My god. This happens far too often. Fucking nut jobs out there, man.
http://www.vaildaily.com/news/aspen-bus ... portrayed/
From Facebook to Yelp, an Aspen business has been blistered with criticism over an exchange last week with a customer who told national media outlets that she was refused service because of her support for Donald Trump.
The owner of Suitable for Framing, however, insisted Monday that her business practice was falsely portrayed by local resident Katie Richter when she was interviewed Saturday on “Fox & Friends,” whose website introduced the story with the headline: “Company refuses to frame photo for Trump supporter.”
Richter’s account not only gained traction with Fox News, it was picked up by multiple media outlets ranging from RedAlertPolitics.com to YoungCons.com.
Kris Coulon, the owner of Suitable for Framing on South Monarch Street, told The Aspen Times on Monday that the voice mailbox at her business quickly filled over the weekend — mainly with messages from callers who heard about the story and berated her. One man called her 21 times to complain, she said.
“The worst part of it is the hate,” she said.
Coulon said the media outlets did not interview her for their stories, which were based chiefly on Richter’s account of what happened Thursday at the frame shop.
Coulon said when Richter visited Suitable for Framing, the customer brought in what appeared to be invitations to an inauguration ball in honor of Trump. She also brought her laptop showing photos from the inauguration festivities.
The invitations were so water damaged, however, that they were beyond repair and could not be professionally framed or packaged with the photos, Coulon recalled telling Richter.
“And then it totally spiraled out of control,” Coulon said. “I said, ‘I can’t fix it,’ and that’s when she said, ‘You won’t do this because of Trump.’ And then the screaming started. I said, ‘I can’t fix the damage.’ And she didn’t want to hear it.”
Richter, who attended the inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, rejected interview requests from The Aspen Times on Monday and Tuesday, instead sending a near 1,200-word email to the newspaper (see sidebar on page A9) offering her version of the story.
“I am also uploading this to your Facebook page so that you have no way to falsely report this incident,” she wrote in an email to the Times.
On the same day as the incident in question, Richter posted her first in a string of messages on The Aspen Times’ Facebook page.
It read, in part, “Wow! Talk about a one way street with liberals. Today I went to Suitable for Framing to get my inauguration pictures framed. As I was requesting the lady’s opinion on how best to set up the pictures, she proceeded to tell me she could not help me with my request. Befuddled, I looked up at her and realized she was refusing my business because of my support for our president, Donald Trump. As I left the store I told her I respect the freedoms of speech in this country, but that I was glad my vote canceled hers out on Election Day. I also reminded her that free market capitalism was a beautiful thing. She’d lose my business and another shop will be rewarded.”
Richter also said Coulon concocted the story about the inauguration invitations being water damaged after the media got a whiff of the incident.
“She never went back on her word until the Aspen Daily News stopped by to get her comment, and she started to backtrack when she realized I was taking this to the media,” Richter told “Fox & Friends.”
Said Coulon: “I just said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you. It has water damage.’ I felt maybe she just heard what she wanted to hear.”
She added, “The thing is, I’d frame anything for anybody. I’m in the business to make money. I have plenty of clients who are major conservatives. I’ve framed things of George Bush, Cheney.”
Meanwhile, such websites as Facebook and Yelp, a consumer forum that publishes customers’ reviews of businesses, hammered Coulon and her business after her story went viral.
Among the comments on Yelp, which came from corners all over the country, included:
• “You just signed your death certificate. You’re persona non grata. You have no idea what the power of conservatism can do to your business. Next time, shut that pie hole in your face and do your job.”
• “I will never use this framing store. EVER!! Bitter, angry people that work there who only serve customers with similar political beliefs. You should be ashamed of yourselves. This is not what America stands for!”
• “If Christians can be persecuted for refusing to bake wedding cakes for a gay marriage then businesses that use political affiliations to refuse service should be as well. The story about refusing to frame someones pic from Trumps inauguration has me very unhappy. Next time in Aspen i will make a point of NOT bringing my business here.”
• “We will never be a patron of this store unless a full apology is made. Un-American and horrible customer service just destroyed your over priced store.”
As for Coulon, she said she worried a story in Aspen’s media would just aggravate a situation that she said is not salvageable.
“(Critics) don’t care if it’s verified or not,” she said. “I’ve been here 16 years and I’ve never denied service to anybody. Never. And nobody has ever yelled at us. There’s no history of me not framing, and the other part is, if we have political differences, who cares? I don’t care.”
