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Company Decisions + Social Media = PR Nightmare

 

With people getting involved in twitter and other social media sites, it is no wonder that when we have problems that we just tweet it or blog it. But recently this has gone to a whole new level.

A few months back Time Warner Cable announced their tiered pricing plans and plans to start rolling it out to test markets. Within seconds of the announcement people were posting their disagreements with TWC on Twitter, Brightkite, Plurk, and Blogs. This quickly got the attention of the higher ups at TWC and they quickly delayed their plans. But they didn't completely pull their plans. But this goes to show you the power we have as consumers with New Media.

Let's fast forward to this past week though. On Monday June 9th 2009 WWDC started with the traditional Apple Keynote. Nerds and Geeks were waiting with baited breath for our iPhone announcement. It is only tradition at this point to get a new iPhone every June. When we thought all was lost, at the end of the keynote we were finally fed our iPhone news! New iPhone features include MMS. AT&T will provide MMS later this summer. Uhh, ok. iPhone will now officially be capable of Tethering! AT&T will roll this out later this year. WHAT! The new iPhone 3G S will be available on Friday June 19th! YES! 16GB will be $199 and 32GB will be $299 with a 2 year contract. After the keynote you could here the interwebs running to the Apple website to pre order. But wait, I have an iPhone 3G, To upgrade to the 32GB I have to pay $599, WHAT! 

Within just a few short minutes the outrage against AT&T began. This is clearly an AT&T issue too. But why would they do this. Well it is common to pay a higher rate if your contract is not near its end. People have been threatening to cancel their AT&T plans and pay the early term fee just to sign back up to get the new iPhone at the cheaper price. People all together are wanting Apple to give the iPhone to another provider. But the internet has one better. People have started an online petition to try to see if AT&T will change their ways. Sadly though, the damage has been done to AT&T, and if they don't change their decision of pricing their reputation could be further damaged. 

I personally love AT&T, I had a Sprint account before getting the iPhone and for once actually have coverage every where I go. I am slightly disappointed in AT&T right now though. iPhone users and Apple users for that fact are a different bread of people. We like to upgrade all the time. We want the latest and greatest iPhone and iPod. But we also have to think that this is the exact same thing that would happen with any other cellular provider.