if you don't ask politely,

you may not get your desired results

[LifeinAsia]

Sometime ago, Joe Blow registered his home business either online or with his local Yellow Pages, using his full address (say, "125 Main St. #4"). Eventually, it gets picked up by all the other online sites. Sometime later he decides that he doesn't want the "#4" part to show on the Internet.

So he starts an e-mail campaign to all of the hundreds, if not thousands, of Internet yellow page sites that list his address. Instead of a polite "Please update your database to remove the #4 in my address" message, he decides to go with the "Update my address or I will complain to your hosting company and sic my lawyer on you!" tone.

I replied with a short message that he has been removed from our directory and that he might get better responses from people by asking nicely instead of threatening legal action.

[Silvery]

His approach is ludicrous, of course.

It's fairly well established that directory listing information cannot be copyrighted by business owners, so there's no legal basis for the threat.

And, as you pointed out, the bullying offensive is likely to shoot this person in the foot.

In my opinion, such an assinine approach as his merits a delete, just as you did.

[g1smd]

Or maybe it's a competitor running an effective campaign to remove this business from view?

[tangor]

Jerks are a chuckle from time to time. My response would have been a question: "Do you know how to pucker?" There's no time expended on jerks. Just x-'em out and get on with biz...

[LifeinAsia]

Or maybe it's a competitor running an effective campaign to remove this business from view?

It's possible. The name and e-mail address matched from a site where he had claimed his business. If it was a competitor spoofing his e-mail, I'd honor a "Hey, that wasn't me- please put me back!" response from the guy.

If it was a big business, I might have some pause about just deleting it. (Actually, I just de-activated the listing- easy enough to re-activate it, should the need arise.)

[piatkow]

Maybe he had come across a couple of the scams that give you a "free" listing but then want to be paid to make corrections or changes.