Comments on: Why bother suing disgruntled customers?

By: 24×7fasthosting.com » BTIreland shoots itself in the foot

24×7fasthosting.com » BTIreland shoots itself in the foot — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 20:38:22 +0000

[...] - Legal Challenge (Michele Neylon) btireland-sucks.com creator faces legal threat (TCAL) Why bother suing disgruntled customers? (Piaras Kelly) How to generat [...]

By: DJ

DJ — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:35:05 +0000

I hope there is a positive outcome, this would be a win-win situation if BT were to do the right thing. Irish Broadband are also seeing huge issues and a groundswell of negative opinion on boards.ie which was picked up on by RTE radio last week when they interviewed the IBB CEO. Experience however does suggest that BT will just trip over this cf. Jeff Jarvis and his Dell hell that echoed round the blogging world.

By: Piaras

Piaras — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 16:55:46 +0000

I wouldn’t really agree with that John. At regional level there is advertising influence and in a lot of trade mags advertising buys you column inches, but at national level advertising doesn’t guarantee you coverage - in fact it can work against you at times.

I’d forget the blogosphere and look at the wider span of Consumer Generated Media. If you treat your customers badly they’re going to talk about it. The growing power of the web ampliys that fact and highlights poor quality/service.

By: John McCormac

John McCormac — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 18:51:03 +0000

Piaras - it was not the press release angle but the comments to the media angle that I had in mind. The press (online/offline) generally are more restrained when it comes to reporting something that could affect advertising. So it can be easy enough for the big advertisers to have such stories limited. The proof of this is that you rarely, if ever, see any decent groundbreaking or investigative journalism in the Irish technology press.

What is happening around the BT Ireland billing issue is a potential blogstorm. A few key opinion influencers pick up the thread and it begins to spread outward, eventually reaching the print media. By the time it reaches the conventional media, the story has long since been a PR nuclear disaster. It should be taught as a case study in how not to handle a problem.

By: Piaras

Piaras — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 12:53:12 +0000

Yep amended the fact that they’re not suing - thanks for the heads-up, my bad. The points made are all still valid.

John - This was hardly the subject of a press release from BT Ireland. It also shows how blogs compliment traditional media, seeing as I missed the original story, but went back to read it after seeing it flagged from trusted sources. If I didn’t read TCAL or Michele Neylon’s blogs then I still would have missed it.

The whole point about how blogging and other forms of social media will reinvigorate PR or customer service is that complaints should be tracked and acted upon accordingly. Exactly what you say in your last sentence.

By: Dublin Net User

Dublin Net User — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 09:15:31 +0000

When you dont get a bill for months you have a point. BT think they can push people around when its as clear as a summers day that they need to review their Billing system and take action to solve customers querys. Has anyone ever heard of the billing cup?

By: Myles

Myles — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 08:51:05 +0000

Yeah they are not suing, they are asking for removal of the website name in use.

HUGE difference, but that’s “online reporting” for you.

50% of most facts correct 50% of the time!

By: Damien Mulley

Damien Mulley — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 22:00:06 +0000

Point of order: They’re not suing. They sent a letter signed by a solicitor.

By: John McCormac

John McCormac — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:16:48 +0000

Well all the usual spin control to the mainstream press and what is laughably called the “technology press” in Ireland will not help them. This is an example of how blogs completely bypass the traditional PR avenues. It seems that problems with BT Ireland’s billing system is not isolated and other people with billing problems are mentioning them on blogs and internet fora. The only real thing of value that BT Ireland can do is to fix the billing system and train the people who use it.