Thursday, April 16, 2009

Okay, beating a dying horse here. #amazonfail is now officially (because I declare it to be) #apologyfail.

Too many people are referring to Amazon's brief and only statement on this weekend's debacle as an "apology" when in truth, it is nothing more than an explanation of what went wrong. Some even go so far as to say WE should be apologizing to Amazon! This is kowtowing to corporate elitism of the highest magnitude. Yes, Amazon screwed up and had explained how it happened. But no, Amazon has not yet apologized for their mistake.

For me, it is too early to post a "post-mortem" on the entire affair. It isn't finished. Not till the apology comes.

Randy Pausch says a good apology consists of three things: 1) I'm sorry, 2) It was my fault, and 3) What can I do to make it better? Amazon has done only the second of those two, although they do imply they will make it better by not doing it again.

I'm a writer -- language is important to me. I want the words. I need to hear the words, "I'm sorry" come out of Jeff Bezos' mouth as he accepts that his company did 1) a lousy job of responding to this publically (they can learn from Dominos) and tells us what the company will do in the future to assure us such a thing won't happen again (and I don't mean giving away trade secrets as to the arcane world of coding, but the safeguards they will put in place so one person cannot hold so much power to wreak so much havoc).

Come on, Amazon -- an apology is what we're truly missing here. We've all learned from this episode. But before I can even entertain the thought of ever using your company again, I need to know I'm important to you.

Diana

6 comments:

Landon Bryce said...

Amen. I am incredulous that people seem willing to let Amazon off without a real apology. And I agree that Bezos, who who been such a public figurehead elsewhere, must make a personal statement before I would consider buying from Amazon again.

My silly video on the subject: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42o_8zP3Mz4

Diana Hunter said...

LOL...good video. Thanks for sharing it here :). And thanks for the vote of confidence! That makes two of us!

jon said...

well said, Diana ... I very much agree.

And great video, Landon, thanks for the link!

Anonymous said...

I'd also like to hear their excuse as to why even their paltry explanation was flawed. I have screen shots to prove that it did NOT happen to Amazon.Ca yet they said it happened across the board, on every Amazon level & site, does that make sense to anyone out here? Its still bothering me.

Arlene said...

I think it's time for those big businesses to realize that with out us, their history. I mean get for real. It's my responsibility to keep what I don't want my kids to see, hidden. NOT theirs and why is it that a few voices seem to weigh more than many??

Diana Hunter said...

Definitely. I'm fully capable of deciding for my children what they should and shouldn't view...and to be honest, if they're old enough to ask the questions, they're old enough to get the answers. I do NOT need Amazon (or any other company) telling me otherwise.