Consumerist
spin
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td bank
UPDATED: TD Bank's Statement On Resolving This Week's Meltdown
TD Bank sent us the following statement - UPDATE: and now a new, revised one - about all the transaction and fee snafus that happened this week after they became one with the Commerce Bank customer data: More » -
apologies
Amazon Offers $30 Credits To Orwell Kindle Swindle Victims
A post on Amazon's Kindle support forum yesterday says the company is sending out emails with offers of $30 to customers who had their George Orwell purchases erased from their devices earlier this summer. More » -
public relations
Did Dave Carroll's Broken Guitar Videos Cost United $180 Million?
The Times of London claims that public relations fallout from Dave Carroll's catchy videos panning United Airlines for breaking his beloved $3500 Taylor guitar and then denying his damage claim may have cost the airline's shareholders up to $180 million. More » -
public relations
Royal Caribbean Caught Infiltrating Review Sites With Viral Marketing Team
Meet the "Royal Caribbean Champions," a group of fifty prolific posters to popular online communities that Royal Caribbean rewards with special access and free cruises in exchange for their frequent and positive commentary. The Champions were outed by their creators, the Customer Insight Group, which boasted on their company blog that the potent group is "regularly leveraged for ongoing marketing initiates. Members of the popular reviewing site Cruise Critic, one of the main targets of the program, are understandably pissed. More » -
ryanair
RyanAir Employee Calls Blogger "Idiot," And Their Spokesperson Publicly Agrees
So blogger Jason Roe finds what he thinks is an error on the RyanAir site that would let you buy airfare from the zero-frills a-la-carte Irish airline for free. An employee decided t make nasty comments in Jason's comments section, calling him "idiot and a liar!" and saying that he probably can't get a date. Which was not that surprising. Nor was it surprising that a RyanAir PR rep responded to the situation. What was surprising was that the PR rep sided with the commenter and heaped further abuse on the blogger! More » -
muzak
Muzak Not Planning On Dying Anytime Soon
A Muzak PR rep would like you to know that their filing for Chapter 11 status is just so they can reorganize their debts and that they and their creditors expect Muzak to be in business for years to come (yay?). Also that they mainly sell music by original artists to retail stores (read: cleaned up for mass market appeal but tailored specifically to the stores' demo), as opposed to the elevator music their company name became synonymous with. For a more in-depth look, The New Yorker did an interesting feature on them back in 2006, in which we learn the company HQ has a fantastic sound system that goes to even their parking lot, but, "for deeply felt symbolic reasons," not their elevator.
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public relations
Amazon Lets You Do The PR For Them
Amazon.com is doing holiday PR a little differently this year. They've announced something called the "Holiday Customer Review Team," which is comprised of "six of its top reviewers." More » -
Verizon Policy Blog
Verizon's Policy Blog V. SmarterChild
Verizon's so-called "policy blog" is a grotesquely self-serving marketing orifice, perhaps the worst corporate blog we've ever read. We decided to stack Verizon's inane sales schmaltz against the internet's preeminent bullshit-spewing chatbot, SmarterChild.... More » -
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circuit city
Mad Mag Reacts To Circuit City Ban
MAD magazine's editor responded to the Circuit City "search and destroy" kerfluffle thusly:
"We at MAD were shocked and confused by this entire incident — mainly because we had no idea that Circuit City even sells magazines. Nonetheless, we accept their apology but hold out hope that their gesture of a $20 gift card is only an opening offer."
Har hars all around, yolks.
Circuit City Rethinks MAD Magazine Ban, Apologizes [Newsarama]
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circuit city
Circuit City Sorry For Commanding Employees To Destroy Mad Mag's "Sucker City" Parody
After a thin-skinned Circuit City exec ordered stores carrying Mad Magazine to search and destroy all copies of a recent issue featuring a 4-page parody of "Sucker City," someone with a brain stopped the madness. Here's the surprisingly classy message we just got from corporate: More » -
circuit city
Circuit City Orders All Stores To Destroy Issue Of Mad Magazine Parodying "Sucker City"
Circuit City headquarters has ordered their stores to "destroy all copies" of the latest issue of Mad Magazine, according to an anonymous tipster. The retailer apparently isn't amused by the 4-page spoof of "Sucker City." Inside, Mad's 1-page preview and headquarters' response.
UPDATE: Circuit City Sorry For Commanding Employees To Destroy Mad Mag's "Sucker City" Parody More »
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followups
UPS Can't Find Your Lost Computer, So They'll Honor Their Insurance Policy
Remember Nick? UPS smashed up his insured computer and then refused to provide any compensation, even after mysteriously shipping it to a stranger. UPS' public relations folks reached out to us after we posted his story and recently sent us an update: "...after a search of all UPS’s facilities we were not able to recover his computer." Bummer, but all is not lost. More » -
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taking it seriously
California Hospital Takes Botched Operations Seriously
WHO: St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County.
WHAT: The California Department of Public Health is investigating St. Joseph for conducting three 'wrong site' operations since January 2006. Botched surgeries include operating on a patient's good knee and making an incision on the wrong side of a patient's head.
WHERE: Orange hospital under investigation for operating room error [L.A. Times]
THE QUOTE: "Members of the clinical team involved in these cases have been deeply affected, and as a hospital we take this very seriously and regret that it happened," [Dr. Raymond Casciari, St. Joseph's chief medical officer] said. More » -
public relations
Go-Cart Track Takes Scalped Customer's Safety Very Seriously
WHO: A Utah Go-Cart track
WHAT: A woman's long hair got tangled in the moving parts of a go-cart and her hair, scalp, and ear were ripped from her head.
WHERE: WDEF
THE QUOTE: "The owner of the go-cart track says... this was an extremely unfortunate accident that he feels horrible about...He also said the company takes safety of its customers very seriously.""Taking it seriously" is a phrase companies use over and over again in public statements whenever they have bad PR. Our series of posts on occurrences of the phrase is our attempt to question how seriously companies are really taking these matters if every time they trot out this phrase by rote.
(Thanks to David!) (Image: CNN)
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taking it seriously
Showtime Takes Annoying Ads During Movies Seriously
WHO: Showtime
WHAT: Showtime is promoting the upcoming shows by playing banner ads during movies that you paid to watch.
WHERE: Customer Service email
THE QUOTE: "While some viewers may be displeased with this tactic, we have found that a number of our subscribers appreciate learning about the premiere of a series in such a manner. Nevertheless, please note that we take your comments very seriously and have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate people. Thank you for writing to us."
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