I feel bad.. but Rules are Rules

[Robert]

I have a client who owns a web designing company and has 3 employees under him. For the past month, one of his employees continues to harass us on AIM. With insults, threats of hacking us, and other unwanted, unnecessary and just rude remarks. We've contacted the account holder many times and informed him of such actions. He's response was "I'll tell him to shop." Last night was the last straw, we terminated the entire account onbehalf of this individual. Hacking threats are taken very seriously and if he has access to the server (which he did through the design company he worked), we can't let that slide.

But.. I feel bad that we had to punish someone for the actions of others. But this has been going on and we do not tolerate harassment or threats towards a client or a staff member, but I still feel bad. :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

[Rob-Bocacom]

You did the right thing. You cannot put your business or other clients at risk. But I know what you mean, it always makes me feel bad when there are negative outcomes that didn’t have to go that way.

[Chicken]

Do all the employees use the same AIM handle (otherwise that one could be blocked)?

Also, I was :eek2: when I read...
He's response was "I'll tell him to shop."
I'm thinking... the guy tells him to go buy some pants and pick up a can of soup??? I missed that it was a typo *ahem* ;) and didn't catch it until I re-read it to reply, heh. :D I was thinking to myself (the first time I read it), boy that employer needs to reevaluate his employee discipline plan!

[Robert]

Chicken, yes we do. But the harassments have been via e-mail, AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo. We've logged each one and have kept a detailed record of when the incident accord and exactly what was said.

As far my little type, at least it was a type of ANOTHER Word *ahem* and not a word no one knows. At least I didn't say "shou". lol. :D

[beley]

That's sad that you had to take it that far, but it's not your fault. The owner of the company should have addressed the issue appropriately instead of just letting it keep on. If that happened to us I'd probably give one warning... but with threats of hacking I don't take chances. I'd cancel all Shell access (if they had it) and change their passwords. They'd have to call me to get back online and then I might turn them back on if they agreed the one responsible would not have access to the passwords or server again.

You can never be too safe... everyone's a hacker since there is a script or program to do just about everything for you... from port and packet sniffing to cracking access to root. It's all available on Kazaa and Morpheus for free... :rolleyes:

[JeremyV]

It sucks to be the bad guy doesn't it :(

But like the saying goes... nice guys always finish last. If you were to continue to be nice, allow them to have the account, and continue with these actions, you would most likely be spending much more money fixing the mess that they created.

I hate doing that too, because I'm extremely nice and forgiving by nature... but in this business you have to be hard-nosed sometimes :(

[markblair]

Robert, as you've already noticed here, you did the right thing. The other thing to consider is all the other customers you have on the same server. Had you not done what you did and they continued their harassment, they could have affected customers that had nothing to do with the issue. That wouldn't have sat well with those people if they learned about how this could have been avoided. But, you took the necessary steps and the problem is gone. I wonder now if the owner will try to contact you to work something out.

[Robert]

Thanks Guys..

The owner of the domain has contacted us and apologized. We explained to him if he would like us to reactivate his account, we would, HOWEVER, the individual in question CANNOT have ANY Access to the server (be it via FTP, Cpanel, Email). He hasn't replied.

As far I know, the harassments are STILL going on. Now they have stepped up a notch by making false accusations about the company, such as we are a reseller account (lol), we use old boxes (lol), etc. The person in question infact DOES live in Miami, FL where we are located. Our only reply to such harassments was "here's our address, come here and tell us in our face we are a reseller." No reply. :D

[markblair]

Well, I'd say that unless the owner can prove that they've terminated that person and that he is no longer associated with the company, then I wouldn't turn anything back on for them. There's no telling if they'll setup some sort of access for the person even maybe under an alias. Also, if the owner didn't take care of this sooner, then who's to say he'd comply and take care of it now. If any of these threats can be tracked to this person, I'd also file something with the police. Having it on record in case he does try something will help out in the long run.

[James]

yes same here not the same sit with my client tho (spaming) but i removed his account but it did make me fell better that i did stop one jerk from spaming for a cupple of days
James