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.
If it was from a real lawyer it would have come by mail.
OB
Yes, the fact that it came from a non Shoppers Drug Mart email makes it seem very fishy.
aye aye aye …
well if it IS true i could see why they would be upset that an employee is giving out info that they consider confidential until they themselves release it.
I know someone who works with Loss Prevention with SDM. I’ll ask him if he knows that name – won’t tell him why, though.
Did this come as a PDF – with their letter head. Did he sign it with his full name? If not I really think its spam.
If its from a gmail address I’d consider it spam.
You can look up the lawyers name on this website: http://www.osler.com/professionals_landing.aspx?id=8885
You think the legal representatives of SDM would have “@shoppersdrugmart.com” in their email?
mememe, yep I’m not against the concept, but I would have liked to see the email come from a Shoppers Drug Mart representative with a less formal tone. For over two and a half years now I’ve been blogging about Shoppers Drug Mart for no personal gain.
agee, thanks 🙂
Yvonne, no it did not come in a PDF. Yes it was signed with the full name but I removed her name to respect her privacy. It came from an Osler domain name email.
hm, yes or how else do I know they represent Shoppers?
Many firms use lawyers from the large law firms of which this is one. Therefore if it is olser.com email I’d think it would be legit and the name would be on their roster of lawyers.
why not try contact Shoppers to confirm this??
Some I’m obliged to remove the post I guess?
gee wizz. I dont know i think its fake…like what operabob said
yea well u can remove the post, but what about disclosing Hot Like Wasabi’s info?
Whatever the email comes from (legal or not), I must admit that publishing a confidential information is a risk I wouldn’t put myself in.
Smart canucks is a great site that I would hate to see go away because of too many stupid money-driven-lawyers issues, so simply keep SC “ligit”.
The SC’s model/medium is great: one stop for us to find current deals.
What could be added to SC is a “historical deals” feature.
This tool would allow a “real” “shoppers-drug-mart-events-15-off-x20-and-digital-camera-sale” to be rewritten to something like:
“In the past years, Shoppers Drug Mart has had sales on popular christmas electronics products, so expect great deals around the november/december on items like digital cameras….”
Or
“Lately, Shoppers Drug Mart has been pushing the electronics department, so expect great deals around the november/december on items like digital cameras….”
Or
You get the picture
Can’t dispute speculations !
misc, I don’t store any information on my servers about users and I would never disclose anyone’s information even if I did. They can go @#$!@ off if they expect me to disclose any users info.
that’s great to know, then for sure they ain’t getting anything out of your mouth even if you want to help.
If you do a google search for “Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP”, you’ll find the following site:
http://www.osler.com/home.aspx?id=8836&LangType=1033
However, I do find it strange that this person did not include a phone number or fax number in order to contact him or his written email in his signature.
I would suggest removing the content that they are upset about, or contact your very own lawyer.
But being that they have already contacted your host about that, I would remove the offending content asap as you just don’t know what your host may do about it.
As far as sending them “Hot Like Wasabi’s” information. Email that person and let them know what’s going on.. give them a head’s up if you haven’t already.
This company is probably trying to find out if Hot Like Wasabi is an employee of Shoppers Drug Mart that is leaking information to the public that shouldn’t be public knowledge as of yet.
Good luck to you!
HMM.
i would look it up in the yellow pages and see if this law firm does exist. then i would phone the man in the letter, and agree to take down any ads that have been release prematurely, but as far as disclosing members information, i would cite your own confidentiality policy, and say you require a court order to do so.
that should be enough to satisfy him.
i guess to save you a bigger headache, take the posting down and reply with to the email saying the posting has been taken down. i personally would not give out any of your user’s info unless you are required by a court of law.
Pat, thanks for your encouragement and nice words 😀
Well I didn’t know the info was confidential when I published it. I thought I was doing Shoppers a favour and helping them out (I always try helping Canadian companies). After all people were reading the posts and going shopping which is supposed to be Shoppers Drug Mart’s objective. These in advance postings were creating a lot of buzz around their events that benefited them! Unfortunately they looked at the smaller picture and instead of having a Shopper’s representative contact me they got their legal firm to do so (assuming they do represent Shoppers).
But you do raise some very good points. I won’t risk having SmartCanucks.ca get shut down and your idea sounds good 😉 Thanks for the tips 😀
I would suggest finding this company
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Box 50, 1 First Canadian Place
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5X 1B8
And calling them to confirm whether this is legitimate or not. Having said that, i find it odd that they didn’t include a contact phone number with the following words “Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions”. Someone mentioned that it was odd it was emailed and not mailed. Yes and no. If this is the first and foremost way they could contact you (via the website) than I can see why they wouldn’t hunt out a mailing address.
Let us know what happens.
**Edit**
Here is their website: http://www.osler.com/
Here is their contact information: Tel. (416) 362-2111
I would call them immediately and find out if it is legitimate.
Well, did the email come from an @osler.com email address. Cause all members of Osler have an email address with their domain as per the directory. So if they were to send official correspondance, it should be through their account at Osler. However, it seems unlikely it is, as if it was official, the lawyer would not be using his initials but rather his full name. However, since a full name is not being used, I suspect the letter writer did not want to impersonate someone specific to avoid trouble. However, I would preserve of a copy with the details of the email where it was routed through etc, and report the email to Osler, as somebody is likely falsely representing themselves to be from the law firm by signing it with their company name, which would give the law firm legal action against this person.
I personally beleive that the claims in the letter do not hold any weight, as the forum is an open signup and anyone can sign up. As such, their will be posts both accurate and inaccurate, and you cannot decern whether this information is available to the public yet. Besides, flyers come out before promotions start, and if anyone believes workers that do the actual pricing in store do not take advantage of those promotions or sales for themselves or family ahead of the public is absurd.
