This is a true story just as all the chapters in this book. I am particularly proud of this one. It demonstrates the power of Squidoo in today's online community. This story began early last year. My daughter, who lives and works in NYC, decided to join an exercise fitness club. When she signed up, she made it clear to the sales rep. that she only wants to do it on a monthly basis. She explained that her workload is erratic and she may have to work overtime weeks and month at a time. The salesman told her it was no problem. He also told her to sign up for the auto payment option so they will bill her credit card each month automatically to save time. She agreed and signed on a computer keypad. A few months go by and she decided to stop the membership because she was working overtime and didn't have time to use the club. That's when the problem started. The club manager refuses her request and claimed that she signed on to a yearly membership. After speaking with me, I advice my daughter to contact the Credit Card company to cancel the account and get a new issue. At first, the credit card company refused. They also claim that my daughter had signed a contract and the retail business had a photocopy of the signed contract. After much discussion, we were able to convince the Credit Card company that the contract was a "fraud'. No original contract existed. After this, the fitness club decided a different tack. They decided to refer this account to a collection agency. My daughter started getting phone calls and a letter from the collection company and scaring her to pay up or face a bad credit rating. She obviously was distressed over this.

That's when I decided to take action. I wrote back to the collection agency and copied the fitness club. In the letter, I gave them a stern warning. I stated that they need to cease and desist harassing my daughter or else I would use the power of the internet to publicize their fraudulent activity. To prove this, I cited some of my Squidoo lens and their google search ranking. I told them I have created a blank lens with their business name and used their logo. I will start publishing her story to alert others to their business practices. And that I have the confidence to be able to push the ranking of my lens to the top of google search just like some of my other lenses. I gave them 2 weeks to comply. Within days of receiving the letter, my daughter received a call from the business manager. He apologized for the miss understanding and told her that the whole thing would be canceled.

Sure enough, within 2 weeks, my "blank content" lens reached #6 on google page rank - just a few below the official site of the fitness club. I decided not to publicize their name since they have agreed to stop. I have since deleted the lens. It was a great feeling to have a success against a dishonest business. As it turned out, my daughter was not the only victim. I did a search on google and found a few others who have posted comment on their blogs. One comment I particularly found amusing is the following "XXX Fitness club is a great place until you decide to leave."

This gave me the ideas to coin a new term. I fashioned it after Seth Godin's "permission marketing". I called this "denial marketing" - that is using the power of Squidoo to deny a company potential business because they have engaged in fraudulent business practices. I created a lens on this idea. Check the link below on BBB.

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