Duncanville Woman "Facebook Shamed" After Leaving Animal Clinic A Bad Review
DUNCANVILLE (CBS 11 News) - Have you checked to see if the last business you walked out of posted nice or nasty things about you? One Duncanville woman says she was socially skewered after a trip to an animal clinic.
Tiffany Sich admits she panicked when her beloved cat named Tango got caught underneath her garage door. She took the cat to the Animal Care Center in Duncanville. "He was screaming so all I did was push the button and go get him," said Sich, "I was worried about that it would break his back."
It was near closing time when Sich brought the animal in for treatment. "I ask him if he took an x-ray because it would take an x-ray to know [what was wrong]. The vet says no he couldn't because he was leaving early," said Sich.
The 28-year-old says she refused to pay for the brief clinic visit and walked out. "I told her I'm not gonna pay because nothing was done with Tango," said Sich. Tango recovered and Sich posted a negative review of the clinic online.
The vet responded on the clinic's Facebook with her photo and accusing Sich of abusing his employees. "I was shocked," said Sich. "I know I was upset and I might have raised my voice a little bit, but I didn't deserve the public shaming."
CBS 11 News contacted the vet to hear his side of the story, but he didn't respond to repeated requests for comment or a request to release video of the encounter.
On Facebook the vet wrote that Sich quote, "… had no appointment, paid no money, and she had no regard for the other pets needing my immediate care in my clinic," and Sich made "false statements and reviews about my clinic."
Michael Braun is a business marketing professor at SMU. He says it's risky for businesses to target their customers online. "I think it's an incredibly bad idea. I can't imagine what kind of benefit they would expect to get by posting the photo of a troublesome customer," said Michael Braun, SMU Marketing Professor.
Sich said she feels humiliated, but hasn't found a legal option to get the photo removed. "It's really embarrassing because he's accusing me of things I didn't do," says Sich.
(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)