Hamilton EV dealer reacts to COVID poster story

A Hamilton car dealer in hot water over a Facebook post claims it is a non-issue.

Hamilton Electric Vehicle dealer principal Nicholas Down alleges his secondhand EV business also received threats in relation to the post and questions a few points raised in our story about a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Down says Hamilton EV did not remove the Facebook advertisement complained about. “It simply ran its course and expired when it was scheduled to,” he explains.

“When the ASA rang me they asked me for information about the post, over 3200 people had seen it and one person had laid a complaint with the ASA, didn’t come to us or enquire, just went to the ASA.

“Then when the ad had finished its schedule it had been seen by over 24,000 people and two people had complained – the original guy and his girlfriend, so go figure.”

Down says the complaint was then aired on social media Reddit, to which Hamilton EV intentionally did not respond.

It “really blew up” when the matter hit a Facebook EV owners group page, says Down, with Hamilton EV allegedly copping two death threats, physical threats to staff, emails and phone calls along with 57 1-star Google reviews.

Down alleges that a “simple error by a junior staff member” led to the mistake as the person thought the COVID poster from The Freedom & Rights protest group was an official poster so laminated it accordingly.

“We don’t micromanage our staff and the poster as an issue wasn’t picked up until it was brought to our attention,” Down adds.

He believes there are two faults with the ASA’s decision.

“They made the assumption we are in the retail business and according to the subsequent WorkSafe investigation, three people and an almost two-hour interview, we are not retail classified.

“So this means we don’t have to follow the rules that retailers have to follow,” Down claims.

“The ASA assumed that vaxed and non-vaxed people would think they were automatically welcome at Hamilton EV – they absolutely are welcome.

”Hamilton EV would never condone any type of discrimination.”

Down says Hamilton EV has since run the same advertisement three times and more than 45,800 people have seen it without a single complaint or issue.

“There is no point threatening us or telling us you’re going elsewhere,” he adds.

“Everyone has a choice and if we aren’t your cup of tea then that’s totally okay with us too.”