Bargain-hunting Facebook page Singapore Atrium Sale courts legal trouble with Velocity

Singapore Atrium Sale — every kiasu Singaporean’s de facto resource for deals and bargains across the island — landed in a bit of legal trouble recently. 

Which shouldn’t be surprising, considering that the massively popular Facebook page is being run by someone who has been accused of being… a tad bit aggressive. So much so that someone else went ahead and set up “Singapore Atrium Sale But Nicer”, a Facebook page that posts the very same deals from the original account sans “the ego and lack of professionalism”. 

Perhaps it was this “lack of professionalism” that rubbed the management of shopping mall Velocity@Novena Square the wrong way. At least, enough for mall owner UOL Group to engage their lawyers to issue a takedown request to the administrator of Singapore Atrium Sale over an inaccurate post. 

The conflict was revealed via a legal letter sent to the Facebook page’s administrator last Friday (Feb 28), who subsequently uploaded it online. The questionable post involved a sale of hand sanitisers that the administrator initially indicated was taking place at Velocity. 

This turned out to be incorrect. A representative of the mall’s management sent a message to Singapore Atrium Sale, clarifying that the sale was actually taking place at a mall next to Velocity. The representative then requested for the mall’s name to be removed from the Facebook post. 

The administrator, however, decided to respond rather passionately — by “blacklisting” Velocity entirely, refusing to carry out any more shout-outs that involve the shopping mall. 

“The staff, Jolene, made a demand to remove the name of the mall from a post immediately and I will just be removing the mall from any future posts. I reciprocated and gave her more than a few moments to respond immediately,” the administrator wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post. 

”Velocity is blacklisted IMMEDIATELY. Developers and mall management teams, do watch how your staff is contacting external parties, especially at tough retail times like (these)”. 

A public apology

Velocity’s management team was not pleased, hence the lawyer’s letter. The team took issue with how the administrator refused to admit the error, as well as the “clearly misleading” follow-up post that apparently gave the impression that Velocity’s staff had acted improperly. 

With the “unwanted attention and comments” on Singapore Atrium Sale’s Facebook page, Velocity sought a public apology from the administrator that very day. If not, the mall would consider steps to claim damages against the Facebook page for libel. 

And it appears to be that Singapore Atrium Sale is refusing to back down. The administrator asserted that there was nothing libellous said. 

With the deadline for the apology looming, the administrator issued a poignant statement that essentially said that some gratitude and recognition from retailers would be greatly appreciated instead of threats. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/singaporeatriumsale/photos/a.166130100782762/594081217987646[/embed]

With no apologetic post in sight, a call-out for lawyers and law firms was made. The individual behind Singapore Atrium Sale would not be eating humble pie. 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/singaporeatriumsale/photos/a.166130100782762/594113811317720/[/embed]

For now, it's unclear what the Singapore Atrium Sale administrator will do. UOL Group, on the other hand, believes that they're in the right to send the letter.

"We had politely requested that Singapore Atrium Sale correct the error in their post. Notwithstanding our attempt to correct their error in a private and reconciliatory manner, the page proceeded to put up a public post to blacklist the mall and name our staff," a UOL spokesperson informed AsiaOne. 

"Having lawyers issue a letter was our last resort."

ilyas@asiaone.com