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New York Senator Charles Schumer writes open letter to Steve Jobs
- Thread starter zizo79
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NOTE that i also mentioned Wallstreet banking, Insurance and Pension funds.
NOT *directly* life threatening................
These are corporations that require oversight. Oversight is needed simply due to human nature that runs them. Think about appliances. You buy a washing machine that claims a 5yr warranty. It looks awesome and does a really good job over the rest of them out there. It works great initially, so everybody buys one. 1 year later the CEO leaves a hero with fortunes. The company gets sold. It's later discovered they knew about a 2yr failure rate, but alas, that company and it's board are no more. Because of regulations, the consumers will have recourse. Without it, you can be sure all those people would have been SOL.
Further, imagine no regulation on devices. Why, everything would be built to last just past the media frenzy or the stores 30 day return policy. Nobody is going to wait 2 years to examine a products track record before they purchase it. Corporations are self-interests and consumers can only hope they fit into that interest's short or long term goals. Corps are not about the consumers interests, save for any PR they can't overcome.
Last example: This is a hardware issue, but it only slams say 10% of the people bad enough to lose calls. The fact is ALL the phones suffer, so every owner wastes a little more time on upload/download, AT&T and Apple wastes a little more time listening to complaints and processing returns. Those minutes multiplied by millions really add up. ALL the phones will lose some resale value as well. Sure, maybe magically you never ever travel out of well covered areas and your skin somehow miraculously is RF nonconductive. WOW. But you'll lose up to half your resale value next year.
The bottom line: The product has a fault that they KNEW about beforehand, that they even tried to hide by removing FIELD-TEST. Deadlines overcame quality and every single iphone4 became less than presented. Apple decided it would please shareholders and profits better if they went ahead and met the deadlines and fixed things later. Poor judgement.
So you being a PR guy must be loving this? I will say it's a pretty interesting case study on how not to do things...
Oh I agree, brand image is HUGE. And why? To keep those dollars coming in. So yeah, the big picture is the numbers, or shall I say revenue.
oh well, I'm done, we've gotten way off topic and I think we'll continue in circles.
Apple's PR nightmare started when the media got a hold of Jobs' email to customer stating that he was 'holding it the wrong way.' I clearly remember as it was on the cover of CNN and drudgereport, two very influential websites in the u.s market.
It ballooned and the mainstream media picked it up as it was such a PR gaffe on Jobs' part.
Jobs has nobody to blame but himself for this to be honest.
It ballooned and the mainstream media picked it up as it was such a PR gaffe on Jobs' part.
Jobs has nobody to blame but himself for this to be honest.
OK great you did a good job of describing other situations that could conceivably warrant some kind of consumer protection. The reception issue is known, Apple is issuing full refunds, anyone that has an issue with it and is dissatisfied with it but unwilling to return it is by definition ignorant and really shouldn't be entitled to any recourse. Now if down the road Apple issued a software update and the problem presented itself more and they were unwilling to issue refunds then I could see the government taking an interest in the situation, but until something like that happens the senator is just trying to use this to get some publicity and not really providing any public service, by writing a letter.
I doubt Schumer is actually reading any of this but for the small chance. Please put your time/effort to something more useful. I think everyone actually reading this is fond of Apple products but its just a phone. I am slightly disappointed in myself for actually reading the entire letter.
I wouldn't equate a companies product dying en masse to a phone that has poor reception for some people when held a certain way without a case.
Also what was Microsofts timeline on that issue? This phone hasn't been available for very long.
So where is the Mr. Senator now that we need him!!!
Well 98% of the people probably believe that Apple held a press conference in response to his letter and now their getting something free, it's supposed to make him look like a hero, and unfortunately it probably worked. People like him are just really pathetic.