The big lesson that QVC is teaching us
by Fred on 08/12/08 at 11:40 am
17 comments
I think this could be the worthiest cause this year. There are a bunch of sites being set up to help this guy, Donn Edwards, who is being sued by a company called QVC. I’ve just joined the Facebook group (click here to check it out).
Apparently, QVC is one of those companies that phone you up and tell you that you’ve won a car, a vacation, or something similar. It seems that, when our hero, Donn, went to collect his prize, they tried to sell him timeshare instead, and he got pissed off about it. He wrote about it on his blog, and now they’re sueing him for R461 500.
In my opinion, there’s a huge lesson we can take from observing QVC’s course of action. One of the biggest things that we as a marketing community have learned over the past year is the concept of Online Reputation Management. QVC may do well to look at the Mini story posted by Shane last week. Instead of getting defensive (or offensive), the Mini dealership maturely and methodically fixed the situation, resulting in one happy customer – and an Ideate audience of thousands that promptly heard all about it.
The web is a New Frontier. One where things get said freely; and news travels fast. Opinions are expressed, both negative and positive, often without thinking. Sort of like a conversation, really, and conversations are the fuel of healthy relationships.
With that in mind, there’s a wrong way and a right way to enter into a conversation.
Picture a bunch of people around a fireside. One guy in particular is mouthing off about you. So what do you do?
Do you…
a) bust the party and start a fight with the guy?
b) enter the circle and ask questions about what he’s saying, offering to engage with him and respond to his complaints?
c) run away and hope they’ll stop talking?
No prizes for guessing which is the right approach to take. This New Frontier provides a great opportunity for people to listen carefully to those fireside chats, and provide long-term solutions to problems that are expressed amongst your target audience.
QVC, if you’re listening, I reckon you’re going to have to pony up a whole lot of cash, and lose every last remnant of credibility, if you continue to choose ‘option A’ above. Right now, there are lot of people who are starting to spread the word about your company, and your industry, in a very unfavourable light as a result of your actions.
More about the story here:
- Donn’s blog
- IOL
- iMod
- Walter Pike
- Radio 702 (search for ‘Donn Edwards’)
- Wiki with related blog posts (Thanks Eve)
Please add more links that I may have missed.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. He runs a web marketing company called World Wide Creative and loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. View more articles by Fred.
Eve Dmochowska
Dec 8th, 2008
Hi Fred,
Great post. Right on the money.
I’ve set up a wiki that links to all the posts and other links regarding this case. Am adding this one next!
http://qvcsaga.pbwiki.com
Fred
Dec 8th, 2008
Thanks Eve, I’ve added that to the list above.
Rui
Dec 8th, 2008
Timeshare is so 1986… and clearly QVC does business like it’s 1986.
Chris M
Dec 8th, 2008
It’s amazing to see how quickly and far this story has travelled
Andrew
Dec 8th, 2008
I thought QVC was a Plastic Sewerage Pipe…until I discovered Time-share…
Jed
Dec 8th, 2008
the way to deal with these guys is tell them you will be there and don’t pitch – i used to hundreds of calls from them and no matter how many times i told them to f’ off they wouldn’t – then i just started telling them i was keen and i would attend and then didn’t attend and since then i have had no calls from them.
Shelldon
Dec 8th, 2008
These guys and others like them have always annoyed me and everyone I know. And now they going with this strong arm tactic to try and warn off the little guy. Perhaps this is where the small guy can win. I’ve printed this out, and I plan to distribute copies to every person I know, I’m also going to place them in my shop where I have upwards of 200 customers every week, I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that the guys at the top of QVC are known for the trash they are. Maybe by shaming them they’ll back off.
Fred
Dec 8th, 2008
@Jed, Shelldon, Chris, Andrew, Rui, – viva social media! Let your thoughts be known.
QVC, come to the party and express yourself here…
I personally would love to know what are your thoughts on all this.
Tina
Dec 9th, 2008
Hi All
I have personally also received a call from World Connect. Same scenario.
“You have won a car, just come to Midrand etc and the date and time I had to be there.
I did not feel comfortable with this, so
I googled them and found plenty complaints on hellopeter.com
These timeshare companies are constantly coming up with another irritating way to try and bamboozle people into their schemes.
they are probably all one and the same company anyway. They must be in need of money to attempt such a hairbrained scheme as to sue the man in the street.
David Donde
Dec 9th, 2008
I am going to cover this on radio tonight. 567 Cape Talk and 702 between midnight and 4 tonight
Fred
Dec 9th, 2008
@David, good on you mate. I’ll tune in if I’m awake for sure.
colin syme
Dec 9th, 2008
l live in the UK, we had these guys here too, l was called and told that l had “won” a holiday fortunately all my calls are recorded(work related) l asked the caller repeatedly if he was time share which he denied. At the presentation, this was denied again in answer to a question by someone else in the room, well to cut a short story long, the ending was predictable with no holiday won and a dozen or so very unhappy people who had wasted an evening listning to a sales pitch.
l contacted our trading standards authority who investigated this company and l was informed that they were going to prosecute them,—-but they fled the country before that happened. l wouldnt be surprised that some of them arrived in SA where the pickings look easy, l would advise Don to try and find out if any of them are wanted in this country for trading standards offences. lf its the same crowd then they would have arrived in SA about twelve years ago, and from what l can remember some of the individuals are from America, Carribean countries and Israel.
Fred
Dec 9th, 2008
Wow, Colin – crazy stuff. I’d love to know where the QVC guys are from. Anyone know?
Pete
Dec 9th, 2008
Pls send them this post – I think they need to read what people think about them (including the links). Maybe they’ll change their advertising strategy and save a lot of people the pain of going through the ordeal of expecting a wonderful prize and leaving with a contract for holidays in hand (especially the retired couples I saw when I went to one).
Covering this on Talk Radio tonight: | The thing about common sense...
Dec 9th, 2008
[...] Ideate – Small Business in South Africa. [...]
teuns
Dec 17th, 2008
I have been wanting to warn job seekers about Findata Financial Services, also known as Finsolnet. Findata makes allot of promises, and never ever delivers. They try to keep you in the company by promising more responsibility, higher pay, funny and pyramid type commission structures (you pull on the short end) and client service means nothing for them, taking client money without providing service they do that gladly. Please job seekers, stay away from Findata financial services.
Lyne
Apr 14th, 2009
Hi we bought timeshare (points system) a couple of years ago and experienced problems when it came to paying surcharges everytime we booked which was very high, considering the fact that we also had to pay annual levies. When buying the timeshare we were also promised that should we wish to sell they would buy it back. Not true. I would like to know if anyone has also experienced a similar problem and have any advice? Lyne