Monday
Jun182007
The Consumerist schools Dell on online social graces
Monday, June 18, 2007 at 09:36PM
Several online communities rallied to put Dell in its place after the company's online social faux pas. Be sure to visit the links for the full story because this is a valuable PR lesson (and it's a bit comical if you don't work for Dell).
It began with a blog post on consumer advocate blog The Consumerist, "22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager." The post published advice from a former Dell sales rep on how to get the best deal when shopping for a computer.
Dell responded with legal threats in an e-mail requesting The Consumerist remove the post. The Consumerist contended there was no wrong doing on its part and refused to take down the post. In typical blogger fashion, The Consumerist posted the e-mail correspondence for its readers to view. Thanks to Digg, Slashdot and other online communities, the post received nearly 300,000 views.
Dell eventually apologized on its blog, Direct2Dell, stating "Now's not the time to mince words, so let me just say it...we blew it."
The Consumerist has since posted an update entitled "Dell Admits Error In Asking Consumerist To Remove Post." Of course, this story only received about 28,000 views.
It began with a blog post on consumer advocate blog The Consumerist, "22 Confessions Of A Former Dell Sales Manager." The post published advice from a former Dell sales rep on how to get the best deal when shopping for a computer.
Dell responded with legal threats in an e-mail requesting The Consumerist remove the post. The Consumerist contended there was no wrong doing on its part and refused to take down the post. In typical blogger fashion, The Consumerist posted the e-mail correspondence for its readers to view. Thanks to Digg, Slashdot and other online communities, the post received nearly 300,000 views.
Dell eventually apologized on its blog, Direct2Dell, stating "Now's not the time to mince words, so let me just say it...we blew it."
The Consumerist has since posted an update entitled "Dell Admits Error In Asking Consumerist To Remove Post." Of course, this story only received about 28,000 views.
Reader Comments (3)
lots of living and learning in web 2, Michelle....you might also follow the link from direct2dell to ideastorm on the matter and youll see we acted pretty quickly on customer suggestions there :-)
Richard, thanks for your comment. This is definitely one for us to learn from...and you set a great example of swift recovery.
Ideastorm link: http://tinyurl.com/299qoc
Hi, I read all your posts, keep them coming.