
Unhappy customer asked to sign legal agreement not to write a bad review - pseudolus
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/renovation-nda-ottawa-general-contractors-1.5238713
======
FussyZeus
I'll never fathom the business minds that think these kinds of things are a
solution, in whatever industry. If you have to start passing out legal
agreements to cover up your business practices, you've got to know on some
level that you're circling the drain, right? At that point why not just get
out of business while you can? Especially in our hyper-connected and social
media heavy present, why even take the risk of "being found out" when the risk
is so incredibly high? You're effectively playing Russian roulette with your
financial future each time you do it.

~~~
celticmusic
I'll never fathom the lawmakers that allow this sort of stuff to be legal.

It's like forced arbitration clauses. Yes, they're useful in certain contexts,
but the second the power dynamic changes between the two entities, forced
arbitration should no longer be valid.

~~~
FussyZeus
I would argue there are no places forced arbitration is useful. It's only even
slightly legitimate function seems to be reducing the load on the legal
system, which, why? We have a legal system to enforce justice. If it's
overloaded, increase the damn budget. This is akin to saying "we will only
have firemen on call from 8am to 10pm, for budget constraints." If my house is
on fire at midnight, fucking firemen better show up. Pay what's needed and
raise taxes if required.

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drewg123
Tesla tried to do this to a friend of mine. In 2015 his Model S was delivered
with missing or defective rivets "holding a horizontal part of the unibody to
a vertical part". This was discovered when he took the car in for them to
diagnose an annoying squeak after a few days of ownership.

He balked at having the car repaired by a bodyshop, because he wondered what
else might be wrong. Tesla offered a new, identically configured car to
replace the defective one. However, they wanted him to sign what was
effectively an NDA. The problem was that he couldn't, as he'd already talked
to people about it. Even if he hadn't, he probably would not have signed it
anyway on general principles.

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otterley
Attorney here! (This is not legal advice - consult a licensed attorney in your
jurisdiction.)

This sounds like a garden-variety term of a settlement agreement. The parties
disagree as to whether money is owed, and to settle their dispute, the
contractor is offering the customer some money (or at least to drop their
demand for some amount of payment) in exchange for not publicizing their
grievance.

In this case, the homeowner decided not to accept the offer, and so they are
exercising their right to complain about the contractor.

The fact that this made the news is probably the most newsworthy thing of all.

What's weird about this is that the CBC is portraying this as though the money
involved is not in dispute. But that can't be the case: if you already have a
contract, you can't add terms to the contract without changing the
consideration in some way. For example, if I agree to lawn for $20, and then I
mow your lawn, you can't demand that you sign a non-disparagement agreement
for me to get my $20. But if I mow only half your lawn and then demand it,
then you can. The consideration for the non-disparagement agreement is your
foregoing legal action against me.

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lidHanteyk
Two lessons:

* When a contractor holds petty cash hostage like this, take them to small claims and don't let them force you to sign away your rights.

* Don't do business with a group that can't see why "OGC" is a bad initialism.

~~~
mieseratte
> Don't do business with a group that can't see why "OGC" is a bad initialism.

Why is it a bad initialism?

~~~
ceejayoz
I've never heard it, but apparently:

[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=OGC](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=OGC)

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1901656/OGC-unveils-new-
log...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1901656/OGC-unveils-new-logo-to-red-
faces.html)

~~~
koolba
I've never seen that before and it's much funnier than the "Office of General
Counsel" that pops in my head for "OGC".

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mabbo
The biggest lesson here: do not pay fully up-front, ever. Pay 25% (at most)
before work starts, and pay the rest at milestone-based intervals.

I've recently had a minor renovation in my condo (removing/replacing "Kitec"
piping, ugh, what a mess). Getting the contractors to come back and fix all
their mistakes and screw ups ("oh, it's normal that all the taps should cause
loud thumps in other rooms when you turn them off") took weeks.

The big difference for me is that I still owe them the majority of the cost.
I'll happily pay it, now that all of the nonsense is over with and we have our
repairs, but I sure as heck won't be signing any paperwork that says I can't
speak freely about the experience.

~~~
brador
What was causing the thumps? How did they fix it?

~~~
everdrive
Almost certainly a "water hammer" effect mixed with pipes that weren't mounted
tightly to a frame, allowing the pipes to get a good amount of movement during
the water hammer event

~~~
mabbo
This is correct. The new pipes were of a different diameter (problem #1) so
there was a water hammer, a pressure wave moving back through the pipe when
the tap was turned off. Being plastic pipes, they moved quite a bit when this
happened.

The pipes were also installed by non-certified plumbers (problem #2), I'm
pretty sure. In many cases, the pipes were not tied into anything in the wall.
We had to fix the last couple of these issues ourselves, where the pipe was
actually resting _against the drywall_ , and would move, thumping against it.
All the while the contractor is saying this is normal and expected.

My wife, a certified Professional Engineer, something in her finally snapped.
She said "get in the car, we're going to Rona[0]". I dutifully followed her
around with a basket that she filled with equipment and supplies. We cracked
open the walls, tied in the pipes correctly, patched the holes, repainted.
Home back to normal now.

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rona,_Inc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rona,_Inc).

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sundvor
The Streisand effect is strong in this one.

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dspillett
_> The company did return to finish the work in May_

Not only are they refusing to refund for the issues that are their fault until
such an agreement is signed, they are refusing the finish the work that the
customer has (presumably) already paid for. Definitely a company to avoid.

~~~
dspillett
Actually, cancel that: I obviously didn't properly read what I was quoting,
and they " _did_ return to finish the work in May". Still their behaviour
(demanding something in exchange for a "good will gesture", delaying the work
over the disagreement) is far from that which would engender me to take on
their services myself.

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alexpetralia
Sounds like every severance agreement ever.

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ceejayoz
The Streisand Effect strikes again. I'm sure this tactic worked for a while,
but one pissed off victim going to the national news media means the whole
thing unravels.

