Just like last year (and, honestly, every year), 2016 was rife with stories about companies and their employees treating customers badly, going too far with bad jokes on social media, and then issuing semi-apologies while making claims about “taking it seriously,” or sometimes “very seriously.” [More]
apologies
Another Year That Shouldn’t Have Been: 64 Times Companies & Employees Embarrassed Themselves In 2016
By 12.30.16
Customer Who Claimed Whole Foods Cake Featured Anti-Gay Slur Apologizes, Drops Lawsuit
By 5.16.16
A Texas pastor who had accused Whole Foods workers of adding an anti-gay message on a cake he ordered has dropped his lawsuit against the grocery chain, and offered up an apology for the apparent hoax. [More]
Woman Says She Was Asked To Stop Breastfeeding At Ohio Pizza Hut
By 3.29.16
Under Ohio state law, public establishments – including restaurants and retail stores – must allow mothers to breastfeed their children. But one woman says a Pizza Hut restaurant she visited didn’t follow that rule and asked her to leave when she started nursing her child. [More]
Ohio Museum Apologizes After Employees Tell Woman To Stop Breastfeeding
By 3.23.16
An Ohio museum is clarifying that mothers are welcome to nurse their children on the property, after employees told a visiting woman that she had to stop breastfeeding. [More]
AirBNB Apologizes To Own Employees For Passive-Aggressive Ads
By 10.23.15
If you’ve ever walked up to a government employee and shouted, “You’re welcome for paying your salary!” you wouldn’t see anything wrong with a recent series of ads from lodgings site AirBNB that recently appeared around San Francisco. Even some people who wouldn’t do that had issues with the tone of the ads… including the company’s own employees. [More]
Sephora’s Offering To Customers Upset About Epic Rewards: $50 Gift Codes
By 8.26.15
Earlier this month, we shared with you the story of Sephora’s Epic Rewards promotion that quickly ran out of rewards. Customers were upset after the promotion, believing that they had been misled into racking up points for special “rewards” when there were so few rewards to go around that it might as well have been a raffle. Today, as promised, Sephora is starting to e-mail these customers with their final offering: a $50 gift code. [More]
Airport Parking Company Really Sorry About Tasteless E-mail Mocking Parking Lot Death
By 9.23.14
Earlier this month, a man in his fifties from the suburbs of Chicago was reported missing, then found dead in a parking lot at O’Hare International Airport. An autopsy was inconclusive, but authorities found no evidence that there was any foul play. AirportParkingReservations.com knows why he died, though. He died because finding a parking space at the airport totally sucks. [More]
ProFlowers Reaches Out Before I Complain About Missed Valentine’s Day Delivery
By 2.19.14 — Updated: 2.14.17
We’ve criticized ProFlowers a lot over the years, even dedicating an entire post to the company’s screwups last Valentine’s Day and inflicting the classic Margaret Saga on the world. It’s only fair that we give the company credit when they do well, though, and this year they captured at least one customer’s heart by apologizing before customers spent an hour on hold or tweeted the company. [More]
Snapchat Finally Uses The Word “Sorry,” Releases Updated App In Wake Of Hack
By 1.9.14
We’re not sure if that fact that Snapchat used the word “sorry” in a post today means that perhaps “going backwards” by apologizing isn’t quite the death sentence the company’s CEO said it was, or if it just means, sorry. The company posted the word within a blog post announcing an updated version of the app, one week after it acknowledged a hack had happened. [More]
Papa John’s CEO Apologizes For Driver’s Impromptu Racist Opera Singing
By 5.28.13
Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter has had to step up and publicly apologize after a delivery driver in Florida was caught dropping the N-word numerous times on a customer’s voicemail, even going so far as to work the slur into some opera singing. [More]
Microsoft Apologizes For Loudmouthed Creative Director’s Tweets
By 4.5.13
Earlier this week, a Microsoft Studios creative director stepped into a huge, flaming virtual bag full of doo-doo when he decided to make his case for always-online gaming, and possibly gave away information about the next generation of Xbox in the process. Today, Microsoft has had to issue a “don’t listen to that guy” statement. [More]
Peet’s Swoops In, Makes Up For Delay Before Anyone Can Even Complain
By 2.13.13
Here’s an example of how even the simplest customer service gestures can make a huge difference in someone’s day, and in the perception of a brand. Heather visited Peet’s for coffee recently, and got her drink a little later than her companion. No big deal: that happens. It was what happened next that caught her off guard and prompted her to write to Consumerist. [More]
Vodka Company Apologizes For Sexual Assault Insinuation In Ad
By 3.26.12
Belvedere company apparently needed a social network tongue-lashing to teach it that it’s not okay to pump out ads that make light of sexual assault. The ad, captioned “Unlike some people, Belvedere always goes down smoothly,” featured a grinning jackass grabbing a fearful woman. [More]
Microsoft Apologizes To Those Mistakenly Banned From Xbox Live
By 9.26.11
A security snafu banned an unconfirmed number of users from Xbox Live. Now Microsoft has admitted to the mistake and issued an apology to those affected. The Xbox cops have revoked the ban and credited the innocent with three free month of Xbox Live and $20 worth of Microsoft Points. [More]
GameStop Offers $50 Gift Card To Make Up For Swiping Coupons From PC Version Of 'Deus Ex'
By 8.29.11
Last week, GameStop admitted to telling employees to pull coupon codes out of new copies of the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, then yanked the game from shelves. To make things right with customers who bought the game and didn’t get the coupon, the company is reportedly emailing instructions for picking up a $50 gift card and an offer to buy two used games and get a third for free. [More]
Nintendo Apologizes To Customers Who Wasted $80 By Buying 3DS Too Early
By 8.3.11
Nintendo is feeling guilty about slashing the price of the 3DS from $250 to $170 fewer than five months after it released. Attempting to ease early adopters’ buyer’s remorse, Nintendo has already promised 20 free downloadable games to those who log on to the device’s e-shop before the price cut goes into effect Aug. 12. [More]
Sony At E3: An Apology, Price For New Portable, Unintended Laughter, A Boast And Poor Defense By Kobe Bryant
By 6.7.11
Sony’s marathon E3 press conference Monday, which I attended, was a roller coaster of surreal announcements and pronouncements by the company. It started with Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO Jack Tretton offering a profuse apology for the PlayStation Network outage and data breach, and just got more awkward from there. [More]
