Charles
Chicago,#2Author of original report
Wed, May 23, 2012
Wow, so Derek has responded with another tirade accusing me of being "libelous" without actually answering any one of the facts I've presented.
He says I "exploit those around" me. He's entitled to his opinion. Go ahead, please, do, look at ChicagoPoetry.com. I link to over 400 Chicago poetry resources and review tons of poetry books and performances. That's exploiting people? Um, okay . . .
Derek brings up my YouTube videos. True, when I first experimented with Movie Maker I put up some pretty lame YouTube videos. They have bad audio and are just stupid slide shows. Um, so . . . what does that have to do with Derek attempting to charge me $1750 to publish a book of nonsense. Nothing, in fact.
Derek claims that he's the victim. Okay. He tried to charge me nearly $2000 to publish a book of nonsense and tried to take advantage of others in the Chicago poetry scene in the same way, but he's the victim. Okay . . . maybe he has a bridge to sell us as well.
Yes, I pretended to be a potential victim, he fell for it, I exposed him. It's called journalism. I don't think Derek quite gets it yet.
Derek claims he doesn't make any money off his books. But he doesn't "spend" any money on them either. So tell me, how do I pay him nearly $2000 and in return he spends only $18 to register a GoDaddy domain name, but he isn't making money off of it. Don't be fooled by this scam artist.
He claims I "bloated the facts" in my article but he doesn't refute any of the facts. Please be specific, Derek, which facts were bloated? In fact, nothing was bloated. Every thing in my article is a document of how it actually happened. It is the truth, nothing less.
Nothing I wrote is libelous. It is merely the truth. Derek likes to pretend he has lawyers and that he's a big shot but he's really just a small time scam artist.
Derek claims that I "do this to everyone around me." What is that even supposed to mean? Please, everyone, look at ChicagoPoetry.com. See it for yourself. It is a great resource and a very positive website.
I did not claim Derek was charging me a 600% markup. I claimed he was charging me a 1000% markup. He sells you WordPress sites, blatantly violating WordPress terms of service. WordPress is FREE. How can Derek charge you a hosting fee for using it? It's absurd.
Derek claims he lost business because of my article. GOOD. A few less VICTIMS Derek is ripping off. I'm proud of that.
Derek says he "doesn't have a clue" and that's the first true thing he's said. He just doesn't get it, even though I spelled it out for him blatantly. I WILL NOT ALLOW HIM TO PREY ON MY FRIENDS AND COLLEGUES. PERIOD.
And then Derek goes on with some more personal insults, that I have nothing to show for my success but ChicagoPoetry.com. That's like telling Jay Leno he has nothing to show for his success but The Tonight Show. Derek really doesn't get it at all.
djv124
Sharpsville,#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, May 23, 2012
If you have ever visited Chicagopoetry.com, you will notice one thing: the owner of the website, Cj Laity, does everything he can to exploit those around him. He is a liar, a person who is not afraid to commit acts of libel, and somebody who likes to post youtube videos of himself doing "serious" poetry, which actually is something a person could laugh about when they see for hours. It's pretentious hogwash. I recently became a victim of Cj Laity and Chicagopoetry.com. This person pretended to message me as somebody interested in my publishing services. I have emails as proof that he maliciously set out to pretend he was somebody he was not just to make a point to "expose" me for something I am not and can prove, despite the fact that this report makes it seem the opposite is true.
I am the owner of a small publishing company who sometimes gets mistaken for being a vanity publisher, which I'm not, as I do not make any money off the books I've put out and all monies collected from services I offer, services that are optional, go right back into keeping my company afloat. I can prove it with my tax records. Anyways, Cj sent me a poem and told me he was being courted by another publishing house, to which he asked for a fast response. He said he was more than happy to spend money and had a budget of $5000 dollars and when I asked if he had a problem with paying, he said in so many words that it wasn't a problem but he needed to know right away about the money. So I obliged.
A few hours after I did this, he then put a huge article about my company on his site in which he hugely bloated the facts about our communication with each other and not only that, put up extremely false information, most of which is technically libelous under the current laws about libel today. So why didn't I pursue anything? Well, I realized after doing some research on this person that he does this kind of thing to everyone around him. I'm not his first victim. He does all this under the banner of "free speech" and owning a website that specializes in tearing down others. He is of course entitled to his opinion, but he went above and beyond to paint my company in the darkest light possible and all of what he said can be easily refuted.
For example, he claims that I have a 600% markup on charging people to make websites because he claims that I use free website building sites and don't actually do any work. I have more than enough proof that I spend hours coding and doing work and often at a rate that is well below what most programmers charge. What's worse, when I asked him to put my rebuttal on his site, he antagonized me in emails and then filed a rip off report about my company and I've lost business because of him. And to be honest, I don't have a clue as to what I did to him to make him actually go to the lengths of deceiving me and spending a considerable amount of time to write an article about me! Please, if you have any kind of dealings at all with this Cj, be careful. I have heard from people close to him that he is the type of individual who backstabs and has absolutely nothing to show for his success in life except Chicagopoetry.com, which has become a forum for Cj to bash people and get away with it.
Please I caution anyone who has ever visited the website to see it for what it really is...a podium for a very upset individual who obviously hates his life so much he takes it out on everyone else. If you don't believe me, just watch one of his youtube poetry readings...tell me that isn't the somebody who doesn't realize what a joke he actually is? Do not deal with this person at all. He will not let anything go. He is definitely somebody who is malicious and conniving, as he proved by pretending he was somebody he wasn't (seriously, who does that in business?), and he has zero intention of telling the truth fairly. He just wants people to visit his site because it is all he seems to have in his little life.