I had never heard of Airbnb until yesterday. Chances are you’d never heard of the “rent a room in my house” service either.

However, sitting in Chicago’s airport–returning from an extended vacation–I couldn’t help but learn all about Airbnb. At least, the part about the vandalism and theft suffered by one of its members.

Now, it’s unlikely that I would ever have cared about Airbnb–or that one of its members”EJ” had suffered such a horrible event. After all, who in their right mind rents out their house to a complete stranger and expects never to face theft or vandalism? Apparently 60,000+ people do exactly that and, up until this point, have never had any major issues. As far as Airbnb was concerned, it had cornered a small, but growing market that relied on the honesty and decency of those looking for a bed for the night.

Hopefully it goes without saying that trashing your competitors is simply never a good idea. Still, that didn’t stop one of Carbonite’s competitors from doing just that.

In addition to insulting Carbonite, he managed to insult the intelligence of his prospective client in the same email!

“Hey XXX,

I just wanted to touch base with you to see what you thought of the Carbonite reviews I sent you and if it makes you feel safe and secure.    No one in their right mind would, but I wanted to check just in case.

Actually, the one who should be the most concerned is XXX since he is the owner.  If the above email address is not his correct one, could you please forward him these?

Thanks.”