I spent an entire Sunday afternoon trying to cancel my internet service in Portland, and the rep kept transferring me to different departments. Three separate agents asked for my account number again even though I gave it to the first guy. Has anyone else dealt with a brand that just won't let you leave without a fight?
What finally convinced me to switch providers was when the customer service rep admitted on a recorded line that they've been having 'known outages in my area for 6 months' with no fix scheduled.
I used to skip those CEO apology videos thinking they were all fake. But after the United passenger incident in 2017, I saw how a real apology with specific changes like new training actually worked. Now I pay attention to what they say and whether they name the steps they're taking. Has anyone ever seen a brand fix things fast because they actually followed through on what they promised?
My small brand got slammed online last month for a dumb shipping delay email. I wrote this long defensive post explaining why it happened. A friend who does PR said delete it and just say 'we messed up, here's the refund.' I ignored him. Posted my explanation. People tore it apart. 3 days later I deleted it and did his way. Way less backlash. Has anyone else fought the urge to over-explain and just made it worse?
I saw that viral apology ad from a big meat company last week and it was like they didn't even try. They posted a 2 minute video with the CEO looking super uncomfortable reading from a script that said nothing real. It just said sorry over and over without explaining what they did wrong or how they'd fix it. They got slammed with comments in the first 6 hours and ended up deleting the whole thing. Why do companies keep doing this? Has anyone else noticed these fake apologies actually make things way worse?
Honestly I was stuck between Peloton and Norvell for months. But then Peloton had that whole recall mess last fall where they took forever to process refunds and blamed customers for shipping damage. I went with Norvell instead and ordered a refurb bike for $650. Three weeks in the pedal crank snapped and their support sent me a new part in 4 days no questions asked. Has anyone else ditched a brand mid-scandal and ended up happier with the alternative?
I was waiting for the train in Chicago last week and there was this massive billboard from a burger chain that had a food poisoning outbreak back in June. Their ad said something like 'we've listened and improved' with a stock photo of a lettuce leaf. I mean, a whole apology campaign on a sticky subway platform just felt sad. Has anyone else seen a brand try to fix their image in a really awkward place?
I was looking up PR disaster stats on Wikipedia last night and that number blew my mind, has anyone else seen a single ad flop hit a company's bottom line that hard?
I used to think a $50 logo on Fiverr was a steal, but after my brand got confused with a scam site last month, I realized the design had a hidden trademark issue. Now I spend $300 on a proper designer who checks copyright first - has anyone else dealt with a knockoff design causing real trouble?
A tiny bakery near me posted a TikTok of a customer finding a burnt cookie in their bag, and their apology video was just the owner shrugging and saying "oops, stuff happens." I expected a little sympathy or at least a free cookie offer, but people tore them apart in the comments for being dismissive. They deleted the apology two hours later and posted a new one with an actual refund policy, but the damage was done. Has anyone else seen a brand try to brush off a mistake and make things worse instead of better?
So a shop called Brew & Bean on 5th Street posted this thing on Instagram saying they were donating 50% of sales to a food bank, right? Turns out they just slapped the graphic together without actually contacting the food bank first, and the food bank put out a statement saying they had no clue about it. Now the shop is stuck in this awful cycle of deleting comments and posting half-hearted apologies that don't even address why they lied about the partnership. Has anyone else dealt with a local brand faking a charity tie-in like this?
I was scrolling through Bad PR Watch last night and saw this breakdown of FreshBite Foods' big crisis response video after they got caught mislabeling expiration dates by like 2 years. Turns out the CEO's tearful apology was filmed 4 months before the story even hit the news, which means they knew and were sitting on it. How do these companies think they can get away with stuff like that without someone digging into the metadata?
I remember this one burger place in Austin, back in 2019, they had that weird chicken sandwich shortage and then put out this weird apology video that was just their CEO staring at the camera for 2 minutes without talking. I sat there thinking, wait, did they actually try to be funny with this? It totally backfired because people got even more mad that they weren't taking it seriously. Has anyone else seen a brand's apology that just made the whole mess bigger?
My brand's instagram pissed off a bunch of people with a tone-deaf meme about remote work last week, and our normal sorry-not-sorry response just made it worse. On a whim, I replied to each angry comment with a sincere "thanks for calling me out, I messed up" and nothing else. Has anyone else tried just owning the fail without the usual corporate spin?
I run a small coffee shop in Portland and last month we accidentally sent out a batch of cold brew that was way too old and sour. Everyone online says 'never apologize publicly because you'll look weak' but I posted a quick video saying yeah we messed up, here's what happened, and we'll replace any drink for free for the next week. We lost about $400 in replacements but our social media actually went up by like 15% in engagement. Has anyone else seen a brand get hammered for apologizing too much?
I run a small electrical shop in Portland and last month I crossed 1,000 complaints in my file. Half are from people who think I charged too much for a simple outlet swap. The other half are from people who say I saved them from a fire. I'm not sure if that number means I'm a bad guy or a good one. What do you guys think, does a high complaint count just mean you're dealing with a lot of people or does it actually mean something wrong with your business?
Back in 2014 I remember a small local bakery had a batch of cookies with the wrong sugar and they just posted a plain text apology on their page. No video, no fancy graphics. People actually respected it. Fast forward to last week I saw a big chain do a whole 3 part apology series with a hashtag and a charity pledge after a mix up with their rewards program. It felt so fake and overdone... has anyone else noticed how brands try way too hard to fix things now?
Guy at the Seattle drive-through last Tuesday told me his diabetic kid drank a full cup before they caught the error. Their fix was a $5 coupon. Has anyone else gotten a brand apology that felt worse than the original mess?
We ran this whole influencer push for a new product launch and got 3 likes out of 30,000 reach. Has anyone else had a metric fall so flat you had to double check the dashboard wasn't broken?
I was scrolling through TikTok last Tuesday and saw this brand called Boba Bliss post a 3 minute apology video for a delivery mix-up. Instead of just saying sorry for the wrong orders, the owner spent most of it blaming the delivery app and then tried to promote a new drink flavor at the end. Within 24 hours, I watched their comments go from 50 angry people to over 2,000 people roasting them for being tone-deaf. Has anyone else noticed how brands kill their own PR by mixing apologies with ads?
Last Tuesday they offered a free sandwich with any purchase and the app totally died by 10:30 AM. People were stuck in drive-thru lines for 45 minutes yelling at cashiers. Has anyone else had a brand promo blow up this bad because they didn't plan for traffic?
Back in 2023, my handle snapped clean off while I was wringing out the mop, and I got dirty water ALL over my kitchen floor. Their customer service sent me a replacement handle but it took 6 weeks and they never admitted the design was flawed. Has anyone else had a mop or cleaning tool just fall apart on them and the company acted like it was your fault?
I remember back in 2018 when that chicken sandwich place posted a three-line apology poem after their supplier debacle and people roasted them so hard they deleted it within two hours which just made everyone screenshot it and circulate it even more, has anyone else noticed brands getting worse at reading the room before they hit send?
I posted a rant about that canned coffee brand's fake apology last month and it got 40k views overnight. Has anyone else seen a random video take off like that from a brand messing up?