Accurate Landscape & Plowing

I was sued by Accurate Landscaping & Plowing, LLC of 720 East Industrial Park Drive, #8, Manchester, NH for posting on a closed Facebook Mother’s Group that I thought their quote to me for landscaping was “outrageous.” More specifically, I had posted to a Mom’s Group looking for information about average costs of landscaping services. After seeing the responses, I believe the quote I was holding from Accurate was out of proportion. I posted, in part, “Literally the quotes I got were between 3 and 5k. For a yard w no leaves to clean up, weed, edge beds and mulch.” I later posted, “Well just in case anyone wants to know, the most outrageous quote I got was from Accurate Landscape.” Accurate Landscaping’s owner, Preston Ezzideen, then contacted me and asked me to remove the post. He argued that by stating the quotes were between 3 and 5k and then calling Accurate’s post outrageous I had made a false and defamatory statement. I disagreed, as obviously a quote could be outrageous for any number of reasons. It may be that the quote is too high, it may be because they spent only seven minutes at my property. However, in an attempt to appease Mr. Ezzideen, I did alter my Facebook post to read, “I realize that I may be asking a question with no real answer, but what’s a reasonable price for spring cleanup/mulching from a landscaping company? I am holding a $3400 quote which seems really high to me.” The later post then read, “Are you all leaving off zeros? And if not, who are you using. For example, I was quoted $3400 by Accurate Landscaping for a yard under an acre w no leaves to clean up and for weeding, edging beds thatching and mulch.” I did not delete my previous post where I called the quote “outrageous,” as that was my opinion. I was then contacted by Accurate Landscaping’s Attorney. I was threatened with a lawsuit if I did not remove the post. They claimed my post was inaccurate because it did not describe the scope of work, although what I specifically requested was a “spring clean-up” and that is what is noted on the quote. However, again in an attempt to appease them and avoid being sued, (and also within the deadline imposed by their counsel), I modified my post to state the exact language, word for word, of Accurate’s quote to me. This did not appease Accurate Landscaping and they sued me. I have spent thousands of dollars defending myself against this lawsuit. I believe it is my First Amendment right to render my opinion of a business in any forum. As such, my opinion is that Accurate Landscaping is not a company I would want to do business with. In my opinion, they sued me because I gave an opinion of their company that they did not like.