Maytag-Gate and What It Means

There’s nothing like a star-studded blogger/Twitter controversy to welcome one back from a blogging hiatus. And was it ever a fine how-do-you-do.

For those of you who missed it, Heather Armstrong – aka dooce.com online, @dooce on Twitter and #26 on the planet, and don’t you forget it – had a broken washing machine. Her relatively new (and pricey) washing machine had been giving her nothing but trouble and had been fixed before. This time, however, she couldn’t reach anyone who could help. She also had lots of stinky baby laundry and was very, very tired.

She did what everyone on Twitter has done. She called out Maytag for not responding to her pleas for service.

We all do it
And I do mean everyone. Most of what I read on Twitter is a steady stream of corporate criticism. Communications companies seem to take the brunt of the chatter on Twitter, specifically Verizon, AT&T and whichever cable monopoly has the particular Tweeter’s neighborhood by the throat. The self-crowned social media gurus spend their days in coffee shops dissecting customer service, PR campaigns, marketing strategies and the Twitter presence of companies they have never worked for, never even interviewed with, all in a vain attempt to get said companies’ attention and a lucrative consulting gig. Which never comes. But hey, don’t let that stop you from telling us where ESPN went wrong in issuing its SM policy and spouting endless platitudes about what next-generation renegades you are by refusing to let the recession define the way you do business. And while you’re at it, what’s the muffin special today? (Come on, fellas. Tweet about something useful, will ya?)

Anyway, as I was saying. What ’80s quizzes is to Facebook, corporate-consumer intercourse is to Twitter. Why just the other day I myself took to the Twitwaves to express dissatisfaction with my cable reception:

It was a productive Tweet. Within minutes a local follower replied with the Twitter handles of four Charter representatives, and a neighbor chimed in that they’d been having the same problem and proffered a likely cause. Charter’s trucks began working in our neighborhood the next day. (They’re still out there now, and my reception hasn’t improved yet, but at least they’re working on it.)

Dooce, however, got it in her head to go for Maytag’s jugular for putting her though a “nightmare.”

First came this Tweet:

That was posted Monday. Nevermind that the “already written” post was never published. By Wednesday came the call for a boycott against Maytag:
Thursday brought at least three more all-caps Tweets urging her 1+ million followers to not buy anything from Maytag (which is owned by Whirlpool). No context or explanation. Dooce was pissed and felt that by extension the rest of the world should be outraged on her behalf.

Into this monologue (because, although Dooce was posting this on Twitter, she’s a one-way Tweeter. She broadcasts updates without replying to her followers. Until recently, that is. But that’s another matter. So, for all she was concerned, she was just talking to herself about a very real, very frustrating inconvenience.) stepped another well-known mommyblogger, Linda of All & Sundry (@sundry):

Linda works for a computer company – a large computer company – in what I gather is a PR-markety capacity. She’s one of the people at her place of employment charged with caring what the public thinks of the company’s products and services and doing something about it if there’s a problem. (And, like Dooce, has awesome hair.) I’m sure Dooce’s tweets hit both a professional and personal nerve with Linda.

Because, even at a large, faceless corporate conglomerate are people. People who are the tiniest bit hurt when they hear their employer – and by extension, their work – shredded. People who need their companies to maintain a strong profile because they depend on their paychecks. Because most people care about the work they do and how their employer’s reputation reflects on them.

Hitting close to home
It’s very possible I’m projecting a bit here, because this Internet squabble reminds me of a recent incident at the restaurant and of how vulnerable we all are – those who run businesses and employees alike. This past Father’s Day – mere weeks after having our asses handed to us on Mother’s Day – was our busiest day ever at the restaurant. The fact that these holidays are on Sundays, a day when we do about 40 percent of the week’s business, didn’t help. It was stupid bizzy. All we could do was smile, be upfront about how long the wait would be and keep those coffee cups filled WHATEVERYOUDO.

Nearly every customer was cheerful and understanding. Anyone who eats out knows how busy holidays are. Except for this one asshole. He seemed to think the kitchen should have used the time he spent waiting for a table to cook his food and was utterly irrational when he made a scene and left before his meal arrived. He unloaded on my husband’s partner, telling him what happened was inexcusable and how he was going to go all over the Internet and warn people NEVER to come to the restaurant.

I don’t mind telling you were were terrified. We had no idea who this guy was or what sort of Internet influence he had. Was he on Twitter? How many Facebook friends did he have? Is he a blogger? Or was he simply going to send an e-mail to the same five people he forwards political rants to? After I spent the next few days combing the Web looking for any mention of the restaurant on Father’s Day it occurred to me that anyone who was such a complete self-important jackass without a clue (did he think he was just going to waltz into another restaurant on a holiday Sunday in the prime after-church hours in the South and get a table instantly?) probably doesn’t know his way around a computer.

