29 August 2006

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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And if the iPod isn't scratched, you can be damn sure the hard drive will die 6 months after the warranty runs out and Apple will try and charge you £180 to fix the item that cost you £200 only 18 months earlier.

Anonymous said...

Apple seems to be profiting extremely well out of such poor product. My 40GB iPod, cost £299 new, has just died after less than 20 months. Quote is £166 to fix. Hmmmm.