Amazonfail
So… there is still no apology up at Amazon.
Whatever it was: a hacker, right wing crazies, an idiotic employee, a glitch, a ham-fisted error, whatever. I go to their website and there is still a picture of a Kindle in the middle of the page instead of something like this:
We at Amazon value our GLBT customers, authors, readers, employees and supporters. We are deeply sorry for the offense this glitch has caused. We are doing everything we can to get all of our books ranked and searchable again as soon as possible.
How is that so fucking hard? I realize it happened on a holiday weekend, but it's Tuesday night now, and they haven't said anything other than that they're embarrassed. I got news for you, Amazon. Embarrassed is not the same thing as sorry. Embarrassed says that you don't really care that you did something wrong, you're just sorry you were caught without your pants on. Is it that you think it’s not that important? Do you think by not saying anything it’ll go away? Did you think that saying it was a “ham fisted error” or a “glitch” was going to be enough? Do you even know you offended a nice big chunk of your customer base? A customer base that may never come back? Was that a good business move?
I’ve read a lot about this since Sunday afternoon, and several blog posts stand out, like this one, The Lessons of Amazonfail, and although there are many excellent points brought up, this is what really got me:
Amazon has handled this communications crisis in the worst possible way, which is to ignore the outrage and throw corporate-speak at the issue. I was aware of the controversy early Sunday morning: there was no response from Amazon until late afternoon, and the company spoke through a press release to the Associated Press. Amazon is an online business, suffering an online publicity massacre, and they offered no online response of substance. No blog post of their own. No direct dialogue attempts on Twitter. Imagine that you’re on an arena stage in front of tens of thousands of angry people, and instead of speaking into the microphone, you get on your cell phone and call someone to take a memo to send those folks. That’s essentially how Amazon handled it.
Yes. That’s exactly it.
I have spent thousands of dollars at Amazon over the past ten years. Not just books, either. CDs, DVDs, jewelry, housewares and kitchenware. I bought my much adored Le Creuset soup pot through Amazon at a huge discount. (Le Creuset is not exactly a brand I can afford to buy without the kind of huge discount Amazon can pull off). It’s been a wonderful help in finding out-of-print books and music I wasn’t able to find for years. I’ve bought a lot (no, really, a LOT) of tv shows on DVD through them.
I have several wish lists, most of which are private, all of which have many pages of things I want or wanted at some point. I use these lists partly as reference. When I hear about a book or CD or movie I want to remember, I just sign in and add it to one of my lists. I may remove it later, but at least I won’t forget about it.
I can’t imagine not having that as a resource anymore… except apparently I have to start imagining it now. Because how can I possibly spend my money there after all this? I'm not quite ready to cancel my account (yet, anyway), but I won't buy from them either until I see some kind of apology. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that a real, sincere apology will never happen, so in the meantime, Powell’s, B&N and Borders will be getting my business instead.
Whatever it was: a hacker, right wing crazies, an idiotic employee, a glitch, a ham-fisted error, whatever. I go to their website and there is still a picture of a Kindle in the middle of the page instead of something like this:
We at Amazon value our GLBT customers, authors, readers, employees and supporters. We are deeply sorry for the offense this glitch has caused. We are doing everything we can to get all of our books ranked and searchable again as soon as possible.
How is that so fucking hard? I realize it happened on a holiday weekend, but it's Tuesday night now, and they haven't said anything other than that they're embarrassed. I got news for you, Amazon. Embarrassed is not the same thing as sorry. Embarrassed says that you don't really care that you did something wrong, you're just sorry you were caught without your pants on. Is it that you think it’s not that important? Do you think by not saying anything it’ll go away? Did you think that saying it was a “ham fisted error” or a “glitch” was going to be enough? Do you even know you offended a nice big chunk of your customer base? A customer base that may never come back? Was that a good business move?
I’ve read a lot about this since Sunday afternoon, and several blog posts stand out, like this one, The Lessons of Amazonfail, and although there are many excellent points brought up, this is what really got me:
Amazon has handled this communications crisis in the worst possible way, which is to ignore the outrage and throw corporate-speak at the issue. I was aware of the controversy early Sunday morning: there was no response from Amazon until late afternoon, and the company spoke through a press release to the Associated Press. Amazon is an online business, suffering an online publicity massacre, and they offered no online response of substance. No blog post of their own. No direct dialogue attempts on Twitter. Imagine that you’re on an arena stage in front of tens of thousands of angry people, and instead of speaking into the microphone, you get on your cell phone and call someone to take a memo to send those folks. That’s essentially how Amazon handled it.
Yes. That’s exactly it.
I have spent thousands of dollars at Amazon over the past ten years. Not just books, either. CDs, DVDs, jewelry, housewares and kitchenware. I bought my much adored Le Creuset soup pot through Amazon at a huge discount. (Le Creuset is not exactly a brand I can afford to buy without the kind of huge discount Amazon can pull off). It’s been a wonderful help in finding out-of-print books and music I wasn’t able to find for years. I’ve bought a lot (no, really, a LOT) of tv shows on DVD through them.
I have several wish lists, most of which are private, all of which have many pages of things I want or wanted at some point. I use these lists partly as reference. When I hear about a book or CD or movie I want to remember, I just sign in and add it to one of my lists. I may remove it later, but at least I won’t forget about it.
I can’t imagine not having that as a resource anymore… except apparently I have to start imagining it now. Because how can I possibly spend my money there after all this? I'm not quite ready to cancel my account (yet, anyway), but I won't buy from them either until I see some kind of apology. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that a real, sincere apology will never happen, so in the meantime, Powell’s, B&N and Borders will be getting my business instead.