He is an idiot. He cannot sue you for filing a complaint to the BBB. His lawyers fees would cost him a lot more to sue you than it would to simply honor the amount on his gift certificate. He would likely be charged with fraud once it became known how he was doing business.

He is obviously a scammer that runs a fake promotion and he hopes nobody will ever actually use the so-called gift certificate. Just be done with him and forget about it. You will be wasting your time if you pursue it.

I doubt he will want to pay the expenses of suing you. I didn't fully understand why you want to file a complaint, but he must be a retard to sue you over it.

LMAO sue you for complaining to the BBB! Tooooooooooo funny. Tell him to honor the certificate with no restrictions as it was received or the complaint will be filed.

I don't know what you wrote in the E-Mails But if you used proper English and no four letter words.File with BBB its you re write and you should. Again no threats or bad words in E-Mail you re OK

What would he sue you for? Does he even know? I'm assuming that he'd attempt to claim libel (written damage to reputation), but there are certain elements required for that, one of which is that you make a false, defamatory statement about him. As long as your statement simply relays the factual things that have happened, you'll be fine. If you're dealing with the BBB anyway, you should ask them what you should do in this situation. I'm sure this kind of situation has happened before and they should know how to deal with it. They may have even lobbied for some specific law within your state that would provide some penalties for the photographer's threats.

If you want to be cute, you could ask him if he really wants to defend a countersuit for intimidation and breach of contract. I know it's also a major ethics violation for lawyers to make empty threats of lawsuits, but I don't know what the rules are for others and suspect that they vary state by state. If you have an attorney in the family, you could ask him to write this guy a letter and put him in his place.

Basically, though, it sounds like your situation is one of escalating tempers. Lawyers love seeing these kinds of situations because they force people to throw their money away instead of resolving their own problems. Going to court is usually the lazy and cowardly way out. This is something you probably could have handled much better at the outset. Although it sounds like it's largely his fault (courts are a small business owner's worst nightmare and for him to mention it makes him an idiot) these are the kinds of things you'll have to deal with in life and it's better to learn how to work through them amicably.

So, you have to ask yourself what you want and what's the best and worst outcome that's realistically possible.

- You should give up on using the gift certificate. It sounds like that's gone.

- The only thing you really stand to gain from this is a sense of satisfied revenge and justice. So, you can file with the BBB and/or mention something to the people who sponsored the bridal show. The best thing that could come out of this is that you'll have spread the word about his business and caused him some loss of business. The worst thing that could happen is that he'll actually sue you (although I still doubt he'd win) and you'll have to pay thousands of dollars defending yourself in court. You have to ask yourself if it's worth the headache.

Finally, thanks for reinforcing my stereotype about what sleazebags SOME wedding photographers can be.

First, they should sue the people that gave you bad advice. Maybe that would teach the hundreds of idoits on here to keep thier mouth shut unless they know what they are talking about.

Then, they should sue you for taking legal advice from a complete stranger with not credentials.

You got something for free, and you are complaining. Wow. Just wow.

Actually, he can't sue you for complaining to the BBB, as long as you stick to the truth. Clearly, his crummy attitude is what is degrading his business, and the BBB (as well as consumers like you and me) take advertising and coupon small print very seriously -- and if this guy can't get it right, he doesn't need to be in a legitimate business. Also, the BBB will investigate it and keep a record of it, and I'm sure he'll have a chance to contest it. I wouldn't worry ... guys like that are pretty much what the BBB is for.