A B.C. man has been ordered to pay a local family-owned business some big bucks after posting negative reviews on Yelp and Google that claimed the owners had created a "fake order" and a series of "fake invoices" to scam him out of money.
The owners of Longhouse Specialty Forest Products, Moila and Brian Jenkins, filed a defamation lawsuit against a "disgruntled customer," Tyler Ginther. The judge came back with a ruling on August 24 in New Westminster, B.C., and the business owners were awarded a total of $90,000 in damages.
According to court documents, Ginther contacted Longhouse back in 2015 to use some of its products, specifically hemlock soffits and cedar siding, to build a house in White Rock, B.C.
The two went back and forth several times about these specific products and Ginther's order. The company sent him several revised invoices for both the hemlock and cedar, before Ginther put down a deposit of $7,500 to “get things rolling.”
Ginther said he was undecided about what stain to use for the cedar siding, but when it was time for the hemlock soffits to be delivered in February 2016, he authorized the company to charge his card "less the $7,500 deposit," and it amounted to a total of $14,428.62.
The company emailed Ginther, saying they would hold the cedar siding in their warehouse until he made up his mind about the colour stain.
According to court documents, Ginther was unhappy with the quality of the hemlock stain, so the company re-stained them and had them redelivered.
Weeks later, Ginther demanded a refund from the business, claiming he did not confirm the cedar siding order and said if it was not processed by the next day, he would be calling "Visa fraud," according to the lawsuit.
"Matters deteriorated from there," it added.
A heated text exchange between Ginther and Jenkins ensued. Jenkins tried to arrange a pickup of the cedar siding and told Ginther the company would be charging a storage fee starting April 6. On April 28, after no response, Longhouse attempted to deliver the cedar, but Ginther refused to take it.
Ginther subsequently filed a complaint about the charges with his credit card company, though it was ultimately dismissed after an investigation.
More than a year later, Ginther wrote two negative reviews of the business — one on Google's reviewing platform and the other on Yelp — which consequently appeared when any customer tried to look up Longhouse’s website.
His first negative review on the Google platform back in November 2017 read:
"Beware of the cedar supplier, poor product, poor customer service, late delivery and just to add to the misery overcharged my visa by $7000 more than value of product….. I would strongly caution anyone from using Longhouse cedar products but if you do decide to risk using them…. Do not prepay this firm a nickel and take every precaution to protect yourself and your credit, they are fraudulent, cheating and deceitful and it starts at the top!!!!," according to the court document.
Ginther's second negative review on the Yelp platform back in January 2018 read:
"Longhouse Cedar Products was late on delivery of soffit wood material, it was returned back to Longhouse cedar due to inferior staining. It was explained to us that they had been having issues with the spray gun. We received the product back 8 weeks later with very little change in stain finish and colour. At time of delivery we were required to pay the last deposit of 50% which we regrettably did so. We then received our visa statement which showed they had added a further $7000 onto our bill for a cedar product that Longhouse assumed we were purchasing. This other product we had not looked at talked about or even decided we wanted to install on our home. We asked for our money back and they said the product was ready for us too pick up in there yard and it was a custom order so they wouldn’t return the funds???? wtf………… This company is not someone you can do business with, in all my years of doing business I have never come across someone who is unbelievably rude, cheats there customers on initial order, adds a fake order and then makes up a series fake invoices to cover his lies. BEWARE and DON’T TRUST THEM. Both of the principals were in on this scam….. oh and by the way Brian showed up at my home unannounced so I presume he is going thru a list of new home starts list and finding his prey in this manner. This is the first negative review on a company I have ever done……..," it added.
Justice Nitya Iyer found several points of his reviews to be untrue and ruled him liable for defamation in the case, ultimately awarding Moila and Brian Jenkins each $30,000 in general damages, $5,000 each for aggravated damages, as well as $20,000 to Longhouse in general damages.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
BC Man Ordered To Pay $90K For Posting Negative Reviews On Yelp & Google
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