What to do with Problem Connections on MerchantCircle

[Tears of Joy Video]

I found out this week that one of my connections on merchantcircle was copying my ideas and using them as her own. She has a videotaping business, different than mine and seemed nice, so I didn't really feel threated by her. But a few weeks ago I sent out a email to everyone on my contact list about the fact that we are collecting personal stories for our new site and I am looking for contributed personal stories. Well she took that same email and changed it with her name and sent it out to her contact list. She even kept our tag line in her email. Angie from the diaper baker was nice enough to bring this to my attention and send me her email. Thanks Angie.

I wrote her a letter stating that this was down right plagiarism and that it reflected bad on her business and that I did not appreciate that. I also deleted her as a contact. Besides this can anyone think what else I should do about this? I would like to do something more, but don't know what else I can do.

Also what can we do with businesses like this we find on merchantcircle? We need to find a way of warning other businesses about bad business practices in networking as well as bad business practices in business. Any ideas?

[Lindy Asimus]

Well that's a point. But I'd rather a thread on good practices! With mention where applicable, of What Not To Do.

[Lindy Asimus]

Let me just say here, that this is another reason to grow TeamCircle. We have a much better chance to create an environment here, where members are attuned to the nature of the relationships that we are developing, and have more opportunity to encourage good behaviors within the community that we build, than elsewhere.

[Candle Boutique & Gifts, LLC]

That seems reasonable - that way no one gets offended, but if the practice continues, what then? Even search engines will ban you if you continue to use unethical practices.

[Daniella "Xactli"]

From what I read so far, you're doing everything that you should be doing. You can also write a review/comment on McAfee Site Advisor if you feel that she has placed any of your material on her main site, but first you have to become a Site Advisor. I'm a Site Advisor and I go around and rate other people's site based on my experience and people do read them. If the site is really bad, it moves down in color - I only do business with green sites (search engines will list them), but if the site is yellow and someone recommended it, I'll read what McAfee and other Site Advisors wrote about the site before I go any further - one business in my MC Network had a yellow website because they spam too much, but they got rid of that site and opened a new one. It's something to think about and I hope I was somewhat helpful.

Oh, I was also going to suggest you start a black list but the problem with that is, what if a company gets placed on the list because someone is trying to be spiteful. If so be the case, then you would have to verify each entry and that would be a job in itself.

Daniella
Xactli.com
XactliDomains.com

[kent]

We all share that risk of sharing our knowledge & marketing strategies in a public forum. And some would say that original concepts are rare indeed, comprising of historical events that are cobbled together to call our own.

But this violation clearly crosses the line of fairness, ethics and integrity.
To "borrow" a general marketing strategy and implement it in another market or channel is one thing. But to lift the content and republish in the same network and competitive business violates the neighborhood and goodwill, essentiallly, "shitting in the nest".

If MC management offers no control and policy to notify or ban the offender then a MCBlacklist would offer some benefit to the community. If they have any defense, let them respond for all to consider.

Kent Looft
www.designartsaz.com

[Techwarrior Network and Computer Services]

Its something you have to be really careful about, in marketing school i was taught one of the best ways to learn about your competition and compete with them is to study them and learn there tricks, and with the internet that is all too easy. The other thing I've taken to heart is theat the great microsoft and apple created them selves by copying others and improving there ideas. So you gotta be careful what you do because it may be copied or used and if you don't have it copyrighted its hard to do anything about it.

[The Diaper Baker]

Hello everyone! I'm "The" Angie that Cathie is speaking of. I would like to give you all a quick run down of what took place.... Sherry from Breathless Video sent me an email as I am one of her connections on MC. The email was sent on July 15th. For whatever reason, it ended up in my bulk mail folder. I found it yesterday morning when emptying out the folder. I actually responded to it because I loved the idea of submitting stories, both personal and business natured. I responded by asking if I was too late to submit as I just read the email for the first time yesterday. I didn't receive a reply.

A few hours later I was on MC and went to Cathie's Tears of Joy page to read a blog about saving gas, which she had posted a while ago and I had responded to. Upon viewing her blog page, I came across a blog that was almost identical to the email I had just read earlier from Breathless Video. I actually compared the too because it was total deja vu!! Almost everything was the same! I noticed the date of Cathie's post which was July 14th....one day PRIOR to the email from Breathless Video.

I contacted Cathie and asked if the two were associated with one another because otherwise, this was very distasteful. After Cathie declared that they were indeed NOT associated with one another, I forwarded her the email from Sherry.

I felt as a fellow merchant in the same network, I should notify her. I would have appreciated it very much if the tables were turned and someone was doing this to me. I was not out to hurt Breathless Video in any way, but their business ethics have proven to be something that I do not wish to associate with. I have chosen to end my connection with her as well. She acutally has two separate companies and I have disconnected with both.

It is okay to share ideas and offer suggestions with one another....That's the beauty of networking. But when one person goes overboard by COPYING another's ideas and thoughts and acting as if they were their own, well, then that's just wrong. We are all here to help each other succeed.

In response to the posts left on this topic...I do agree with those who have said that MC probably won't do much as they have a hard enough time replying to emails as it is. Have you checked out thier own MC listing? TONS of complaints about not receiving responses to questions. So, unfortunatley, I don't think MC will be much of a help in this matter.

