There could be trouble ahead…

"It only takes a couple of consumers who have had a bad experience to complain and make a lot of noise on the Internet about it."

That’s right. Just a couple of grumpy old consumers who don’t like their new product and decide to have a little moan about it online….moany, moany, moany. People with nothing better to do…why can’t they just spend their money and be happy with what they get? OK, so a few products are a teeny little bit sub-standard, but most of them are OK…that’s just the luck of the draw.

And before you know it…wallop…you’re share price is in freefall and you’re in full crisis management mode.

Of course, we know that, but you can’t expect everyone to know it. We’re in the eye of the online storm; we see the power of the bloggers on a daily basis, the speed with which news spreads around the world. But not everyone is…like the bloke who delivered the quote above, probably.

Hang on a minute…the bloke that delivered the quote above was Jason Michael - from Edelman no less! Jason uttered it as he “dismissed the chorus of online complaints” about Microsoft’s Xbox 360 when chatting to a reporter from US site ConsumerAffairs.com. Though the site says it has received “about 40” complaints from consumers, it reports that Jason reckons that “it is only a few consumers plus reporters who are generating the complaints.”

In robust defence of the growing issue, he also said: “As far as I know, the great majority of Xbox owners are having a great time.”

Quite possibly, but presumably they’re having a great time doing something else as their broken Xbox gathers dust in the corner of the lounge, right next to their scratched up iPod and their fireball Dell laptop.