We waited to tell this story but most of you probably have heard that Tom and I were threatened with a lawsuit from a Mr. Michael Petraglia, owner of Atlas Audio. For my part, Mr. Petraglia was under the impression that I helped host the site because River Current cables ads can be found throughout the forum. He contacted us via email stating that his lawyers were looking into filing a suit against us because we hosted a forum that members were stating "very negative untrue comments about my company". I don't know Mr. Petraglia, but from what I gathered on his emails, he seems to be a control freak. Tom had a phone conversation with him that seemed to reinforce this.
1) I'm not sure how you intend to sue a person/persons that run a public forum because it's member, the majority of which have had actual dealings with Atlas, express dissatisfaction in his company.
2) Demand posts be removed from that forum.
My opinion on the matter is that Mr. Petaglia is loosing a large amount of his repair work to Vintage Hifi of Pittsburgh because of their outstanding technicians and moral business practices. There are numerous audio websites out there that state opinions on both VHF of PGH and Atlas. I wonder if Mr. Petaglia has contacted Audio Karma requesting that they remove posts by individuals stating these same negative opinions or has threaten to sue their host?
He was invited to join the forum to express his opinions and rebut the comments made by his previous customers. He has declined this request. I will not go into the fine detail of Mr. Petalgia's questionable demands or post further email documents unless need be. I'm sure he will see this in due time and as a member of this forum, I hope he does join to explain himself and state his opinions in a civil manner.
Speaking as the owner of River Current Cables, I am very disappointed that Mr. Petalgia's has sunk to the level of the threat of slander. "I will be sure to spread the word on how you and Vintage Hifi are treating other businesses in the audio repair world." As the owner of RCC I simply requested that he or anyone affiliated with Atlas ever contact me again which he ignored. If my products or services were to the point that my customers were complaining on forums, yahoo, google, yelp, etc, I would make it a point to improve my company practices, not blame others.
