DanB

Received a "cease and desist" letter today.....

After my Generac 10KW natural gas generator basically burned itself up and after not getting any kind of support from the manufacturer, I setup my "sucks" site back in 2003. I kept a running diary of contacts with the company as well as diagnosing/repairing the problem. My major issue was that Generac refused to compensate me in any way, standing by the fact that since the unit was 2 months out of the warranty that they had no obligation. They repeatedly said that I could pay a tech to fix it, and which I received 3 different estimates of over $300 each, diagnostic charge only.

After some time, I sent letters to the BBB and the US Department of Consumers Affairs alerting them to what may be a fire hazard with this product. After some time later the manufacturer agreed to reimburse me for the parts I had already purchased to repair the unit.

Today I received a registered mail "cease and desist" letter from Generac's (generac.com) Vice President General Counsel informing me that if "in the unfortunate event that you fail to remove these defamatory materials, we will take aggressive legal action." One of their "objections" was to the use of the phrase "Customer NO service" on the site.

Just so happens that the domain expired this week and I did not renew it since it served its purpose and time to move on.

With all the existing case law surrounding "sucks" websites, it makes me wonder. Also makes me wonder about a company that's been around for many years that doesn't take the time to register the standard "sucks" domain names.

Generac -- GFY