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Horizon Group may find it’s not smart to sue over a tweet
By Lauren | August 3, 2009
Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that real estate management firm Horizon Group Management LLC had filed a $50,000 libel suit against a former tenant, Amanda Bonnen. Why? Because Bonnen posted a tweet (one of those super-short comments on social networking site Twitter) criticizing her Horizon-managed apartment. According to the Sun-Times, Bonnen wrote, “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.” Horizon reportedly charged into court without even asking Bonnen to take the tweet down, and the Sun-Times quoted Horizon spokesman Jeffrey Michael as saying “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.”
Ouch.
The Sun-Times story was picked up by a Chicago blogger, and has become an international sensation. Horizon is widely portrayed as the worst kind of bully, attacking a poor little tweeter who did nothing more than express vague consternation over the condition of her apartment. What the pick-up stories don’t tell you, however, is that Horizon and Bonnen were already in court because Bonnen had filed a class-action lawsuit against the management company. It seems Horizon found Bonnen’s tweet while defending the suit, and decided to sue Bonnen right back.
Just a case of tit for tat? Maybe. But Horizon is learning that suing a customer can generate a public relations nightmare. According to The Christian Science Monitor, one of the many news outlets to pick up on this story, there were only seventeen people following Bonnen on Twitter so her tweet probably didn’t have much impact on Horizon’s public profile. Now, however, the entire world has access to the story of the big, bad real estate management firm that sued a customer over a single short comment, the secondary story has largely been lost, and Horizon’s reputation has suffered a far more serious hit than Bonnen’s tweet inflicted. (Would you rent from a company that sues its tenants for expressing themselves? Neither would I.)
There’s a lesson here for companies: even if you’re sure you’re right, think twice before suing an individual customer. Once the suit becomes public you’ll have little or no control over how it’s reported, and public sympathy usually sides with the underdog. If Horizon had simply ignored Bonnen’s tweet it might not be facing a deluge of atrocious publicity today.
Topics: Business Ethics, business communications, customer relations, ethics |