Pete Marentay
Distinguished Professors
Hey, y'all!
You know I don't post often now that I have retired, but I have a question for the community of pressure washers that intrigues me.
I know that business is competitive and that some dirty tricks might be expected, but where is the cutoff line? I think I know guys in this business and how they think, but I want to see what you say to reply to these questions here in this thread.
For example, if you owned Fred’s Pressure Washing and operate your web site www.fredspressurewashing.com and are pretty successful, is it OK for your upstart competition to register and use www.fredspressurewashing.net or www.fredspressurewash.com?
What if the new competitor just used these addresses as re-directs, with the plan to just "steal" the customers who make simple typing errors? Does that make the competitor less guilty?
I mean, I know it is legal, but is it ethical? Does this group accept that this is just how life works and Fred should just suck it up? What if that same competitor named his new start-up business Fred’s Pressure Wash or tried to register Fred’s Pressure Wash as a D.B.A. or even a trademark? Is that OK or going too far?
What happens when a customer thinks he has contracted with Fred’s Pressure Washing only to have someone else show up and do the work? What should Fred do when these sorts of shenanigans happen and his business suffers? What can or should Fred’s loyal customers do, if anything?
“Legal” is different from “fair” or “ethical” or even “acceptable”. I would love to see how this community looks at this issue.
You know I don't post often now that I have retired, but I have a question for the community of pressure washers that intrigues me.
I know that business is competitive and that some dirty tricks might be expected, but where is the cutoff line? I think I know guys in this business and how they think, but I want to see what you say to reply to these questions here in this thread.
For example, if you owned Fred’s Pressure Washing and operate your web site www.fredspressurewashing.com and are pretty successful, is it OK for your upstart competition to register and use www.fredspressurewashing.net or www.fredspressurewash.com?
What if the new competitor just used these addresses as re-directs, with the plan to just "steal" the customers who make simple typing errors? Does that make the competitor less guilty?
I mean, I know it is legal, but is it ethical? Does this group accept that this is just how life works and Fred should just suck it up? What if that same competitor named his new start-up business Fred’s Pressure Wash or tried to register Fred’s Pressure Wash as a D.B.A. or even a trademark? Is that OK or going too far?
What happens when a customer thinks he has contracted with Fred’s Pressure Washing only to have someone else show up and do the work? What should Fred do when these sorts of shenanigans happen and his business suffers? What can or should Fred’s loyal customers do, if anything?
“Legal” is different from “fair” or “ethical” or even “acceptable”. I would love to see how this community looks at this issue.