Company With Same Name Hurting Friend's Retail Business

4 replies
My friend has a brick and mortar clothing store. They have only a Facebook page
and a couple of reviews on Yelp and Google. Otherwise, they do not sell or market
via the internet and don't want to.

An online retailer has their exactname.com and has had it and related domain names
since 2005. They seem to be a legit operation and not domain squatting. They operate
from a different country although they do have a US agent. They have opted for domain
privacy.

The facebook names are very similar. My friends has some capital letters.

The problem is that the online retailer is not doing things well and has caused my friend
to receive about 50 phone calls complaining about service.

So, I'm looking for suggestions on how to pro-actively handle this situation.

Thank you so much.

Dan
#business #company #friend #hurting #retail
  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    Suggestion, seek the advice of an attorney. Don't look for legal advice here.
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    Thanks, Rus.

    After I looked into things more, it seems be a few people who cannot figure out
    that they did business with the online company, not my friends' company. And
    they are having a hard time believing my friend (and understanding his accent).

    I've emailed the company asking for help - like a phone number for my friend to give
    the confused customers. I have also posted on the other company's Facebook page
    the correct links for their customers to use for customer service issues.

    Dan
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    "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    This isn't legal advice but if your friend is trying to get customers via the internet for his B&M then it might make more sense to just change the name. This is 100% out of your control, and I really don't think there is anything you can do legally about it.
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    • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      This isn't legal advice but if your friend is trying to get customers via the internet for his B&M then it might make more sense to just change the name. This is 100% out of your control, and I really don't think there is anything you can do legally about it.
      Thanks, Nathan. I think you're right on both points. Hopefully just directing the unhappy customers
      to the right contact information for the dot com will take care of things. Beside phone calls to him, the
      the only negatives so far are the comments accusing my friend of being dishonest on the dot coms' Facebook page - which I could try to get Facebook to remove. But I think my posts on their Facebook took care of that.
      His Facebook and review site pages have nothing.

      It's weird that my friend's business has been operating for 18 years or so, and the dot com for at least
      9 years and they just now have some problems.

      Denver, CO had two carpet care companies with the same name. I inadvertently dealt with both and decided I liked one better than the other. The one I liked had an 800 number, so I looked for that when
      I needed cleaning. They had talked to each other and decided to leave things be because the impact did not seem to be crucial. LOL I'm sure they had to deal with each other's unhappy customers.
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      "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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