January 21, 2007
How To Lose A Sale, And Piss Off America At The Same Time
Last Friday, Cinnamon Stillwell, a good friend and fellow blogger alerted me to an almost unbelievable "sales" response to one of our troops stationed in Iraq. The troop, one Sgt. Jason Hess serving with the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq. Sgt. Hess was inquiring about better mats for his troops to sleep on. Here is his email to Discount Floor Mats of West Allis, Wisconson:
To Whom it may concern:
Do you ship to APO addresses? I'm in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for who ships to APO first.SGT Hess
Sgt. Hess received the following from DFM:
Subject: Re: Feedback: from discount-mats. comNow, it is entirely possible that the idiot (yes, an idiot) who works for DFM may not have had the legal right or his/her employer's permission to respond in such a cavalier manner. The registered owner of the DFM website is as follows:SGT Hess,
We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.
Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats. com
Registrant:
Faisal Khetani
PO Box 270693
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53227 United States
Registered through: Teknon Domains
Domain Name: DISCOUNT-MATS. COM
Created on: 23-Mar-05
Expires on: 23-Mar-08
Last Updated on: 03-Mar-06
Administrative Contact:
Khetani, Faisal sportsfitness@ gmail.com
3259 S.106th Street West Allis, Wisconsin 53227 United States
(414) 543-9634
Technical Contact:
Khetani, Faisal sportsfitness@ gmail.com
3259 S.106th Street West Allis, Wisconsin 53227 United States
(414) 543-9634
I have no idea as to the ethnicity or political leanings of Mr. Khetani but I can tell when a sale will not be made. But this is typical of so many of the anti-war crowd from Jack Murtha on down. Say you support the troops, but when push comes to shove, treat them as trash, denegrate and degrade them and tell them what they are doing is not important. I don't know about you, but this really ticks me off, and apparantly it has ticked off a lot of others. When you go to the DFM website now this is what you get:
Ahhh, the power of a pissed off America (well, at least a pissed off portion of America, those still able to think and be proud and supportive of our troops).
So, having said all of the above, here is my letter to Mr. Khetani sent via email as apparantly there won't be a "contact us" page on his website for a while (snicker). Khetani's response is so outrageous it has even made the Urban Legends web page at Snopes.com
Mr. Faisal Khetani sportsfitness@ gmail.com 3259 S.106th Street West Allis, Wisconsin 53227 United States (414) 543-9634Dear Mr. Khetani:
Given the recent blogswarm caused by you or someone in your company, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Cry because someone is so stupid as to believe that their response to Sgt. Hess wouldn't get out, or laugh at the sheer stupidity of the response. While I fully support (though I also think really stupid) someone's right to protest the war, did you (or one of your employees) not think that the response to Sgt. Hess was just a little above board? A simple "Sorry, we do not ship to APO addresses" would have sufficed, but no, the rank idiot had to put their political stamp on it to the detriment of a serving US soldier.
I strongly suspect that your business will suffer a loss of sales for this egregious behavior, as well it should. If you are the author of the reply to Sgt. Hess, you deserve everything that happens as a result. If it was one of your employees, than you have utterly failed to inculcate into them any since of business ethics. Either way, you sir are to blame. Furthermore sir, I am asking all of my readers to write you and tell you of their disdain for you and your employees.
Scornfully,
George M. Roper, III
http://gmroper.mu.nu
Please write to Mr. Khetani, tell him what you really think. Phone calls, emails, letters, lets let him know how business should be conducted in this great country.
ALSO posting on this topic (I'll update the list as I become aware of other posts):
Heidi at Euphoric Reality, Ms. Underestimated
The claim to be a member of the Internet organization called 'Fair Trade' which is something like the better business bureau.
I filed a complaint with them and suggest others do the same. You can get their email address from the sorry a**es web site.
Posted by Scrapiron at January 21, 2007 09:06 PM
Well maybe you can't get the email for fair trade from their now screwed up site so here it is: compliance@squaretrade.com
Posted by Scrapiron at January 21, 2007 09:09 PM
Saw this some place a minute or two ago - guess I've been sleeping too much! lol Either their customer service person is now un-employed - - OR - the company should be the main target if and when there is another terrorist attack on our soil! Glad to see technical difficulties prevail!
Your note to them is excellent!
Posted by Chrys at January 22, 2007 12:51 AM
I read about this a couple of times, most notably on LGF. I'm almost angry enough to help crash their phones tomorrow-- but I'll be too busy demanding my Rep, Barney Frank, retract his claim that W committed genocide during Katrina's aftermath, and demanding W pardon the border patrol agents charged as criminals for protecting my children from criminal aliens.
Best,
A. Truman North
http://condig.blogspot.com
Posted by A. Truman North at January 22, 2007 03:45 AM
GM,
I called them last night. Their machine was "full". I sent unprofane, but harsh, email.
I will call again.
People only "get the message" when others hammer at them. Good on you for bringing this to our attention.
Posted by tad at January 22, 2007 08:06 AM
Has anyone verified that this information is correct versus being a smear by a disgruntled former employee or a competitor? I've seen similar types of claims that turned out to be false. If this company management actually authorized that response to our forces, then it deserves the wrath of the market place. But, it may not have, so we owe it the responsibility to check it out. I'll see what I can find, but maybe someone else has already done the due diligence.
Posted by Woody at January 22, 2007 08:13 AM
G'mornin GM!..what a treat to see your 2 cents at my site!..lol..I also became enraged when I saw this..but truth be told..nothing about Libs shocks me anymore hun..pffttt!
Posted by Angel at January 22, 2007 08:13 AM
It's likely to be true based upon what Snopes has turned up so far. Snopes verified this with Sgt. Hess, but they have not received a response from multiple inquiries to Discount Mats. To err on the side of caution, Snopes left open the possibility that someone who was not authorized to respond is responsible, but Discount Mats needs to come forward and explain this.
[Update]:
A Vice President with Bargain Suppliers, the website's parent company, confirms the email was sent. He says the employee who sent it is being held accountable and will be dealt with.
In addition, the spokesperson says the address and phone number that are now being circulated around the world are someone's home in West Allis. He says they've been bombarded with phone calls and as you can imagine they're getting plenty of complaints.
Newsradio 620 WTMJ
Posted by Woody at January 22, 2007 08:32 AM
G.M., when I ran the telephone numbers you provided, I found that they are listed to a Ramzan Khetani in Milwaukee, a name that shares the same address as Faisal Khetani, to whom their domain is registered. He may be nothing more than their technical geek.
When I did some further checking, I found that Faisal is only 24 years old. I really don't profess to know what names go with what nationalities, but Faisal is a tip off to me that he may not be sympathetic to our mideast policy--but, I cannot be sure.
I searched the Wisconsin Sec. of State site for corporations and couldn't find where they were incorporated. My guess is that this company is more like some people manning a phone out of their house.
Anyway, there could be some question as to whether or not that we have the right telephone number. Your call.
Posted by Woody at January 22, 2007 01:59 PM
did anybody think to look and see if he can actually run his business out of his home?
Posted by Bruce at January 23, 2007 06:58 PM
Woody, Ramzan Khetani is the father, and works for the State of Wisconson.
Posted by GM at January 23, 2007 06:59 PM