So ultimately I’m guessing it is some guy with no life and too much time that feels like they have some sort of vested interest in SDM. That’s my $0.02. Hope it helps.
Did you confirm with your ISP that they also received an email from the same lawyer?
Will in my opinion, if this IS real then its crap. Half the time my shoppers flyer is late and i come on here to get the specials. half the time i buy stuff at diff store cause i didnt’ get the flyer and then im like “crap could got it for $$$ cheaper. if i was you boo i wouldn’t bother to help promote shoppers for free anymore. then let them see how much $$$ they will lose. just my 2 cents.
Oh no, Boo! I’m so sorry this happened. But I can see their point abt information being released to the public before they are ready. My only thought here is that perhaps in the future you will have to confirm with companies before posting to ensure their legitimacy?? Or try to get contacts from different companies that are authorized to release sale information to you? I know this would be a major PIA, though.
I wouldn’t release your ‘source’ unless you are legally required to do so, though, and I also wouldn’t blame you if you stopped promoting Shoppers all together.
My 2 cents –
As long as you personally are not taking the information from SDM I think you can publish it under the concept of “public’s right to know” (I am sure there is a more technical, legal term for this). In fact, you are not really publishing it, you are merely providing a forum for people to post items of interest – Hot Like Wasabi is posting the information.
The “letter” states that your hosting company has been notified – try to verify if in fact that has occurred. If not, then the letter is a hoax or worse, an abuse of a lawyers name/reputation in intimidation.
If your host has been contacted, then it is probably real and you should take steps to protect yourself. Email alone seems strange and fishy – email can be spoofed. You may need to be cautious but ask for written follow-up before any actions are taken.
I am not a lawyer, this is just my opinion.
Going to that SDM post about the sale, the last comment from “NO ONE” says, “You are so fired.” Hmmm, wonder if he is the culprit for starting this whole thing. What a sad sad person. First of all, they are on the site to begin with taking advantage of the deals posted here, so it seems pretty hypocritical. Second, I’m guessing they ratted thinking they’ll get a promotion from being the supervisor of toiletries…
Boo,
you know the troublemaker that i am.
i would still contact that office he claims to represent and see if they are aware of the letter. if not you’d be doing them a favor letting them know someone is misrepresenting their office. then you can come back here and tell J.D. off. yes lawyers never sign with only initials.
I csn’t believe SDM stupidity! SCs is promoting their company and products. I’m in the country. I have to pick up my newspaper from another road to get the SDM flyer. I don’t always make it before there are no newsapers left in the box. I come here to check to see what’s on! Kiss that goodbye SDM!!!
You should have a legal section of your site that has a disclaimer about you not being responsible for postings from 3rd parties. You should then not post anything that you cannot confirm (ie via an ad or even call the company and ask if/when you can announce the sale). A lot of companies put out press releases (similar to sales) under an ’embargo’ where the publisher/media will not release the information until a specific date. If you contact companies directly, you may get a heads up on some sales earlier then you would normally. If you get a reputation for not releasing anything early, then it will get even easier. Use the number of hits to the blog to your advantage… ie I publish a blog on deals and I have X hits per day. I would like to publish your deals on my site.
A legal notice does not necessarily have to come on letterhead in the mail. Our company sends email notices all the time. I would check the Osler website to confirm that the lawyer exists though. From the language, it sounds legit.
This sort of thing happens all the time with Black Friday advertisements in the States. Example:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061114-8218.html
Unfortunately by engaging in a public discussion here about “not knowing” it was confidential information, you’ve effectively undermined any standing you may have had. At this point your best bet is to remove the information completely and close the discussion until you’ve consulted with your own counsel. Most of the commenters here are completely off-base: websites get emails like this all the time, and will usually receive the same information in a registered letter as well.
I’d get a privacy policy up and running for future incidents like this, so people know that you may turn over their personal information if requested by an official agent. Otherwise you could be held liable by the user in question based on a reasonable expectation of privacy. Personally I’d wait until they get a court order before you disclose any information, but that may not be an option for you if you want to avoid lawyers. You’ve also opened yourself up to potential problems later if another company pulls the same stunt and sees you gave in easily.
As always, consult a lawyer if you’re unsure.
The letter and everything about it made sense…and I get where SDM is coming from.
I also understand why they’d want to know the real identity of the poster. Though I doubt there’s any way of really tracing who this person is…who uses their real info when joining online forums and blogs?
Robert, that’s what I was wondering too… the information I posted is not trademarked or copyrighted, so what are their rights? But then again, do I really wanna fight with a materialistic company like Shoppers. They’ll have the better lawyers 🙁
GGF, I agree, however, in this case it wasn’t just posted in the forum…Boo basically cut-and-paste that info onto this blog, therefore passing on and publishing the info himself.
I still think boo should contact the firm, and see if this letter infact came from their office. If not the lawyers will be going after this J.D. for mispresentation.
I agree with the email thing. I do not see how that is legally binding…However i would call. As far as Boo realeasing any info on members. I agree with him too!!! GO BOO!!!!
Bottom line – Boo, protect yourself first. No one here wants to see you get in trouble, just cause we like deals and free stuff. Think of yourself first and foremost!
Jake, I understand what you mean but when I started SmartCanucks.ca my objective was to let consumers aware of the BS that goes on behind the scenes too. Any company that contacts me should expect their bullying to be published on here for everyone to read. This is how I operate. It’s a very small attempt to fight back the multi-million dollar bully companies.
ok, so it’s legit. but i would “respectfully decline” to give out members info without a court order.
just taking the info down should be enuf to satisfy their terms. the leak is on shoppers drugmart end and they should be held responsible for the information getting out not you.
