I’ve never been a fan of douchebag businesses and the entitled twits that run them. That’s why in 2009 I wrote about T’s Golf of Manchester Maine, run by Rawn and Judy Torrington. I even wrote about them in print (in addition to a number of other subjects), making sure they received a copy of my publication. I know for a fact that I took business away from them and I’m damn proud of it. Nobody likes to pay for services when the person doing the serving is a colossal sac face.
With that in mind, I’m glad that Jonathan Kamens wrote about asshat Bill Groome of Madhatter Magic Shop in Columbia, S.C. Here are the basics. Kamens asked Groome specific questions about a product. That information turned out to be incorrect. Kamens sent two emails asking for a refund. Both were ignored. When he sent a third email where he said he would initiate a disputed charge claim with his credit card company, he got this asshattery-laden response:
This is the first email I have seen from you since your purchase. I am very busy and I give information to the best of my knowledge. I get over a hundred emails per day and try to reply to all of them personally. My reply below was accurate and gave you the information on how the trick worked. Now I have more important things to deal with than a little boy crying over a $5.00 trick. I am sorry it did not fit your needs, but I described it as accurately as I could. Feel free to send it back in new condition and we will refund it per our return policy.
There are more intricate details that can be seen here, but the gist is that Groome only offered a refund when he was told one would be forced upon him. And that’s hardly an offer at all. Moreover, the comments Groome has left on Kamens’ blog makes it clear Groome is a liar. He claims that he did give a refund, except the way the charges appear on Kamens’ statements are such that only the credit card company could do it.
To make matters worse, Groome went after Kamens’ for being Jewish. I’m not familiar with Kamens’ blog or writing, but him being Jewish is irrelevant. This is a disputed business transaction. As silly as all religious beliefs are, Groome is just being mildly anti-Semitic.
But it gets worse. You see, whereas the idiots at T’s Golf were, well, idiots, they managed to keep their stupidity confined. Had they been dumb enough to respond to me, I would have done all I could to make the biggest stink possible about them. Christopher Maloney knows that all too well. Groome, on the other hand, went ahead and left a number of responses, as I have been showing. But now he has taken it one step further and threatened to sue.
This is all impressively dumb. Not only has Groome ensured that his online presence continues to be tarnished, and not only did he do damage to his reputation by race-baiting and calling a customer a ‘crying little boy’, but he has no case judging by his inability to demonstrate a single false statement on the part of Kamens.
So remember: Don’t do business with Bill Groome of Madhatter Magic Shop in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s a douchebag.
via Popehat
Filed under: Humor | Tagged: Bill Groome, Christopher Maloney, Jonathan Kamens, Judy Torrington, Madhatter Magic Shop, Manchester, Rawn Torrington, T's Golf |
For the Sake of Science 
Oh, and this lawsuit business is taking place about two years after the fact. I guess Groome wanted to re-up his negative Google results.
As an attorney I absolutely relish the thought of being sued by a business over something like this. Attorneys’ fees to the loser for a frivolous suit? Where do I sign up?
Michael are you Kamen’s puppet? Since you have no first hand knowledge let me enlighten you.
Kamens claims to have sent 3 emails, I only received one, in which he acted like a 2 year old that had just had his lollipop stolen. I am not a dog and I don’t appreciate Kamens threatening me with this and that. Yes, I did tell him to take his tantrum elsewhere.
I am not anti-jewish, but since Kamen’s brings it up frequently in his blog it’s fair game. I am correct in stating that Kamen’s believes he is entitled to SPECIAL priviledges due to the fact that he is Jewish. Read his blog, When he does not receive special treatment he feels slighted and turns on the smear campaign. He should be treated the same as everyone else.
No one forced me to give him a refund, I did it myself, although he never even returned the product. The Credit Card Company never processed a charge back, period. Even Wal-Mart requires you to bring back the product to issue a refund. How you can claim differently is beyond me since you have no first hand knowledge.
I see you are a career student which explains your anti-business philosophy. Maybe one day you will get off your ass and get a job. I’m sure your parents and the tax payer would appreciate you contributing something back to society.
