First of all I don’t even know if these people really represent Shoppers Drug Mart or not so I will be asking them to proof that they do before I take any further action. It has been confirmed that they do represent Shoppers. I have been promoting Shoppers Drug Mart a lot on SC and I never got a penny out of doing so. I’m not impressed that the very first time I ever hear from Shoppers Drug Mart is because I’m being threatened of getting sued.
I act for Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. (“Shoppers”). It has come to Shoppers’ attention that information regarding future sales, programs, events and promotions (the “Shoppers’ Events”) which has yet to be publicly released, has been posted on your website at www.smartcanucks.ca by a user who goes by the name of Hot Like Wasabi.
For example see the following thread regarding an upcoming camera event at Shoppers’ stores:
http://smartcanucks.ca/upcoming-shoppers-drug-mart-events-15-off-x20-and-digital-camera-sale/
This event has yet to be publicly announced by Shoppers. Details of upcoming sales such as this one which have yet to be publicly announced constitutes Shoppers’ confidential information (the “Shoppers Confidential Information”). At no time has Shoppers authorized the posting of the Shoppers Confidential Information on your website. Further, the individual who posted the above thread, whom Shoppers believes is one of its employees, was not authorized to disclose the Shoppers Confidential Information to any third parties and has breached the duty of confidentiality he/she owes to Shoppers.
Now that you have been put on notice of Hot Like Wasabi’s unlawful activity, I trust that you will want to avoid any liability in respect of this and similar threads regarding the Shoppers’ Events posted by Hot Like Wasabi and agree to immediately take-down all such postings of the Shoppers’ Events by Hot Like Wasabi, regardless of the postings’ currency. Even if some of the postings are now dated, Shoppers demands that they be taken-down without delay. At no time were these postings authorized by Shoppers and at the time they were made, they contained Shoppers’ Confidential Information.
Please advise whether to assist Shoppers with its investigation, you are in a position to disclose Hot Like Wasabi’s identity and provide us with a copy of the relevant logs and records. If not and we must obtain a Court Order compelling you to disclose Hot Like Wasabi’s identity and to produce a copy of all records and logs in your power, possession and control relating to Hot Like Wasabi’s postings of the Shoppers’ Events, then please advise right away so we can proceed accordingly. We request in any event that you preserve any and all records regarding Hot Like Wasabi’s postings of the Shoppers’ Events. Please confirm that you are doing so.
Finally, I have copied Slicehost LLC (“Slicehost”), the Internet Service Provider that is hosting www.smartcanucks.ca on this e-mail and request that it also proceed immediately to take-down the offensive postings and to preserve any and all of its records and logs relating to the unlawful activity in question. I will be sending a separate notice to Slicehost in this regard.
As time is very much of the essence, I look forward to your immediate reply.Regards,
J. D.
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Box 50, 1 First Canadian Place
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5X 1B8
Update: based on feedback I got from you guys I’ll remove the information they asked me to remove.
update2: In response to my email request to prove she represents Shoppers I got this email:
Thank you for your quick response.
You will be receiving shortly an e-mail from Shoppers Drug Mart confirming my retaner.
Update3: Got a confirmation email from Shoppers Drug Mart:
My name is *** name removed to protect his privacy *** and I am Vice-President of Legal Affairs at Shoppers Drug Mart.  I am in receipt of your email to J.D. below and confirm that J.D. of Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt acts for Shoppers Drug Mart and has been retained to deal with this matter on our behalf.
This matter is serious to Shoppers Drug Mart and I would appreciate your co-operating with Ms. Dolman to remove the offending postings. Â Should you have any questions or concerns, my direct line is below. Â I would be happy to discuss this matter with you further.
Regards,
*** ***
Update4: Case closed. I removed the posts as requested by Shoppers. They lose the buzz and free marketing. Their loss.
that should be CORRECTED.
i think it’s past my bedtime…
what kind of a female lawyer goes by J.D? now that’s got me irked more than anything, is she hiding her gender behind initials because she doesn’t think a woman lawyer can be taken seriously?
oh ya..that’s right. she did write the letter to boo.
TO clarify any confusion I removed her name and replaced it with initials to protect her privacy.
J.D. was the full name
How come Apple doesn’t sue macrumors.com? What a bad move by sdm.
Kind of late to the party, but I will avoid shopping at SDM from now on. They should congratulate themselves on losing another customer.
Yupe, SDM certainly did at least lost sales from our block. It’s around x’mas time, we all needed to get cosmetics and perfume gift sets. We got them at JPC and the Bay instead.
I’m thinking twice about SDM, too. Didn’t even bother looking at their flyer this week.
