Revisiting #amazonfail.

3 Comments | Posted: April 21st, 2009 | Filed under: Meta | Tags:

This blog entry from the Baltimore Sun‘s Nancy Johnston neatly sums up many of my feelings about how Amazon handled its recent problems concerning materials that had gay and lesbian content. At this point, even with most of the work having been relisted and in its proper place in search, I’m still disappointed and a bit baffled by the way that the company has handled the entire mess. Amazon first pinned the blame on a glitch before letting a hacker take credit and then somehow the French somehow got involved, and over week later, there’s still no apology or clear explanation for what happened from the company.

I can’t help but think that if this had happened with books about black culture or Jewish people, the company would be falling over themselves to fix the gaping hole in their PR, but when it comes to the gay people, they’re really not concerned. Or – worse yet – they’re trying to actively avoid having to make any kind of pro-gay statement that might tick off the conservative minority that gets really upset when people are treated equally, and that bugs the shit out of me.

Share This Post:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • StumbleUpon
  • Ping.fm
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr

3 Comments on “Revisiting #amazonfail.”

  1. 1 Dayv said at 1:49 am on April 22nd, 2009:

    Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

    I’m annoyed at them, but probably not so much that I’ll take my business away, so I guess they win.

  2. 2 Siskoid said at 8:58 am on April 22nd, 2009:

    Too many PR people spoil the broth.

    Working in PR myself (for a non-profit, so I don’t have to be lumped in with the scum), I can see how something like this would happen. So there’s probably a PR person in the mix, plus a flustered boss who told a different story, plus a backtrack by PR/boss to explain the two stories. And in the end, they still haven’t said the “right thing” because it would only bring attention to the story even more. Better to fix the problem and never mention it again.

    And that’s how it works, folks!

  3. 3 Scott said at 9:27 am on April 22nd, 2009:

    The PR thing is what bugs me. I used to work in PR, and I didn’t think I was all that good at it. But back when I was a public info staff of one, I could’ve done a better job of crisis management than Amazon did.

    Come to think of it, I would’ve done a better job at PR than NBC did when they changed the Sci Fi Channel’s name to Syfy. Maybe the reason I can’t get hired anywhere is I’m just such a PR genius that everyone’s just scared of my awesomeness.