QUOTE: Boo Radley
Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Jake, I understand what you mean but when I started SmartCanucks.ca my objective was to let consumers aware of the BS that goes on behind the scenes too. Any company that contacts me should expect their bullying to be published on here for everyone to read. This is how I operate. It’s a very small attempt to fight back the multi-million dollar bully companies.
========================
I agree with this Boo… this is a COMMUNITY, even if it’s online…we’re all part of this..we all give and take…and we have a right to know if anything we’re doing is going to give Boo grief.
Boycott anyone?
I think large coporations should know be put on notice that they don’t own their customers or the internet.
sjose, well I think just not being able to have these deals in advance on SmartCanucks is a huge loss to them.
QUOTE:
******
“ok, so it’s legit. but i would “respectfully decline†to give out members info without a court order.”
I absolutely, and I mean ABSOLUTELY agree with nsangel on this.
Meh…I’ll be honest – I won’t boycott them. They didn’t do anything wrong, really. Their employee released confidential information, and they wanted it removed. That’s not WRONG of them, even if we don’t like it.
I would suggest you treat the letter as genuine until it is proved otherwise. I work with someone who is getting divorced and he communicates with his lawyer by e-mail. It isn’t secure, but that is their choice to use that form of communication.
I would also suggest that as they are obviously monitoring this site so we should be careful what we say and not say or do anything that may get you into even further trouble.
I have a couple of suggestions that you may want to consider – but I will PM them Don’t want to give those overpaid legal people and help, do we?
sdm does have a right not to have their sales disclosed before hand. that being said they should be more diligent when hiring employees.
they could have just told boo (nicely) the problem and he would have taken down the ads. now they have probably royaly ticked him off so he’ll probably take the links down to their site etc.
Well that’s more than kinda lame.
I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m about to drive past my local PharmaPlus on the way to Shoppers.
Hmm..I wonder if they’ll change their promotions now? I was going to go buy a Sony camera for my husband for Christmas.
This is completely ridiculous. Do they even realize how many years you have promoted them? Thousands of times, do they realize how much FREE business youve sent their way?
If hotlikewasabi is leaking info then its up to them to figure out who’s the leak, its not your responsibility to figure that out for them.
I’m really upset with SDM now and can’t understand why they don’t embrace the fact your driving thousands of people into their doors, all this is going to do is make customers lose faith in them, lets all head to Rexall.
resolution is very simple, stop covering shoppers. There are better alternatives out there. There loss not yours. Support the competition. Hard to believe that “I am Vice-President of Legal Affairs at Shoppers Drug Mart” actually had to go out and retain outside counsel to send you that note! What a waste of money???I am sure neither the shareholder’s, nor the koffler’s would like corporate money being wasted in this manner. What exactly does Richard Alderson, Senior Vice-President, Legal Affairs, General Counsel & Secretary do there??? Hire outside counsel to write cease and desist letters for them???? Shame on Jürgen Schreiber for allowing this to happen.
sally: ok, but it’s medicine shoppe here;)
and i’m glad that you see my pt about them finding the leak w/o going thru boo. they have the prob let them interrogate their own ppl. sheesh.
as for the free advertising. they’ll suffer.
That sucks! I honestly never read the Shoppers flyer because I find it quite hard to get through. I’m not a big fan of their setup and when I do look at it, I always miss stuff because it’s such a mess. The only way I know about their sales is from here. It doesn’t surprise me if they sent idle threats though. Good luck with all of this Boo.
http://www.answers.com/topic/shoppers-drug-mart-corporation
He seems pretty high up…scroll down near the bottom of the page under “Management”.
And his name is mentioned here too –
http://www.osler.com/firm_profile_newsroom.aspx?id=9285
No question this guy and this firm are legit.
Yeah, just take the offending info down but don’t give out the members info. I’d reply with something like “I have removed the offending material, as I respect the fact that the information may have been treated as confidential before it is publicly released. As you can also appreciate, member information is also treated as confidential and I will not be releasing the identity of any individual posting on this site without a court order.”
This is so sad.
I get the flyers a few days before they are released online. wouldn’t that be illegal as well then?
I love astro’s wording. so articulate. polite and dignified. i bet astro could write a damn fine fake legal letter;)
Funny, I always thought there was a possibility that Hot Like Wasabi was posting this information with SDMs full knowledge and consent. I mean come on…you can’t deny the buzz that was created by having a little early info. I thought possibly it was a part of HLWs job to market to the “frugal” consumer. I know I for one am spending more money at shoppers!
Boo correct me if I am wrong but HLW isn’t even a member of this site, correct? I notice that the “other” site where I am familiar with seeing the HLW name the posts are still there. Do you have a relationship with the organizers of that site? Could you verify if they are receiving same correspondence?
I don’t know about other members but it sort of leaves a bad taste in the mouth…
mel: omg your postal person is gonna be thrown in jail.
The Shoppers people are horrible and not very smart, all this free marketing and advertising for them and they don’t appreciate it. Its their loss.
mel,
Good point.
I get Safeway’s flyer in the community paper 2 days ahead of online as they only publish Wednesday & Friday.
In fact the Community paper has a stand right outside my Safeway’s door. People can pick up the flyer as they’re heading in the door to see whether next week’s prices are better.
You’d think Safeway’d have it moved elsewhere.
Get the lawyer’s 1-800 number and call them but again a reputable lawyer would send a letter.
Reminds me of the phoney letters purportedly sent from Roy Orbison’s widow demanding payment for illegal downloading.
