Buffalo ReUse Revoked My Membership

They sent me this letter, paying $15.55 of Buffalo ReUse's extremely scarce money to send it Express Mail Proof of Delivery. Here it is, bad grammar and all, click on it to read:

They didn't even ask me for anything, despite their complaint (number 1 of 1, no less!), just revoked my membership. When you gear up like this, and spend real money to mail it, at least ask for something.

Honestly, it's a glaring example of poorly executed personal spite masquerading as "grown up big business" behavior. The DA and AG will file it in the "bullshit crazy stupid people" file.

It's actions like this that made me quit working at Buffalo ReUse.

My letter to the DA and NY AG:

July 15, 2011

Erie County District Attorney’s Office
25 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, New York 14202

New York Attorney General’s Office
Main Place Tower, Suite 300A
Buffalo, New York 14202

Subject: Letter you received from Vincent Kuntz, Board President of Buffalo ReUse, dated July 11, 2011 (copy enclosed)

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m sorry the Board of Directors of Buffalo ReUse is bothering you with this matter. I hope my response will not complicate things further.

I’ve been attempting to turn over property, including the Buffalo ReUse website, since I quit working there on May 6 of this year. They’ve refused to work with me in anything approaching a reasonable manner and in fact have almost completely failed to communicate with me about their concerns. Their attorney has been advising conciliation, reasonableness and the avoidance of conflict. It seems they’re ignoring his good advice.

I’ve done absolutely nothing to harm them. They’ve had full access to their website at all times but have failed to use that access or indeed to communicate with me in any way about the matter. I turned over everything they need to completely control their website on July 11, four days before receiving this letter. From the moment they received that information, it was entirely up to them to take the action needed to use their website as they wish.

Any delay in this matter is directly related to my reasonable expectation of being paid to perform technical work required to make a graceful transition of their website. They stopped paying me a salary on May 6. It’s completely reasonable for me to be paid for any work I do for them after that date.

I’ve given up on being paid for that work and have handed over the additional information they require. I did this because I accept they won’t pay me for this because they have an extremely poor history of paying their debts. In other words, billing them for work performed would be futile and they never wanted to pay me in advance, as I requested, so I’ll write it off as a bad debt.

I’ve attempted to hand over physical property to them since early May. It is in my possession because I was working on it at my home, as I have done many times during my employment at Buffalo ReUse. I was the Executive Director of the organization, so any such handling of property by me is completely authorized and proper.

Any delay in this matter is directly related to their ongoing threats, accusing me of stealing the property, which is simply not the case. And what do you know, here they continue to do exactly that. I’ll keep working from my end to return the property, but I must protect my interests and I take unfounded accusations of theft seriously.

You may call me at xxx-xxxx if I can help in any way. I understand if you consider this to be a waste of time and I believe it will be resolved shortly, as I have been trying my best to resolve it for months.

Sincerely,

Kevin Hayes

cc: Vincent Kuntz, Peter Morrow