I am comfortable speaking here on Team Circle because none of us would be here on this site if we didn't want to be and if we didn't care. I don't want to say that I was the start of all of this, as Sherry from Breathless Video definitley started it all by copying....but I was the one who notified Cathie. I don't regret doing so...as I said earlier, I would like to have notified as well. BUT...we all know how spiteful people can be and I don't want the repercussions. I work very hard at maintaining my network on MC and with receiving my reviews and fear that Breathless Video or affiliates of will purposely try to damage that for me. With that being said, I would not feel comfortable exposing her name or business name on a MC forum. .... However, I do agree with creating a forum about bad business practices. I am in complete agreement that something more needs to be done to prevent this from ever happening again, not just to Cathie, but to any of us.

But...how do we do so without huring my name in the process?

[Tears of Joy Video]

Angie,

I have thought about this too. I am afriad of doing anything for what she could come back and do to me and I certianly don't want you hurt after doing your good deed. It is what I have been trying to think of. I already answered back to her, but just since this morning I found out she has done this an number of times before from another merchant here who actually had her as a customer and then after finding out about her, dropped her because of her practices. I think others need to be warned. This is what I was thinking of doing.

I am thinking of going to each of her contacts and warning them of her practices and advising them to disconnect from her. I will not approach her at all. But Angie, if you think that will hurt you in any way, I will not do this. I am afriad of what she will do to me, so I am still not sure if this is good. I could approach the ones by email that I am connected to, but what about the ones I am not connected to? Maybe to be more private, I could ask them to connect and write a private email to them after that. I was going to do this in talk to me, but then my name is pastered all over their sites for her to view. I know this will take time, but I want to warn people about this. Do you think this is a good idea?

[Candle Boutique & Gifts, LLC]

I think you could get in serious trouble for doing this - I would advise against it. If they contact you, that is a different matter. Using the Better Business Bureau as an example, they accept reports of bad business practices, but never contact that companies customers about it. They will, however give that information if someone calls and asks about the company. I guess this is one of those things where we can huff and puff all we want, but since we could get in trouble for going too far, I think the best thing to do would be to post a forum on bad business practices to warn everyone (like Lindy said) and let them know that these things can and will happen.

I also think that from now on it might be a good idea to do private mailings for things we do not want anyone to copy. If you connect with companies that are similar to yours and do it publicly, you are always taking the chance they will use that information to their benefit.

Be careful what you do - do not do anything that will get you in trouble.

[Lori Iwan]

First, publicizing what another company did could amount to slander and defamation and expose the poster to significant legal liability. I advise against it.

Second, putting the business on notice that you are aware of what they did and that the predatory practice of taking your customer list (although you did make it available to that business) is actionable in the courts and that you will file a temporary restraining order to stop the business from using the list if the business will not immediately agree to a consent order to stop the practice.

Third, depending on the state in which the offense occurred, you may be entitled to damages for any existing customer of yours that the other business has taken from you. This is a difficult and time consuming process to calculate the damages but there is liability for "interference with a contractual relationship" in most states. If a business interfered with your client(s) and caused you to lose a contract with an ongoing client, you can seek money damages and a restraining order to stop further interference with contracts.

I am not giving specific legal advice to you since I do not know all the facts or in which state the events occurred (I am only licensed in Illinois and can only advise as to Illinois) but these are some of the options you can consider pursuing. A call to the business owner outlining these options and discussing who did what, why and when, and securing an agreement whether the practice will stop immediately and all your client names will be deleted from the business files, should protect you from that business predator in the future. Consult your business lawyer to draft an appropriate agreement that will be upheld in your State and the State of the offender.

As for any other business on this network group, generally if you publish your client contact names or addresses in the public domain, they are fair game for an aggressive business. Client/customer names should be under a password protection file on your business computer, with limited access for employees on a need to know basis only. If you disseminate the names voluntarily, you will be hard-pressed to explain how a business illegally used that which you voluntarily put into the hands of the public, including competing businesses. This is not specific legal advice, but a word to the wise. Contact your business attorney for advice specific to the State in which you do business as to how to protect your confidential proprietary business information.

[Tears of Joy Video]

Lori,

It wasn't her taking my names, but my marketing material and idea. I would not have minded so much if she asked me about using the idea and then did something different with her own marketing and ideas ( I told that to her in the email), but she used exactly the same email. The names and emails are available through MC when you connect. She is connected to a number of the same people that I am in MC, so many of them recongnized the emails as being the same. But our emails were sent out to separate email list.

So if I wrote to her connections on MC privately and warned them, would this still be slander? I don't want this to come back and stink me.

[Candle Boutique & Gifts, LLC]

I think it could be, but maybe you could write to all those connections asking that they send YOU their stories since it was your idea originally. Something like - "I came up with an idea where people were supposed to send me their stories - I thought it was a great idea and obviously "others" thought so too and have emailed all my contacts with the same type of email. I hope you will give me your stories since I am the one that originated the idea.

That way there is no mention of anyone in particular (although most people will know) and using a plural does not single anyone out.

Just a thought. I would be VERY careful about specifically mentioning anyone if you do it.