OB
Sally who is Smart Canucks Marketing Manager will contact SDM’s executive office and let them know about this incident.
What a shame…..I think sdm should have been a little less obtrusive and asked nicely first.
Companies don’t usually “Ask nicely” they just get straight to the point. We may not like it but it is what it is!
Looks like the other site has taken down future event posts, like the cameras. They have complied with this type of thing in the past for FS boxing day flyer, and I believe voluntarily turned over IP address of poster. FS did file a claim against “john Doe” over it because they didn’t have a name, and I don’t think ever got it. It would be very hard for them to ever track the person down, after they get what the site has they have to go after the ISP, who will have the lawyers to contest it. Even then, it might have been posted from a public computer so won’t do them any good. As far as I know, nothing has ever come of this type of thing in Canada other then threatening the sites to remove the info.
The point is to intimidate enough to get it stopped, which they’ve no doubt already succeeded at with the email. Too bad, that was one of the most useful posters around.
I never used to go to SDM before….only after looking at deals at smartcanucks I started recently…..guess I sd forget it now !!!!
Not true meme usually they do ask thats the point, case in point when Canadian Tire had information leaked about a promo we rec’d a very pleasant phone call. Canadian Tire is a huge company and they took the the time talk with us one and one and talk about the situation, not go straight to their lawyers.
Shoppers drug mart has made a huge error on their part as negative promotion of their store will lose them many customemrs or potential customers, in the future. They could of written an informal request or contacted us via phone.
Thousands of posts have been made over the years promo’ing this company, this is one hell of a thanks for the 100’s of thousands of dollars Smart Canucks has probably put in their pockets in sales.
Sally, that’s good that Canadian Tire took the extra time out to be pleasant!
I don’t think SDM realized their letter would be posted for all to see, and also going to a lawyer was a bit much obviously … but too late now!
I dont understant Why SC is getting legal statement such as this when other Sites such as Red Flag Deals have multiple threads on their forums regarding deals on Many companies and also Shoppers. I am really disappointed with Shoppers and I am going to shoot of an email to them complaining and if many of us do this, they might not take such big actions.
Just to let Shoppers know, I NEVER Shopped at shoppers before SmartCanucks, their are many ppl who are like myself and started shopping at Shoppers because of the early posted deals!! It really saddens me that this has gone the way it has gone. You have my full support in this Mr. Boo!!!
“I am going to shoot of an email to them complaining and if many of us do this, they might not take such big acti”
YOu won’t be helping anything…
I’d boycott SDM more for you, despite I’m already boycotting them for their crazy prices
I hate companies who do those, they didn’t do their due diligences and we are always blamed for it.
My post on the free Partition Manager apparently received a Contact Us email from the magazine asking me to remove it (which I did), and guess what, the URL is still active despite them claiming they took it down. so I am speechless
As far as I know, RFD and lots of other forums usually give in, unless you are very very big (like FatWallet?) and can get to Digg homepage to get everyone behind you, then the companies usually back down.
Never been interested in the SDM 20X events anyway, thankfully
if its an employee who publicized info illegally i agree that it should be pulled. many companies fail to make employees sign confidentiality agreements, so if that were the case i wonder if it actually constitutes a breach or not. i don’t think this is a battle worth fighting.
in any event, i rely on the flyer/sales posts and would hate to see anything prevent me from getting that info. i usually don’t get flyers until friday night, saturday morning, or sometimes not at all, so its a great service those posters provide to people like me.
boo, i’m glad to hear that you refuse to disclose the poster’s identity. had you given that info i would have lost total faith in this site. i think sdm’s demand is baseless, and they know that, but i’m not surprised they asked for it, hoping you’d be naive enough to fall for it.
Absolutely INSANE! I am actually shocked a bit by their behaviour. Like Sally already said… the thousands of people you brought into their store to spend their money just by letting them know about deals and promotions. Ungrateful.
——————————
torontosportsmedia Nov 7th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
resolution is very simple, stop covering shoppers. There are better alternatives out there. There loss not yours. Support the competition.
——————————
I agree! LOL censor their site and their name… promote the competition!
Yes, “ME”, not a good idea.
The thing is, they’re not mad they SC was posting deals…they’d mad that deals that are not yet public information are being published.
I don’t blame them (even if I don’t like it). If, say, you had been planning on buying, say, an electric toothbrush this week, you now will wait for another two or three weeks until it goes on sale. That’s loss of money for them that they would have had, had you bought the toothbrush when you intially planned.
No wonder they don’t want anyone knowing what future sales are. I would question if they were upset about current or imminent sales, but future ones? I totally get it.
exactly. they are FULLY entitled to be upset that someone gave out confidential information.
But in the same breath its up to them to find out how their info is being leaked, not attack the websites that rec’d the information. What’s the saying you get more flies with honey then vinegar?
A respectful informal letter could of been sent, or a phone call could of been made via Shoppers Drug Mart internal lawyers asking nicely for cooperation, while Smart Canucks is not at liberty to share the information of the member we would of been more then willing to help out anyway we could.
This was very cuthroat at best.
I am highly dissapointed for the lack of respect that Shoppers drug mart chose to handle this situation in, especially as I’ve already pointed out how much free promotion we give them.
I will wait to hear back from them, but if this is there way of saying thanks for the years of promotion then I don’t think this is a place I want to do my business at. I will give them the benefit of the doubt until I hear back.
Sure it goes both ways…
But you can’t assume everyone else will use the same amount of dignity you would. 🙂 Unfortunately, not everyone is as kind these days!
