Where There's Smoke, There's PR Spin
from the the-truth's-under-here-somewhere dept
We wrote a few days ago about how a Verizon tech managed to start a fire at a customer's house when installing service. A commenter on that post said the story was wrong, that there was no fire, and that the fire department was called as a "precautionary measure." It turns out that Verizon's PR folks are putting that story out, apparently based on reports from employees that were there. The local deputy fire chief disagrees, though, saying "If there's flames, there's fire." But even the official Verizon party line isn't great: apart from the fire, which supposedly didn't happen, the incident resulted in a 3-foot by 4-foot hole being cut in the side of the customer's house. Verizon's PR people note they're paying for that hole to be repaired. How generous!Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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"Love" PR
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Top 3 professions were you are required to LIE
2. Law
3. PR
Care to expand the list anyone?
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Re: Top 3 professions were you are required to LIE
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Silly
But maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt, I mean their PR person never lies. =)
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I remember reading about cable installers that set a customers boat on fire, how yards were ruined running fiber.
Verizon hires contractors to install fiber, usually they are pretty good, but things do happen. From what I have heard, Verizon always make sure that the customer is returned to their previous state.
One thing to keep in mind when you are reading what PR people are saying, or anyone for that matter when you read or hear things in the media. They are usually responding to a question, if the guy on site knew that there was no fire, when asked he would say there were no flames. Its not like PR people are running out and announcing to the world their "spin."
This happened to Gary Sheffield when he was with the Yanks. He did a long interview with someone and he was going on and on about how good friends he was with a teammate, how they hung out, how they got along so well. The reporter asked if anything bugged him about his teammate. As a joke, he said the guy smelled or had a big ego or something stupid like that. Of course, the New York papers make that one line into headlines saying Sheffield was slamming his teammate.
You can't really always believe what you read or see in the media.
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Re: Random Thoughts' random thoughts
...because it's so heavily influenced by PR types and lawyers.
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Is this the same Gary Sheffield who said that the reason that there were so many Hispanics in baseball these days is because the team owners like to boss people around, and that black men wouldn't stand for it but Latinos would?
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Probably just incompetence
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Re: Probably just incompetence
Now THAT'S a good spin. Saying that firetrucks were in the area as a precautionary measure is a horrible statement to make.
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From the story, it says that the PR person was told by employees that were there that there was no fire. WTF is the PR person supposed to say? Now it would have been wrong for the PR person to explain the 4 foot hole as an added benefit in the attempt to provide the customer with a better breeze in their house, but thats a different story.
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How often does it end up that the previous state they return their customers to includes no-service for what was being installed while continuing to bill the customer for that service?
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I can't imagine that it is part of Verizon's strategy to burn their customers house down. That wouldn't be a very good selling point. Does stuff happen? Of course. In terms of customer service in the telecom space, the bar isn't all that high. Turning on the service is a top priority for Verizon, because when it takes a while, they see much greater churn. If I jump to FIOS from Cablevision if the service takes 3 days for me to get service, thats 3 days Cablevision has to win me back as a customer. FIOS isn't available to my town yet, but when it is, I will give it a try. Cablevision certainly has not won me over with their service.
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Me thinks thou dost protest too much.
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The technician drilled into the main wire, which of course probably isn't a very healthy thing to do. The power company shut down power to a few houses. The fire department cut the hole to check things out to make sure there wasn't a fire.
Everyone seems to have a "got ya" attitude today. Did Verizon cause the damage? Yes, they didn't deny it. Did they cover the repairs? Yes. Did the PR people try to make Verizon look better? Of course, although anyone that says anything is selling like "hotcakes" has to be a tool.
Is this worth our time talking about? Seems kind of fun so far.
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Ok...
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Tool
That commenter must be a real tool.
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What is the difference between being optomistic vs. shilling (Hopefully Kurt won't get mad, although the Sox are tanking, so who cares)?
Its not "everyone does it" attitude, its just what people do. I do it, and so do you.
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I can't believe I had to explain that to a supposed adult.
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Verizon Chewing up my fence
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