Joy Haven Facebook posts draw unhappy responses from across the nation

Talk about it

Two Labor Day Facebook posts on the personal page of the owner of Joy Haven have drawn nearly 200 combined comments, and have stirred the pot of controversy in Dickinson and across the nation.

The public posts, made Monday evening about the elderly and audio volume and about Joy Haven’s limo and wedding services, angered many of the people commenting on Facebook and talking offline.

By Tuesday evening, 100 comments followed in response to Joy Haven's status update stating, "If you want to book a limo please don't bother us if you want to book a wedding please don't bother us. We have enough business. Thank you." Responses included "Tacky," "Wow" and "lost my business."

Also by Tuesday evening, 90 comments followed on a second post stating, “I am so sick of old people It is to loud Why do they [expletive deleted] when they will be gone before they know it. Maybe because they know they spent their whole life for the wrong purpose. Themselves. Who cares about them. It is about others. May they rest in piece when the day comes.”

The Press received several phone calls and messages regarding the posts, including an email from a woman in Georgia.

“Anytime you post something on Facebook, especially when you’re a company like that … you know that what you post is either going to get the good out of people or it’s going to make them see the bad of you,” said Cristina Ridl, who canceled her Joy Haven wedding and started the “People Against Dickinson’s Joy Haven” page. That group had more than 700 members as of 4:45 p.m. Tuesday.

There are two Joy Haven Facebook pages — one created as a personal page although it is named “Joy Haven,” which is run by owner Ken Kubischta. The second is “Joy Haven LLC,” a page for his business.

“I feel I am Joy Haven,” Kubischta said when asked why his personal page bears his business name. “If they want to go ahead and associate Joy Haven with me, I guess, that’s up to them.”

The business page had 215 “likes” at 4 p.m. Tuesday; the personal page had 2,625 friends at the same time.

Kubischta said he meant no offense by the comments and was stating his opinions about those who complain about noise and trying let people know they would be dropping limo and wedding service from their services.

“I’m sure they took it totally — they took it the way they wanted to hear it,” Kubischta said.

The business will focus on its real estate holdings, including the Target Logistics Dunn County Lodge crew camp, he said.

“Our clientele is the man camp, it’s not the local community anyway,” Kubischta said.

Social media like Facebook or Twitter can be a benefit and a curse for a business, Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce executive director Cooper Whitman said.

“It is someone’s immediate thoughts in public for everyone to see” he said. “Whether a business or an individual, when we speak in person to people, usually in time we develop a filter.”

Because of the instantaneous nature of social media, sports organizations will send professional athletes to social media courses, Whitman said. The chamber does not offer any classes for businesses and social media, but if asked can offer any help, and it may be a topic for a learning lunch in the future.

“Everything you say is 100 percent public for everyone to see,” he said.

Tags: joy haven, north dakota, old people, news, dickinson, facebook, posts