Pissed off at Craigslist?

Greetings,  Welcome to my new blog, taking further steps into the 21st century.

Celebrating the new year and hoping the pubs, restaurants, and clubs which feature live music can hold their ground in this economic climate. For those of you not familiar with what I do (all of you) I have been a professional pianist, guitarist, and singer entertaining in solo one man band style in pubs, clubs, and restaurants since about 1989, the year I got fired from the post office. You can check out my music at www.gregfield.com. My band, Sonic Blue Sound Revue can be found at www.myspace.com/sonicbluesoundreview

Now, a  topic which will no doubt be of interest to the thousands of people who are pissed off at craigslist for arbitrarily removing ads and blocking accounts with no explanation. As we all know their support contact is a farce, as is their phone number which only gives a recording. And, as I also think most of us know, the company is worth millions if not billions (numbers these days are accumulating zeros beyond normal comprehension) of dollars, and so if they really wanted to they could make the necessary improvements and hire adequate staff. Well, here's what I did: I sued Craigslist Inc. and CEO Jim Buckmaster in a small claims court action, for $5,000 for money lost because of the blocking of my ads. I just got a legally complex response from a local law firm, giving me my first nyuk nyuk moment, costing them a certain amount of time and money, although it may be that craigs keeps an attorney in each state on hand for a modest retainer in case of such things.  Now here's my idea: all of you out there who would like the satisfaction, do the same - file a small claims action against them and CEO Jim Buckmaster, you have the papers served at this address, 1381 9th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94122. States other than California will likely require that you have a sheriff serve the papers, but sheriff fees can be as little as $30-$40 if you find one close to their address. For each state you just google small claims court forms and your state and you usually find a fillable  pdf form which you can type your info into, as your reason you just state as I did, that you lost income because they kept deleting your ads and refused to respond to their support email. In California you can probably have the court mail it. I must point out that out of state lawsuits might be dismissed on a technicality that they don't have a physical location there, but the point is to bombard them to the point where they give in and install a functioning customer support. Californians in particular are important because in that state they will have to go to court, and as soon as you make an attorney for them actually appear in court it starts costing real money in attorneys fees. Now imagine a few hundred $5000 lawsuits and all those legal fees! Don't you just love it?


Coming up next, small claims court in general as a remedy when you get generally screwed, and as a means to stick it to your bank, cable, satellite company, etc. when they fail to deliver on customer support and other obligations for which you pay. Also good for entertainers who get screwed through last minute cancellations or other forms of negligence.

I have probably brought between 20 and 30 (and counting) small claims actions in my day, including two appearances on Peoples Court (Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch presiding at one and Marilyn Milian at the other). I have won about 95% of them, including the two on Peoples Court.

Each state has its own particular rules as to forms, process, and fees. The maximum you can sue for also varies. You can simply google small claims court forms and instructions for your state and you are on your way. It's not hard to win, as long as you understand the relevant law and have a valid and provable case.

Briefly, on the subject of clubs and others who rip off musicians by not paying, double booking and hiring another musician in their place, last minute cancellations leaving you out a night or weekend's pay, etc., first thing to be aware of is that a verbal agreement is just as binding as any contract. It's not as easy to prove as a written one, but if you are in front of a judge and you can provide enough circumstantial evidence that you had an agreement, sometimes just your own credible testimony against less than credible testimony by your opponent, that's enough. Word of mouth might seem like the status quo in some cases but even an email of conformation sent to your purchaser will serve as tangible evidence of an agreement. Absent that, you can retrace your phone records to show when a booking took place, you can produce notices to friends and fans, your calendar, all of this would be convincing circumstantial evidence

Corporations can be sued in small claims court for violating implied and express warranty laws in that they have an obligation to provide prompt and expeditious customer support when needed, and if the customer wastes substantial portions his or her time in futile attempts to get problems remedied he can seek to get paid for his/her time. This would also fall under breach of contract, since it is their presumed contractual obligation to provide prompt and efficient service. To date I have sued Comcast twice, $500 each time into my pocket, and my mortgage company Citimortgage to the tune of $400, all for the same thing: customer service that was beyond bad to the point of absurdity. I have my aforementioned action against Craigslist pending.

UPDATE:

Cased was dismissed on the technicality that Craigslist's user agreement, which we all must agree to if we sign up, requires that all legal actions be filed in California. Cost them quite a bit of money to send a lawyer into Hartford to bring a voluminous and very wordy argument before this court just to get this action kicked out. I've pretty much gotten over my beef, but I still encourage California residents to go to small claims court if the feel like doing so.