This is interesting, why do we assume the person who leaks the info is working for SDM? How about the company that prints the flyer, how about the companies that deliver the fliers, how about Joe Blow who delivers the flies for the company that SDM hires to delivery the flyer, how about someone working for the newspaper company that stuffs the flyer into the paper???? and on and on and on
My advise would to ALSO remove all their flyer’s posting from the blog.
Wow…. I can’t believe they sent such a harsh letter right away.
My family and I haven’t shopped at Shoppers Drug Mart for over 10 years, and recently have been shopping there again because of the great deals posted at SC and the advice on the SDM Points.
Looks like I might be giving my business to their competitiors again after all.
I agree with karinny, its all or nothing ………
This wasn’t just current flyers, which they won’t have a problem with. Things have been posted well over a month in advance. This is a very well placed employee, ANY company would be looking to put a stop to this kind of thing, and many have. Any company that sees staff sabotaging them will be looking to get rid of them. My impression is this person was aware of this and was most likely careful how it was done.
From SDMs point of view, their business was being harmed by one of their own staff(probably of a fairly significant position, certainly not just a retail clerk etc), and several other websites were benefiting form using this to attract traffic.
A lot of people around these sites have an incredible sense of entitlement, seeming to think these stores exist only for their benefit, but get real, no store would want this happening.
EXACTLY. Thank you Skeeter and Benji.
Boo can be upset personally bc they were rude to him … but people seriously talking about boycotting? that’s ridiculous
Very well put skeeter!
No one’s questioning that SDM could have handled this differently….but their REASON for their actions makes sense to me!
Some may not agree with me, but I can see where SDM is coming from. They are also not the only retailer out there that protects their promotions. They wouldn’t want anything to be leaked that the competition could then go out and have something similar to undercut them. I know from having contacts in retail home offices, that they may know what is going on ahead of it being advertised and they are all advised not to let anyone know until after it is public knowledge.
Regarding having an email sent, they probably sent a copy to you via email as that would be the quickest way to have something sent to you for immediate response. It will be likely that you will be having a registered letter sent to you as well, so they can document that it has been sent.
The safest course is to remove any such content from the site.
I think what the error was here was that things were being released in a public forum that were not for public knowledge, but were actually confidential in the eyes of the company. If the flyers or deals had already been released by the company, and you were to simply just be posting what they were, then I don’t think that there would have been any issue.
I also commend you on not releasing any personal information on the poster, especially with all the privacy laws that are in place.
It’s a tough spot you’re in, and I wouldn’t want to see anything negative come to the site because some people are not respecting certain rules or regulations.
Maybe it would be good if you put a disclaimer on the website that you are not reponsible for any of the content that is posted on your site? This way if someone does post something that is considered to be a breach that it doesn’t affect you personally…
Just my thoughts…
tinad that’s an excellent point…I never even thought that it could affect how competitors would use this information.
That really really sucks. If there are further formal request from them, I would just replied back that smartcanucks does not collect private information. I also agree to put a disclamer on the website and you are not responsible for any of the content. Just my 2 cents.
I will never sop at Shoppers again
oh brother
Personally, I never shopped at Shoppers until joining this group. Even though it’s across the street from my work AND I have two stores without a few blocks from my home. Guess I’ll go back to my regular haunts to spend my dollars.
I was getting frustrated anyways in that it seems all the Shoppers never seem to have the same sales going on. If it sells out at one location, you’re out of luck.
BOYCOTT! Walmart here we come!
LMAO Walmart here we come? In 2 seconds we’ll have a post from Alex.
I think what happened here was industrial espionage. If we look at this from SDM’s perspective, we’d see why they consideer the act unlawful.
I do understand Shoppers position if it’s true that some information is being leaked weeks in advance. That’s not right. But if it’s just two or three days, I don’t see the issue since people will be shopping there and competitors will have already done their advertising groundwork.
Juliciously, I agree with you.
my hubby actually got majorly peeved at shoppers the other day. (and lawtons too) to be fair. the flyer items are always sold out. and yes they issue rainchecks, we’ve never had a problem getting them. what we have had a problem was the product comming in before the said raincheck expired. and who wants to bother asking for a r/c on a r/c???
so we were kinda miffed at shoppers anyway. and yes to sally and boo’s credit, a better worded email from an actual pr manager and not a lawyer would have went over a lot better. and the threat for boo to disclose the id of the poster was really over the top.
as both sally and i pointed out, they’re suspecting their own employee but yet they expect boo to give out his posters information? surely not. they are concerned about confidentiality regarding their ads, what about boo’s members? it goes both ways.
my advice to the company would be to be happy that boo complied and go hire a private investigator to find the leak. or better yet be more careful who your hiring in positions of such private matters.
lay off the little guy and do your jobs. someone said, they thought boo woulda fallen for their tactis and given up the poster’s id. boo, did they ever under estimate boo. and wait til sally talks to SDM.
if anything you can bet next time there’s a problem, SDM will go about it differently. What a lot of negative feedback they are getting. Oh I’ll still shop there, but it won’t be my first choice after this.
not just weeks, it’s Months in advance (thru December 26 this year, I believe).
A LOT of stores would be perfectly happy having many of the “deal site’ people “boycott”. A few years back the CEO of best buy did an interview stating an intention to try and “fire the bad customers”. People who are shopping the loss leaders, taking maximum advantage of the promos (“l’oreal” lol), abusing promos 9eg 1 time use dove points coupon used over and over), outright fraud (return scams, passing bad coupons), price matching, and only showing loyalty until the next hot deal comes along are NOT customers any of these stores want in the first place.
Say you will boycott (you’ll all back as soon as there is a hot deal), they wont care as they know it won’t happen, but would be happy if it does. SDM and every other large store are public companies, you can look up their financial results. Loot at their gross and net margins, easy to see they make very little off “good” shoppers, and lose selling to some.
