First, this note deals with Mrs. Ashley Cochran of Hills Insurance Agency, Inc. in Moncton, New Brunswick. She's the office manager. With that …
On July 22nd, an individual brought his hard drive in for repair. I own DanTek Solutions in Moncton, New Brunswick. I estimated a short period of time on the drive but was later told it would take a donor drive so I handed that drive over to a hardware technician. The time frame was much longer than I anticipated, unfortunately.
This past Tuesday (September 3rd) I was contacted by the customer’s wife, Ashley Cochran, an employee of Dejardins Insurance. She wrote:
“Hi Dan, this is Ashley Cochran. I apologize but we will have to pick up the hard drive tomorrow. We know you may have replaced a part on it and we will pay you for your service but we need the drive back right away. I appreciate your time. What would be the best time to pick it up?”
My response was: “No problem at all; I will have it tomorrow for you. Just spoke with Luke ”
Her next reply: “Thank you very much. Again, I apologize. I appreciate it very much.”
Drive was given back “exactly” as it was received so as not to cause any financial loss to customer. Customer did, afterall, request drive back … finished or not, as indicated in her texts twice. Unfortunately, the time frame of just over a month was frustrating her and rightly so. Thus, I had drive returned to her immediately, unfinished as she had requested (see above).
On Wednesday evening (September 4th), Ashley Cochran left a 1 star review for service she asked to be canceled. She then went on a rant, stating our company posted fake reviews and demanded an answer. As there are three individuals who manage the account, it would take time to (1) see if her claims were accurate and (2) respond once an internal review was completed.
In a show of good faith, I offered to pay for any recovery fees she would incur elsewhere. She accepted but THEN went on another rant this morning (September 5th) at which point I consulted with the RCMP and was advised to ask her not to communicate with us again and to record each time she did for future possible legal intervention due to harassment. On September 5th I sent an email asking her to stop communicating immediately as I was advised to do.
Ashley Cochran would remove review for approximately $1000.00 as stated in our text correspondence.
This is part of the communication:
Me: “Well, as this went south quite quickly on both ends, I’d prefer to draw up a contract which would benefit both you and I. Is that acceptable?”
Ashley: “I will agree to that. You draw it up, I will review it to determine if I feel it's acceptable and if anything should be adjusted.”
Me: “Ok will do. In the meantime, will you remove review? And when will you be receiving drive back so I have an idea?”
Ashley: “I will remove when we come to an agreement.”
Granted, I did offer as I felt I had no other recourse as her libelous review financially harmed my business. I received counsel on the texts and was told to immediately stop communicating; that this was unethical and I obliged in asking her to stop communicating with me.
Why am I posting this? I am outraged that you work with such individuals. While we all have our own version of events, it’s beyond reprehensible that a so-called “professional” would engage in malicious libel and what appears to have gone into the area of extortion. Perhaps not … perhaps so. One thing “is” certain: receiving $1000.00 to remove a negative review is certainly unethical.
Mrs. Cochran and I became heated in our exchanges. She continued to blame my company for not retrieving her data that she brought in “because” of a hard drive failure. We simply couldn’t get it back; plain and simple. She became so infuriated that she then began to engage in libel and defamatory statements, without merit. Her opinion isn’t valid; evidence backed by solid data is valid. Claims are one thing; showing evidence is quite another. She made the ridiculous claim that we had false positive reviews. If this is correct, Mrs. Cochran posted these “false reviews” and libeled my company. I have yet to have seen a single review that was false. Her claim is nonsense but has also harmed our business financially.
At the end of the day, we did nothing to her drive, either positive OR negative. We simply couldn’t extract the data … and she wasn’t charged a cent. We reversed our work once she requested drive back and returned it exactly as it was provided to us.
Your firm represents professionalism. If Mrs. Cochran has engaged in this conduct with me… is this her conduct in the office where she represents Desjardins? Have others been taken advantage of unknowingly? I would encourage you to investigate Ashley Cochran’s interactions with anyone she’s dealt with financially.
I refuse to pay for a negative review to be removed; especially a review based on libel and unsubstantiated claims of false reviews, unprofessionalism, etc. I was fearful and felt backed into a corner but after receiving counsel, I no longer feel this way. Her maliciousness has been relentless and I am asking you to ensure that such behavior does not occur with those who trust you with their insurance needs, etc. I will be following up with you in the coming weeks as well as writing to head office as while you may feel this is a “personal” matter, I believe it’s a matter directly related to her character and to her dealing with customers. I would hate to learn in the future that others were approached in the same manner that we were. If these are the types of individuals who represent your company… people need to know and be aware!