Perhaps you can enlighten me on something, Bill. You own a business. You think people who try to hurt it are, by definition, anti-business. (And you’re spiteful of education for some reason.) By implication, you’re saying you’re pro-business. And you’re clearly pro-your-own-business. Am I right? If so, why do you insist on making yourself look like the biggest douchebag on the East coast? Do you think that will help your business?
I’m not sure insulting and belittling customers has made you look awesome enough, Bill. Perhaps you could threaten to bring a frivolous lawsuit against me too. Hell, sue every person who calls you a mean name and makes opinions built off factual statements. Seems like a solid strategy. But what do I know? I’m clearly the anti-business one.
Let’s say Bill is being honest and doesn’t remember the first two emails.
He doesn’t seem to grasp that you can’t win by sending rude emails to a customer – you can only lose.
In the Internet age, all someone needs is one out-of-context quote to harm a business. Looking over Kamens blog, he sure does seem to post a lot about minor inconveniences and talk them up. Bill may be right, the guys a whiner, but he would have been an ignored whiner if Bill was smart enough to avoid getting pulled into a trap.
I actually agree that Komen seems to blog about a lot of really minor things. It’s too bad Groomes couldn’t mention that instead of going after him for being Jewish. It doesn’t matter how you try to spin that one, you will not come out of it looking good.
Not that Groomes should have mentioned anything, of course. He should have just given up the few bucks to the disgruntled customer. Heck, just last night a friend of mine had a food order messed up through some middle-man provider (they collect all the business information, numbers, menus, etc in the area to make it easy to find what you want and then you order through them…it’s LA). He wasn’t really mad about anything in the least, but the restaurant called up and offered him free cake to make sure he was happy. It was a bit odd (especially since it was a Korean-owned Italian restaurant), but it was good business. Groomes could learn something from people like that.
I have ordered many products over many years from Bill Groome and have ALWAYS received excellent service…yes, even the very few times when a refund was necessary. I give him an A+++ !!
I have read all the accounts of this issue from Michael and Bill and it really seems like Michael doesn’t have a clue and is wrong in his assessment.
First off…it was a $5 trick…let get real here, you don’t get professional quality for $5. You get a plastic/cardboard trick usually fit for children to play with…if you think you are getting anything else then you really are an idiot.
Secondly….It is really obvious that Michael has never worked in a business that takes credit cards…learn how to read the credit card info before you start commenting on what you think was done and when and by whom…I just hate it when people talk about something that they have NO clue about.
thirdly…IT WAS A $5 TRICK…he was getting all bent out of shape for a $5 trick…and to be honest if a customer of mine has only come into my store and only ever just bought one $5 trick and then started a bunch of crap about it I would tell the little boy where to go too. No business needs that kind of crap, customer service only goes so far…and in my business the motto is “The customer is NOT always right…If they are, make them happy…if they are wrong, educate them and send them on their way”
The only issue i see here is this ‘Michael’ idiot sticking his snotty nose where it doesn’t belong.
And as far as the Jewish thing..sure he probably should have let it go unmentioned…but again, let’s get real for a moment…I’ve been in business for over 35 years and I have seen many many many people use their race, religion, sexual orientation, etc to try and get something they do not deserve from a business…I don’t let them get away with it either…I treat everyone the same whether they like it or not!
If you wait long enough, I guess sending your friends to defend you after everyone has forgotten about this is probably pretty cathartic.
I agree with Digger,I have ordered many products from Bill,and let me tell you,all I have receive from him and his team is a great service,this week I send and Email to Bill about a product that I ordered a few months ago, and it did not work the way suppose to work,it was not Bill’s fault,it was a malfunction on the product,next day Bill send me an email telling me that he was going to replace that item for another one,that’s the Cain of guy he is,again this guy and his team have never let me down,that’s way I have make business with madhatter magic for long time.Thank’s Bill.
Gee such drama over a $5 trick. Have you heard ” you get what you pay for”?
Five bucks gets you very little. And the prices at madhatter are significantly lower for the same products.
And if you can’t figure out a $5 trick then just realize magic is not your thing.
The guy who put this up is just a hater.
Jim
I agree with Digger & Jaime. I’ve always received awesome service from Mad Hatter.
Seems like a mountain was made of a molehill.
Bought a quarter shell don’t even over quarters for and its rusted