I used to do the majority of my drug store purchases at London Drugs until I discovered SC. The deals and easy to access flyers were the main reason I switched retailers to SDM. I’m not sure how many customers they will lose due to this but they’re losing 4 from my family.
Wow, apparently they don’t appreciate free advertising! They’re definitely losing a customer here. How rude! You’d think they’d appreciate more people knowing about certain promotions. What losers.
Just leaving my support for this website as well! Hopefully SDM is reading this and hear this: this site is only doing good to your business. your actions were that of a bully and I will think twice before shopping at your stores again.
Some people here have no concept of what happened.
Leaking confidential internal information is not “advertising”
Asking by email w as the nice way. The other option they had was to surprise the site operators with being served a lawsuit – some have done it that way.
It sounds like a lot of people want to boycott SDM. You can still get the same deals – just take their flyer to Walmart and get Walmart to price match. You get the deal and WalMart get the business, SDM gets zip!
I suspect they’re more concerned that they have an insider leaking information. I wouldn’t want to be that person right now, but honestly, this is a huge company with a stranglehold on the market who’s worried that a competitor will take advantage of the info? Gimme a break.
Bloody lawyers…
“ust take their flyer to Walmart and get Walmart to price match. ”
when do you have ever a deal from SDM you would want price matched that doesn’t involve points?
I know! This WAS NOT adverstising, let’s face it. This is a way for all of us to get deals we might not ever get.
And NOW I REALLY don’t blame SDM…why would they like “adverstisng” that just makes people to walk over to Walmart get the same deal?
None of us that “understand” the stand of SDM are saying we didn’t like knowing about the deals or that we didn’t take advantage of them – we did. That’s why we’re here on SC.
But the reality is that posting flyers for a month or so down the road IS wrong, and though yes, I like knowing I can get that Sony camera at a deal, I CAN accept SDM’s reasoning and standpoint.
I give you 2 kudos. lol
just tell them hot like wasibi’s real name is david williams, CEO of SDM.
i wouldn’t say anything on here that i couldn’t back up.
you have to be careful.
i have to say that i din’t know the flyers were posted here ahead, i always used the sidebar to click to the shoppers website and punch in my postcode for the current deal. now i feel like i missed out on stuff. wouldn’t matter anyway, by the time i get to the store, stuff is gone.
anyway, i think this blog story is going to hit a record number of comments, beating out even the “dont’ buy the dollar store pregnancy tests” one. LOL.
yet another clueless Canadian company and their clueless Canadian lawyers. The reason the email didn’t have contact info is very likely because they didn’t have the skills to add it.
and odd that Wasabi has not responded to clear their name; if the information IS unreleased, then yes, you should take it down because this site isn’t about leaks and snitches, its about deals, and you have no control over the source of the quality of this information so errors and vendettas can happen — unfortunately,
Also unfortunate: I know this first hand, here in Canada you are held liable for what gets carried over your media, regardless of your disclaimers; yes, our laws on such subjects are as archaic as our corporate lawyers, but nonetheless, in Canada, that’s the Law (remember that TV show?) I’ve had not two such threats, one from the Real Estate Board (it is apparently illegal in Canada to tell a neighbour that you saw a place for sale, you can only hint that they should check such and such a broker’s website where they might find “something”) and the other from a NEWSPAPER (Shoreline Beacon) who did not want me displaying Google News results that contained their headlines. Both contacted me first themselves, but both clearly stated that the legal letter would follow if they did not see compliance by 5pm.
Shoppers could have sent you a nice email from that office just to say “Gee, that user of yours is pulling a nasty, can you stop it?” but no, they instead expose their ignorance, showing by the jump to legal action that (a) they assume you are a corporate entity because you “publish” and (b) they assume you therefore are Wasabi’s employer and therefore will likewise react in strongest way.
This country drives me nuts sometimes. You gotta love clueless backward folk like this.
I can understand their concern. A lot of readers might hold out for the specials which reduce their regular sales.
The whole thing about marketing is information control. We shouldn’t be so angry about them. After all, we were “stealing” information. Since this country value information rights, we should respect that.
On the other hand, we can try communism.
This has to be bogus. Come on now, a lawyer who can’t spell ‘retainer’! LOL!
I have found more typos and grammatical errors. I am pretty confident you have to be able to communicate on paper to be a lawyer. If they are indeed one, perhaps Osler needs to review its hiring standards.
Richard Alderson, Senior Vice-President, Legal Affairs, General Counsel & Secretary
He’s the one to contact just to be sure.
As far as I know Wasabi has never posted on this site. this site copied his post from another site, crediting the info to him on the fron t page, while users often did a cut and paste in the forum. I don’t eepxct you’ll ever see Wasabi post on SDM again, and that name will probably disappear altogether.
If they want any info the sites have, they’ll get it. The only question would be would the sites throw away a pile of money first to wait for the court to order (not likely). The only surprise is they waited so long. Comapanies take things like this VERY seriously, as anyone would if it was your information from your company being leaked by someone you were paying, who may have access to who knows what important information.
I don’t think wasabi had any malicious intent, in some cases people doing this type of thing are intentionally trying to damage the company.
