First off I know Todd, he has been a good friend of mine for a number of years and is not some slummy character trying to take advantage of an equipment seller.He didn't get convinced that OP won't work and want the
Trinity refund to buy a truckmount as John claims. Todd has owned and operated a
Prochem truckmount for a long time.That being said, I also like John and find myself agreeing with him often in the area of politics, religion and many other topics. Frankly I could talk to him all day just on non-industry topics. Todd purchased a op unit from John somewhere around eight years ago, this current
Trinity purchase wasn't Todd's first purchase from what is now being called
Trinity Renewal Systems. I heard about this issue before Connections and was happy to she John there so I could take a look at the
Trinity for myself. When I approached their booth I was happy to see the units on display and operated a couple of them briefly. With so many companies showing up at trade shows with nothing but a stack of business cards and brochures I always enjoy the booths with actual products on display. The old fashioned face to face demonstration is always more interesting to me.
While at the booth John and I had a conversation where he brought Todd up obviously not realizing that I know him. This conversation included several comments that could be described as unfortunate and rather defamatory. Due to this I was very shocked when Todd told of this letter from an attorney representing John, threatening legal action for defamation. Apparently John was rather offended by the videos posted to youtube and comments made by Todd on this thread about the
Trinity and his experience with this transaction. The problem is there is nothing defamatory in this thread or on the videos. As a matter of law there is no such thing as defamation of a product or piece of equipment. People are free to state their opinions without creating a TORT. Frankly any college student that is pre law would be able to quickly reach that conclusion, which makes the letter from John's attorney rather laughable (and yes Todd read it to me over the phone). What is more laughable is attempting to threaten legal action against a long time customer as a way of dealing with a customer service issue. Once you go down that road, where do you stop ? Todd is certainly not the only unhappy
Trinity buyer. I know of two myself and understand guys getting caught up in all the new product launch hype within the industry. However a $4,300 purchase should be received in new condition and without manufacturer defects. In this case that didn't happen and Todd contacted John within 48 hours to advise that their was a problem. This matter should have ended there with a correction of the issue, but it didn't.
If John really wants to go down the legal rat hole of a defamation case he should think long and hard about exactly what was said to me while at the
Trinity booth. That would be a text book example of defamation .Nothing Todd posted in this thread (that wasn't even started by him) even comes close to defamation. If he was out to slander anyone or disparage
Trinity renewal systems he could have started a thread like this many months ago. He could have contacted these two other
Trinity buyers and had them join in and tell their experience with the
Trinity, but he didn't because that clearly isn't his objective. He just wants his money back as previously promised when he returned the unit.
Many of us within this industry know Rick Galanis of
Excellent supply in the Tampa area of Florida. What you may not know is 7-8 years ago he sold a counter rotating brush manufactured in Alabama. When the units started to ship every single one was damaged by UPS. Although Rick had paid thousands up front for these machines that were damaged through no fault of his own, he took care of his customers. He refunded 100% of the unhappy buyers and ended his affiliation with that machine. He now is known for being a rock solid distributor that is truthful, honest and reasonable to deal with. I don't think that would have been the case if he had "taken the money and run" or threatened to sue his unhappy customers. Instead he moved on and has benefited greatly by retaining very loyal customers.
I hope Todd and John are able to sit down and work this out without attorneys taking a bigger bite out of this already expensive mess of a deal. If not, I fully expect to comply with any subpoena to testify with respect to John's comments about Todd made to me at Connections. I would rather spend that airfare coming to
Mikey's fest and enjoy the company of my fellow cleaners where no one is suing each other, well not right now anyway. I'm sure that would be much more enjoyable even though I'm not a great fan of Vegas after "10 great years of Connections".