There are some very good reasons why many traditional publicists hate Twitter and other social media outlets that give businesses unfettered access to immediately address their customers. Because it’s amazing how quickly you can anger your entire customer base in 140 or fewer characters.

Over the weekend, a pizza place in Cambridge, MA, randomly Tweeted:
“where in ‘substitutions are welcome’ does it read it’s free? Adding meatballs to a Pressed Veggie Sdwch is nasty and will cost u, dumbass.”

When one of the eatery’s Twitter followers said they shouldn’t call a customer a dumbass, the pizza place replied:
She made a scene in my store when she was told how much something that is not on the menu cost. Called like seen + MYOB.

Followed by:
“I never mentioned names which hardly makes it a public berating. I’m wondering who asked you how to run my biz anyway? #MYOB”

The pizza shop came under more fire and responded with defensive Tweets like:
“a woman refused to pay for what she ordered and ate at my store, she is a dumbass. Why chime in when you don’t know?”

and:
“we’re being twitter bullied”

The bullying comment brought up a whole new host of complaints from the Twitterverse, compelling the pizza peeps to write:
“did not intend to make light of bullying. promise. sorry to anyone offended on that note. woman who didn’t pay is still a dumbass.”

And while it only took one Tweet to draw the ire of the internet, it required five Tweets for the store’s owner to craft the following apology:

dear everyone, sorry to have made such a SM mess of ourselves. i accept full responsibility for choosing my words so poorly and for not remembering that the people i’m reaching are the ones who i might rub the wrong way. i was just looking for a laugh to wipe away a less than memorable moment at the store. the last thing i would want to do is to put a bad taste in anyone’s mouth, it’s the opposite of what i try my hardest to do for a living. i apologize to the crew for casting a gloomy shadow over what they do for a living. too this has been a humbling experience, and i pledge to use this forum more responsibly and with you all in mind. truly yours, jeff w, owner

The owner had a pretty valid point about charging for substitutions but that was all overshadowed by his inability to rein in his anger toward the original customer.

Imagine if the Soup Nazi had a Twitter account [UniversalHub.com]

Thanks to Random Hookup for the tip!

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