Most of us who visited this site because of shopping information regarding great savings. However, when you become a popular site. It’s just more than consumers who visit this site. The retailers will also be interested in this site as well if nothing but for the feed back. It is a very competitive environment among the retailers. You cannot blame them for safe guarding information until it’s time to release. Perhaps, some of it’s employees are enthuse as well and out of kindness of their hearts posted information in advance. Many employees do not know they signed confidential agreement with the companies when hired or during their employment not to disclose information pertaining to company. Obviously Hot Like Wasabi is an employee of Shoppers to be able to post information ahead of it’s release time.I’m not a lawyer nor am I familiar with the law, Being a first time being warning and you had oblige to take down the post should not have require you to take any further action. As ISP and Site Master you have the obligation to keep your members personal information private and confidential. You are not obligated to give out information of your members. Provided that the offender no longer post any advance information which violate companies confidentiality. You might want to start working on a disclaimer advising your members not posting sensitive information in the near future. Failing that you will have to terminate their memberships. This way you can cover any liabilities from retailers as well as from your members.
After bitting my toungue and hitting delete button – decided to put my 2c. too, sorry could not resist.
Wouldn’t you think that in this day and age big retail companies would have marketing department which would occasionnaly search Internet to see what info about their company is posted and how to take advantage of FREE advertising and do damage control and have good relationship/contact with SC and simular sites? I guess not …
I understand/agree with SDM’s consern – but they could have handled it differently (sugar vs vinegar, hint hint), reminds me of fish and Mary S, lol.
Love this site.
“GGF, I agree, however, in this case it wasn’t just posted in the forum…Boo basically cut-and-paste that info onto this blog, therefore passing on and publishing the info himself.”
yes, that is why he should have called Shoppers before doing that and confirm the sale and ask permission to post it (kind of a pre-release buzz).
Wow..over a hundred comments in 5 hours
They don’t want customers that only buy loss leaders? Boy…since we are on a very tight budget, that’s pretty much what I do at Shoppers, and at most locations where I shop, with some exceptions. Without those loss leaders, my budget would be worse off.
But you see…the loss leaders keep me coming in and keeps me loyal (I know I can get the best price for tissues here, for example) and one day, I’ll see something else I DO need RIGHT NOW and thanks to the savings, can afford to buy.
I do see their point, of course. But, their approach shows little class.
Email is not considered a way of legally informing someone of a potential legal issue in Canada. You would have been met in person by a legal representative. Likely someone is playing mind games, or you have an employee/manager of shoppers who is trying to be a big shot.
Removing the information was the best idea, though – why give them a free shout out, if someone is going out of their way to be stupid.
skeeter, what you mentioned is incorrect. Hot Like Wasabi was in direct contact with me.
“Hot Like Wasabi was in direct contact with me.”
Boo, sometimes playing dumb is a good idea…
LOL good point
I am writing this for the lawyers and their assistants, as well as the SDM marketing folks, who will no doubt, read this whole thread.
Since I’ve been visiting smartcanucks.ca I’ve read almost entirely positive posts about SDM sales and promotions and have, as a result, shopped more frequently and spent more money than I ever would have at SDM. This is an absolute fact.
It would be wise, SDM representatives, to find a fair and just compromise with the moderator of smartcanucks so that they can continue to promote your sales, and so that you can have privacy concerning your upcoming promotions (a legitimate concern).
If you harass or sue smartcanucks.ca you are literally condeming a weekly audience of tens of thousands of readers — and loyal fans — which risks compromising your brand, and sullying your image.
I can assure you that media representatives also read and frequent smartcanucks and may find this a very interesting column or article to write about for major media outlets in Canada — and thus make this story an even larger one, with a larger audience.
Tread lightly, SDM. The blog world is fierce, loyal and vast. Understand this medium before you threaten it. These are your customers.
You know, this is really bad of them. How are you supposed to know what is confidential and what is not?
You should “kindly” request them to give you a list of information that you should not release until select dates.
While you’re at it, you might as well send them a nice gift…such as one similar to this: http://www.rexall.ca/downloads/eCoupon/5_off_coupon102008.pdf 😛
(Ok…maybe the last part was more of a joke)
P.S. I have a deep respect for you since you are willing to protect your viewer’s privacy right away.
all of this is so sad, I spent a lot of money at Shoppers since I started looking at their deals here, Smartcanucks gave them free advertising, SC definitely drove a lot of people to Shoppers, but because of this I dont want to return there, they are ungrateful and bully, but anyway is their loss, I am not returning to Shoppers.
como lo dije anteriormente y ahora para los usuarios de Smartcanucks de habla hispana, es muy triste todo esto, yo he gastado mucho dinero comprando en Shoppers desde que empece a ver sus ofertas en Smartcanucks, SC les dio publicidad gratis y envio a mucha gente a comprar a Shopper, pero ellos son desagradecidos y abusivos, pero bueno ellos se lo pierden, yo no regreso a Shoppers.
I think Jennfier Dolman, the lawyer, is more concerned with finding the person who supplied the SDM sales info. I think that is what SDM is really after.
The thing is people is power are you going to let a big corporate donut head push you around , you help them generate business and yet they do not want it and you wonder why Rexall is in so big , i would personally and am going to boycott Shoppers Drug Wart and stop effectively now to not do any business wether it be products and or prescriptions . And i do hope more Canadians see this as a step over the line and we have all had enough of this silly game , with hold your money and if enough do they will bow or go out of business , frankly my money is good everywhere else .I have never posted in the site ever and this is my first and its my opinion and it protected under the charter of rights and freedom . If you decide you wont then let this be remembered when its too late and all your freedom is dead and gone that the colour “red” which is so much tied with communisim is not what Canada is about . And if you really feel the same as i do i urge all readers to return their flyers to their door step and throw it in the store in protest .
so much for respect of the lawyers privacy that boo intentionally blocked.
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.
thanks. you did more harm to him than good.
What I don’t understand is what the big deal is. So they’re having a sale and…what? We knew about it before it started? Um…so?
I find this kind of formal email right off the bat to be some sort of threat to you and I really don’t appreciate that. This kind of made me lose some respect for SDM.
