As a "somewhat misguided" Democrat, I thought I should share the rage letter we received from a company we refused to do business with because of their political views. After being in the DailyKos community for months, this is my first diary, so bear with me.
Since the election we have been diligently Choosing Blue whenever we can. I have changed a business checking account from a red to a blue bank, we are moving our personal checking and savings from a red to a blue bank, we shop at Costco and always make Blue decisions whenever we have the choice.
We are having some landscaping work done on our house in Chicagoland, and being intelligent American consumers, we shopped for estimates from various companies. We had a company called Lorelei Group in LaGrange IL, give us a quote and the woman proudly claimed another company, Prairie Path Pavers, as their sister company. I know Prairie Path Pavers because of the building sized Bush signs they had on the side of their business during and after the election season.(the cars in their lot all still have W stickers) They gave us a pretty decent quote, actually beating most of the others, but it didn't matter since I also recently chose a higher interest rate on a car loan to use a blue bank.
After a few days we called them to let them know that they lost our business because of their support of what we consider an extreme and radical administration. The woman asked if she could put the owner on the phone, and my wife told her it wasn't necessary.
A few minutes later we received a call from a man named Marty who forcefully tried to engage us in a political debate.
Paraphrasing the conversation, we explained that we could not, in good conscience, give our business to a company which supported such an extreme administration. He at first claimed that it was the building owner who put up the sign and not him (someone with the same last name as him owns the building). We told him that maybe he should think about the message he is sending by allowing the building owner to politically label his business. After calling us ignorant, he said that we use Republican businesses all the time, such as the phone company and utility companies. Of course we replied that we don't have a choice with them, but we do with you, and we are choosing not to hire you. He pointed out that business is business and politics is politics. And we agreed 100% with this point and had he not politicized his business, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. I'm a marketing guy. I don't recommend tying politics to your business. At this point he turned the conversation into the ragefest typical with these people, and we ended the phone call. I applaud my wife for keeping her cool during this whole debate, which I am convinced prompted what came next.
We assumed that things were finished but alas, just yesterday a letter arrived addressed to my wife from NorthCross Roofing. (gee, I wonder where they got that name, and who the hell is NorthCross Roofing and how did they get our address?)
I know I don't need to go line by line through this letter and point out the absurdities to DailyKos readers, however I would like to make a couple of points:
- We were not looking for a political debate with these people. We only told them we wouldn't use their services based on their politics.
- We never referred to the company or any of the people there as "radicals". We only suggested that they were supporting an extreme and radical administration.
- I appreciate all of the good work that this man and his company have done for local charities. I really do. But look here and here and here and here for examples of some of the other work he's done by supporting this administration..
- "My dear"? Is this fellar getting sweet on my wife?
- I'm not exactly sure how his roofing company makes it possible for us to sit in our "little suburban home".
- He respects his employees by calling them misguided?
- Histrionic rantings? No comment.
- Anyone know a friendly Democratic landscape design company in the Chicago area?
We're still not sure how or why Mr. Halm from NorthCross Roofing came to write this letter. I'm assuming Marty Halm is Bob's son and he is the one who runs Prairie Path Pavers and Lorelei Group. We never spoke or did business with Bob at NorthCross Roofing, so he doesn't know us from Adam.
We are appealing to the DailyKos community for any suggestions or ideas about how to handle this. Should we make these guys lose some business? Are there any legal concerns with them giving our address to another company purely to harrass us? Should we arm ourselves for protection?