Hey, no problem.:) Glad you posted again. Just a note to say that the lawyer’s surname is addressed in the body of the VP’s letter, second paragraph. It has not been removed. So it was not revealing anything that was not already posted.
ilovemykids Nov 8th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
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Sally Nov 7th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
I’d like to point out, when Rexall accidentally posted the 5 off 5 coupon and we had it uploaded here they sent an email directly to us asking to take it off. No threatening letter anything, just a request.
I really don’t think anyone with customer relation skills handled this.
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Also to mention they SUPPLY US with the correct information! Complete with JPG. image, PDF coupon and the link to the online coupon!
BOY to THEY know their business.
They are not the only big name company to do it either. A lot of them understand the importance of places like this.
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So does this mean we gotta teach shoppers how to market better? And I didn’t know that many companies came in direct contact with oyu ahead *shrugs*
Jack: i think boo has removed it since to stop us from bickering.
Richie Rich, we closely deal with some companies, Smart Canucks is an extremely popular site.
I really hope to hear back from SDM tommorow morning.
Sadly, their reaction is typical for a tightly wound bunch of corporate bullies! Hard to believe though that Shopper’s didn’t have the good sense to ensure their high priced attack dog from Osler took a light handed approach to the situation, instead of their guns a-blazing email threat. What a bunch of jerks!
Shame that Boo couldn’t fight them, but like he said they’ve got deep pockets (and little common sense).
Sally you may not hear from them until after rememberance day. some high up mucky mucks like to take extra days off when close to a weekend.
speaking of mucky mucks..where’s boo???
What heavy handed foolishness, no boycott here, but certainly less respect.
How hard would it be to send a friendly mail?
Sometimes I wish people could look outside the box, there are a few people on here that seem to understand, but maybe I can clarify since I work for a large retailer. Things being posted a few days early is no big deal, thats not what Shoppers would care about, posting pricing so far in advance allows their competitors to have the upper hand and beat them to the punch, that is not cool in the world of Marketing. They would also be pissed that their trusted employee intentionally leaked this info to an online community. What if you all went on a public form and posted confidential info about your work? Pretty sure you would all come in to work and find a pink slip at your desk. As for everyone saying that it could have been handled better, Im sure they needed to make sure that whatever was posted was removed immediately without any question, sometimes “asking nicely” and/or sending an email with smiley faces doesnt do the trick, I know if it was my employer they would have sent an email with the same tone.
You just dont mess around with a companies bottom line, and this “wasabi” person certainly crossed the wrong company
companies that don’t know how to politically explain their needs do their stockholders a disservice, especially with the hard times that are coming up.
i would have send an email informing the site’s owner of that fact that this info was confidentual and it should be removed now .
then provide owner with a number and a name to contact marketing for special codes and promotions.
this way , you will get the owners participation and in the same time gain more needed public exposure.
Still haven’t heard back, I’ve reached out twice. I must say i’m not impressed by their customer relations, and public relation skills. Rexall is far superior in that department by far.
I guess they couldn’t recognize just how much sales Boo’s driven to the stores over the years, such a loss for them.
I am still waiting for a call back SDM.
And Sally, when you talk to them, ask if it is it official policy to only have one trainee cashier and (2 on a smoke break) when there are like 25 people in a line-up. Or is that simply customer service, Shopper’s style? LOL.
It’s amazing that they botched this situation so skillfully even as consumer dollars are getting harder and harder to come by.
Without loyal customers, Shopper’s soon won’t be able to afford lawyers … Hmmm.
As a communications major, I would just like to point out the poor use of grammar in this email. This communicates a clear lack of professionalism, as does the threat to contact Smart Canucks’ service provider. I suppose freedom of speech is now dead. I will certainly think twice before visiting Shopper’s again.
I had issues with layers before. I just removed the offending text and they went away.
Incredible site!,
Just an FYI from someone in the industry (myself):
- If an employee of SDM has posted confidential information on the Internet, it becomes PUBLIC DOMAIN
– SDM can take legal recourse against the person who directly leaked the information (the employee), as they are likely an insider in breach of their duty to the company (as the lawyer’s letter suggested)
– Legally they could probably make a case to require SmartCanucks to reveal the identity of the original poster, however confidentiality issues are highly complex when it comes to Internet identities
But make no mistake, once something has been posted on the Internet it is accessible to the world. If SDM’s competitors, say Rexall, wish to use this information to plan a competitive promotion of the same nature at the same time, they are well within their rights. It’s an ethical matter, not a legal one. Honestly, I’d bet the marketing team at SDM loves SmartCanucks… their ROI (return-on-investment) for a promotion like this increases when sites like this build free WOM (word-of-mouth), and in the end that makes their campaign more successful.