Boo, thank you so much for running this site, it is truly one of the best Canadian deals sites. SDM seriously does not know how much they owe you for these years of free publicity. Now I would want to see how their events fair in light of this.
(Rexall definately deserves more time in the spotlight and it seems to be always overshadowed by SDM.)
Most of the retailers are featuring some incredible offers to get cust into the store. But they also have concerns about leaking infos to the competitor ahead of the sale date which gives the competitor chance to react quickly.If the e-mail is real, they do have a point there.
If any of the unintelligent SDM personnel is reading, I was a Jean Coutu shopper for over 2 decades. I started to shop at SDM since I found the smartcanucks website. Thanks to this great website for posting sales and deals, I can plan ahead my shopping. Seeing this unpleasant incident happening, I now have no doubt in switching back to Jean Coutu.
Anyone else notice that in the original thread, there is a post by ‘No One’ stating ‘You are so fired’? Coincidence?
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.
I also started shopping at SDM after I discovered SmartCanucks.ca
Boo et. al….please keep up the good work. : )
I wouldn’t worry about it, I think someone is yanking your chain.
You think a corporation like Shopper’s Drug Mart would take the time and effort to take a piddly little thing like this to court?
If for some insane reason this is legit and they do take you to court, I propose we all pool our Optimum Points to get you a good lawyer. :~)
I have Optimum Plus status, so points are not an issue. :~)
bj: i don’t think sdm would go for that. LOL!
I find that whatever Shoppers has on sale, Rexall will have the similiar sale in around the same time. But 90% of my purchases are for non sale items. I shop at Shoppers out of habit even though there is a Rexall closer. After this fiasco, I’m going to take my $50+ monthly purchases to Rexall. I know that’s nothing to the Shopper giant but if they lose one customer at a time, they’ll feel it. So long sucker.
Just another reason not to shop at SDM. A shame, really..
Yeah, I won’t be shopping there again. London Drugs is better anyway.
I some how think you would be served documents saying for you to remove it…rather then them emailing you yourself. If someone was emailing you I rather think it might be some other person completely. Even with optimum points anyway they only give you a discount on purchases they aren’t like save up the points to get free stuff.
Okay first of all, I was re-reading through the original email and also Boos updates and apparently it IS legitimate, however, I wonder how much this lawyer is getting paid, because he can’t spell worth crap, and obviously was not told how to use spell checker. *sighs* Anyways, as others have said I get the whole “It’s leaked information” stuff from Shoppers Drug Marts end, I do, however they could have politely sent you an email requesting it be taken down and provided you didn’t, at that point get a lawyer involved. Secondly to ask you to give them personal information of someone on this site without a court order is wrong. I understand they said later in the email that they would obtain one if needed, but their lawyer is a complete moron to have written anything and assuming you’d give that information without one. Ahhh big corporations with their never ending bullying tactics.
I can’t say I won’t stop shopping there, because to be honest, I’m lucky if I shop there once a year! However I will definately, and you can mark my words on this one, definately be telling all of my friends and family about this whole thing. Bad Publicity via word of mouth can oftentimes be more harmful to a company than anything else. Shoppers loss entirely for not deciding to handle this is a better way.
Its funny the posts above “going to shop at walmart” etc instead.
Walmart is one of the ones who filed against Fat wallet many years ago including getting a subpoena for the contact info of the poster (eventually dropped that part). They didn’t send an email asking, they just went ahead with legal action. So I guess Walmrt better be boycotted too.
Plua Target, Best Buy, Futureshop (have gotten info in Canada), Staples (fired soemone posting on the other site in Canada). EVERY retailer out there would do exactly the same thing.
Th American cases were just over having their Thanksgiving sale flyers posted a few days early…in comparison to Shoppers having everything posted early on an ongoing basis, sometimes months in advance, which they can be positive is done be staff.
There isn’t a store out there who wouldn’t be seeking oto have it stopped and find out who it was, they all would do it..
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.
———————————
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.
The rexall thing isn’t remotely comaparable. They aleady knew where it came from, they did it! And it was a one time thing they know will never happen again, with a strong motivation to keep it was quiet as possible.
Compared to shopeprs knowing it was an insider, on an ongoing bais, with information far into the future is completely different situation.
their loss on the buzz and viral marketing. boo to shoppers.
All right, that’s it. Next time I need a lawyer my business will NOT go to Hoskin & Harcourt LLP !!! That’s all we can do, is boycott them….
Meh, Shoppers has lost a lot of my money for things like this over the years. I shake my head when I see “deals” advertised by them such as:
– ‘Buy 2, get one free’ instead of ‘buy one, get one free’ I often see in the States or other Canadian stores.
– Getting a $10(?) Second Cup gift card for spending like $50 only to find that the GC could only be used for a one time transaction. Leaving, unsuspecting shoppers to find out that the $7 left on their cards will not be available to them.
– Constantly jacking up the number of Optimum Points needed for each redeemption level.
– Overpriced goods and services. (The prices for their prescription meds are nuts.)
– Insert your own beefs.
Their money grabbing tactics are so obvious and I don’t understand why people still buy into them. And if customers are actually buying SDM items because of an advance notice on sales – wouldn’t that be a good thing? I buy a lot of cosmetics which I know makes up most of their revenue, and I have no problems going to a farther store to get what I want without being treated like a dumb consumer.
Sorry, but the lawyers name is in the body of the letter sent from SDM confirming the law firms letter was legit. It is the SDM’s VP’s name that was removed to protect his privacy.
JACK:
MY BAD! accept my appologizes. i always stand correct. am going to go cause trouble somewhere else now. LOL.
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
———————————
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.
———————————
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.
—–
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.