the(new)mediaslut

Cheap doesn’t always mean good.

That’s what about 200 Tiger Airways passengers found out on Dec 7, 2007.

Thanks to Traumatised by Tiger for the YouTube Video.Seriously, what are the communication procedures that Tiger Airways have for customers in case of delays? How do they empower their staff to handle such situations like this delay?

Do they have one in the first place?

Now that Tiger Airways are allowed to fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in February 08, is a 45 mins flight going to be extended into a 5-hour wait? The same time that is needed to travel to the Malaysian capital by bus?

Sorry, Tiger. I am sticking to the 5-hour bus rides.

It was meant to be a light-hearted apology from Dreamhost when the hosting company accidentally overcharged their clients a total of USD7.5 million.

Dreamhost made used of a Homer Simpson image to apologise for their mistake and continued the post joking about it.

Wrote Dreamhost,

Hello.. how’s your morning going?

I hope it’s been a little better than mine.

We had a teensy eensy weensy little billing error last night… my first clue something was up when I saw this morning’s daily billing report (so far): $7,500,000.

It turns out due to my excessively fat fingers, nearly every one of our customers has been seriously over-billed in the last 12 hours.

I bet when you read this part of the last newsletter:

4. New Office!

Another important thing I’ve been doing instead of writing newsletters is looking out the window of our NEW OFFICE:

http://blog.dreamhost.com/2007/12/21/were-so-high-right-now-you-dont-even-know

If your next web hosting bill from us is mysteriously tripled, now you know why.

.. you thought it was a joke!

Ha, the joke is on you! I guess. Um, okay, no, not really, I’m sorry.

A few clients of Dreamhost accepted the method of apology, but a majority of them, especially those with other business clients, felt it is very wrong for Dreamhost to joke about such a mistake.

Wrote Jeremy,

Josh - it is time you realized when the light jokey style in which you run this business is NOT the appropriate tone. Any of us involved in running a business knows when you approach your customers with a serious tone. Your customers are taking that tone with you; Time to step up and be serious and act like your company depends on it. I think it does.

Wrote  Randall Bennett,

Please, show some genuine concern for your customers. Sure, you screwed up, but I don’t see any sort of genuine concern other than the $7,500,000 in credit card debt you accidentally set off.

The joking tone works for some errors, but how bout some actual concern for your customers instead.

Here’s a sample.

“Wow. Seriously, we made a gigantic mistake. Just to make it right, we’re going to…” and then somehow create a conciliatory tone. Otherwise, it just sounds like you’re mocking us.

Humor might help lighten the situation, but it has to be used sparringly and rarely especially if dealing with a crisis.

If you want to start an apology with a joke, do it quickly then take a serious tone about it.

Texts are emotionless and it can be read differently as intended by the writer.

ST701.com exposed a few hundred job seekers’ email addresses today when a job alert from their mail server was send out in the evening.

I wonder if ST701.com really need to send their emailers on a one day course to find out the difference and importance of BCC and CC.

Don’t they ever learn?

From the ST701.com email,

Delivered-To: xxx@gmail.com

Received: by 10.114.57.7 with SMTP id f7cs446349waa;

        Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:36:13 -0800 (PST)

Received: by 10.114.112.1 with SMTP id k1mr1080919wac.24.1200497772331;

        Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:36:12 -0800 (PST)

Return-Path: <ops@job.st701.com>

Received: from job.st701.com ([202.176.207.131])

        by mx.google.com with ESMTP id

       Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:36:12 -0800 (PST)

Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 202.176.xxx.xxx is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of ops@job.st701.com)

Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for

 domain of ops@job.st701.com) smtp.mail=ops@job.st701.com

Received: from rmasia04 ([10.10.10.108]) by job.st701.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959);

  Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:31:41 +0800

thread-index: AchYVOTQkjmuHUyPRJW/EBKK96gGJQ==

Thread-Topic:       Job alert from ST701

Reply-To: <ops@job.st701.com>

From: "ST701 Jobs" <ops@job.st701.com>

Sender: "ST701 Jobs" <ops@job.st701.com>

To: <noreply@bcc-please-do-not-reply.lan>

Cc: ....<melvynxxx@yahoo.com.sg>,

 <maggiexx@gmail.com>,

 <sweexx@singnet.com.sg>,

 <ramesxx4@yahoo.com>,

 <dcyntxx@163.com>,

 <brianxx@yahoo.com.sg>,

 <henrxxhotmail.com>,

 <y_ailinxx@yahoo.com.sg>,

 <whyloxx@hotmail.com>,

 <xxx@snpcorp.com>,

 <krisxyahoo.com.sg>,

 <shxow@yahoo.com.sg>,

 <jexxxx1@yahoo.com>,

 <kevxxxxahoo.com.sg>,

A group of under 14-year-olds in Perth were waiting for TR717 flight to Singapore for a series of friendly football matches.

It could have their first time ever traveling overseas on an airplane.

Unfortunately, Tiger Airways flight TR717 was postponed because “the captain became concerned about his crew working overtime“.

What do you think the type of image these 14-year-olds would have have Tiger Airways now and when they grow older?

I scanned through all the Australian online publications and while a Tiger Airways spokesperson came out to explain why the flight was delay, there were no apologies and remedies in the statements made.

Here’s a sample.

Wrote news.com.au,

“The captain had a look at the time sheets of the crew and decided to postpone the flight because he was concerned they would work out of hours on the return leg,” Tiger spokesman Matt Hobbs said.

“I’m not sure why on this particular flight they thought they might go out of hours, but we stand by our pilots.”

There’s the reason and yes, I would rather be on the postponed flight then one being flew by pilots who did not have their mandatory rest periods.

Matt Hobbs might have apologised in making his statement, but it was not reflected in any of the Australian publications.

I tried searching Tiger Airways website and I couldn’t even find a page for press releases. Was there an apology from Tiger Airways about the delay?

How about a statement from Tiger Airways to provide a remedy that such delays do not happen again?

Without a remedy in place, are delays due to scheduling problems still a high possibility with Tiger Airways?

If that questions linger in the customer, how confident would the customer be to book a flight again with Tiger Airways.

The three Rs of crisis communication as stated in the book “Drop the pink elephant” is applicable to companies, big or small, that need to handle a crisis.

But you might ask, “Would an apology be an admission of guilt? A sign of weakness?”

The book also explained that it actually will have opposite effect.

On the other hand, apologising is a sign of strength, humbling the corporation to their level of the customers and trying to understand their frustration.

Delayed flights can cause a lot of frustration. Money can’t solve everything and if the company feels that refund is all that is needed to appease their customers, then a rethink of their crisis communications strategy is necessary.

It seems Patricia Mok had something to say about Canon’s after sales service.

From The Shopping Diva:

Now– spoilted!! Last nite went to a glamorous wedding dinner at four seasons……one silly tai tai spilled a whole glass of white wine into my camera and the worse part…..the len is facing up!!! Which means=== water had sipped in and corroded the inner mechanism!!! And i had called up canon to check if can be repair—NO, NO, NO!!!! AAArrrggggghhhhhhhhh……………MY CANON 800 IS SPOILTED, CONFIRMED, CHOP-STAMP!!!!! KNN!!!

CANON, Now CAN(ot)ON !!!!!!

Smile Canon, you are on a celebrity’s blog!