When a Toronto business posted about closing early for a booster appointment, they wound up with one unexpected side effect: hate messages.

Pandoughra's Box had to fire back at people messaging them about their Instagram post about getting the booster with a follow-up post letting everyone know that sending hurtful messages wasn't helpful.

The sister-owned small business makes stuffed cookies, ready-to-eat cookie dough and ice cream, selling their products out of the 20 Lockport Ave. ghost kitchen, Stackt Market at 28 Bathurst St. as well as via their website.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pandoughra's Cookies&Icecream (@pandoughrasbox)

The Instagram post from Pandoughra's included screengrabs of messages saying things like "I was your customer until this. Get vaccinated?" and "We will be adding you to the businesses of not to support [sic]."

"When we mentioned this it was in NO way a dig at the people who choose not to get the vaccine," the business wrote in the caption of their post. "Saying you WILL NOT support a business for their views and stance on certain matters is uncalled for."

The small business owned by two sisters has just three employees. Most of the staff was off for the holidays when the sisters, Rujuta and Soumini Agate, had their booster appointment.

Rujuta Agate says they always post on social media if they're going to be closing early and give a reason, to the point where if they close early and don't post people from their community of followers actually reach out to see if everything is ok.

To Agate's surprise, at the end of the day of her booster appointment she had received about eight negative DM's.

"Couple of people called us government puppets, some people said who are we to tell people to get vaccinated," Agate tells blogTO.

"There was one previous customer who had bought from us a couple of times but his words were, 'your business deserves to drown.' Considering he was a past customer, it hurt."

Fortunately after posting about the negative messages, some customers called and stopped by their location to see how they were doing.

"Negative comments can break a business as people heavily rely on reviews. When you read such messages it does take a toll on your mental health," says Agate.

"While you should be politically correct, you should have the right to post what you want. But at the same time we are living in a time where respect should be a two way street."