The store owner we’ll call Mr. T. got the phone order from this woman. She called that she was upset about the delayed delivery. Mr. T. says “she was upset and moody that the pizza hadn’t come yet so I wanted to make sure she’d be happy by adding 8 extra toppings besides the extra tomatoes she asked for. I wanted to compensate her and make her happy.”
When she got the pizza she called Mr. T. back again to complain that the pizza was soggy and inedible and that this would be the last time she’s ordering pizza by him. She said she was “giving it to the cats so at least they would enjoy it.” Mr. T said: “I gently explained to her that tomatoes by nature release moisture when cooked but I would be happy to make her another pizza she could pick up. She wanted another delivery and I said “you can pick up the pizza or come get a full cash refund. But she dealt with this in her own way. She posted: “When you are on your way home thinking about the pizza on its way to your house and you get this thing… soggy to the point it was inedible, onions with peels on them and hair on the olives… really enjoyable.” She then posted a picture of a slice of pizza with the word ‘ichs’ in Hebrew which is the equivalent of ‘yuck’.
Mr. T says; “When I read the post I was shocked. I had tears in my eyes. She hurt my business and my income dropped. I built my business up from nothing with my own ten fingers and with a few words on a keyboard she ruined it. I got a lot of feedback from customers and it was very unpleasant. I live in a small town and the damage was irreversible.” Then Mr. T. decided to sue at the Peace Court in Nazareth.
The original lawsuit was for 100,000 shekel for a “post that exaggerated the complaint and harmed the pizzeria’s image, She also added in parts that never happened like hair and peels on the onion,” Mr. T. explained.
The woman claimed she posted in innocence to a small group of her friends on Facebook. She had no idea the post would make waves and definitely not to harm Mr. T’s feelings or business. But the damage was done and someone had to pay the price which ended up being quite steep and painful. “I was only expressing my opinion. I wrote about an experience as a customer”, said the woman, but Judge Elad Tal was not convinced and he didn’t accept her claims as valid.
In his decision he said that word like yuck etc. intensify the slander and it harmed Mr. T.’s business for many people stopped coming to his pizzeria. In addition the testimony of the woman was riddled with contradictions which didn’t add to her credibility. The judge awarded Mr. T. 15,000 shekel in compensation for damages plus the 3,000 shekel court fee to be paid by the woman.
Mr. T. said: “This has nothing to do with money but something fundamental. If she would have apologized in court I would have withdrawn my charges but she didn’t. I hope people will learn from this not to seal the fate of businesses and other people with hurtful posts. It should be understood that Facebook has power and it’s not child’s play.”
Mr. T.’s lawyer adds to this saying that there is a bad norm that became accepted to post harmful posts on Facebook before even counting to three and understanding the damage they do to businesses or to people may be irreversible. That’s why such court cases must be publicized so people should see and be forewarned. “People need to be careful with what they publicize or they may pay a steep price for it.”
