Facebook Group May Destroy Towing Company
T&J Towing, the company who sued a student for $750K over this Facebook group complaining about their service, has lost half its business since the incident and now claims it's the victim.
This epic towing saga started last month in Kalamazoo, Michigan when T&J Towing towed Western Michigan University student Justin Kurtz's Saturn from his own parking lot. Kurtz claims his parking sticker was scraped off the car by the towing company, which is supported by other people's reports of the same issue. In response, Kurtz created the "Kalamazoo Residents Against T&J Towing" Facebook group to chronicle what he believes is horrible customer service from the company.
T&J Towing, in turn, responded by suing him for $750,000. This created an Internet firestorm and the group has now grown to more than 11,000 members. The impact is being felt by the towing company, according to their lawyer:
"He has wrongly become a pariah in the eyes of many people in the community. He's lost upwards of 15 accounts because of the hostility this situation has created."
Lawyers for the student Facebook group creator are using the group to identify other victims in preparation for a class action lawsuit against the towing company and are counter-suing over what they consider to be a breach of Michigan's consumer protection laws.
Kurtz's lawyers also added the towing company should have just refunded his money, apologized, and asked him to take the group down because suing a college kid with a Facebook account is "like dousing dry sticks with kerosene and lighting a match."