The truth is, he could have devastated us if he were an online somebody. We aren’t a multinational corporation. We’re a debt-ridden small business still establishing itself in an economy emerging from recession. Bad word of mouth could kill us.

Could Dooce have hurt Maytag? I don’t know, but I do know she tried. Her Tweet on Monday made that clear. Unlike the jerk in our restaurant, though, Heather has the platform to do some damage, if she’s so inclined to use her celebrity that way. If she felt inconvenienced enough to mobilize her readers.

Anna posted a thorough recap of the mess today (HOLY thorough!), posing some salient questions raised by this brouhaha. Doesn’t Heather Armstrong have the right to properly functional products just like any other consumer, as well as the right to complain and seek satisfaction if that product is deficient in some way? Doesn’t she enjoy the same First Amendment rights to use her blog and social media to attract the attention of someone who can address her complaints or just to vent? Will she be called a bully anytime she speaks out against a company? Are the rules different for those who have more than 1 million Twitter followers and millions of blog readers? And does Heather Armstrong even recognize this?

It’s possible that she doesn’t. It’s hard to tell what kind of level of cognition she has about her Internet celebrity precisely because she doesn’t engage with her followers. Or her blog readers – you never see her popping into the comments to clarify or converse. Perhaps it’s simply not possible given the magnitude of her audience. Or maybe it’s a defense mechanism against spending too much time on the conversation aspect of Twittering and blogging. After all, it’s not like she has to promote herself.

Cruel intentions
I’d like to give Dooce the benefit of the doubt, but her, and her husband Jon’s, Twitter streams contradict her blog post explaining this whole sequence of events. Despite what the majority of the 1500 (and rising) comments on her post say, this wasn’t consumer justice played out on a social media platform. It was someone with a rather large megaphone throwing her weight around. She was gunning for Maytag and said as much a few days before. Someone who’s been on Oprah, Dr. Phil and has hobnobbed with Kathie Lee KNOWS what will happen when she gets to Twittering.

I’d also like to think that when companies including Bosch began offering her free appliances, Heather already had plans to pay it forward. But given the glee emanating from her consumer crusade, I’d say it was @mommymelee who gave her the idea:
Does it matter, as long as there was a happy ending? I don’t think @mommymelee is convinced.

She’s not the only dubious one:
And when all this was happening live Thursday, Heather’s husband (and employee) chimed in with this charmer:

Yeah, so it might be statements like that that make it hard to think your explanatory post is anything but disingenuous. Like when you justify buying a $1300 washing machine. It’s too bad you even have to do that. I know there are some blog readers who begrudge others’ deluxe appliances, however I have no qualms with anyone owning them. Unless the reason you mention the washer cost $1300 is to imply that owners of spendy appliances deserve better and prompter customer service than those with bottom-of-the-line models. The claim that you had to save up for it, though? NO ONE’S buying that one.
(You gotta know how much it hurts me to pay Chicken Liver any heed, but when you’re right you’re right, nomesane?)

In the end, what does it really matter? So what if someone with all the Twitter followers in the world calls for a corporate boycott? Does it ensure success? Her readers can make up their own minds. How many Dooce readers were in the market for new durable goods anyway, and what is the percentage of them that won’t be buying from Maytag or any of Whirlpool’s other brands based on Dooce’s exhortations? I can’t imagine that’s too many.

Linda Sundry was also compelled to write a post clarifying her stand. She was brave to rationally and reasonably disagree publicly with Dooce, given how sycophantic her supporters are, acting as if Heather stood up to Big Tobacco. One commenter on Linda’s blog pointed out the irony of this situation well:

The aftermath
Did Dooce accomplish what she wanted with this broadside? It’s hard to say. She Twitter-bashed a company with virtually no social media presence. As of Friday night, @WhirlpoolCorp had 11 posted Tweets, 4 of them in response to this incident. Heather reports that guy on phone at Maytag headquarters was “phenomenal” and “super helpful” and that someone was sent over to replace parts and fix her washer. So she has a working washing machine again. She also got another company to donate appliances to a shelter, making her a big hero.

But Dooce’s brand took a beating, and by her own hands. Another popular blogger calmly pointed out where she might be abusing her influence. And Dooce’s husband, whose livelihood is every bit as dependent on the Dooce brand as Heather’s is, came off a toady. Heather should think long and hard before attacking a company again.

So is the moral of the story that Internet celebrities need to censor themselves, that they have more responsibilities than rights as consumers? It just might be. Celebrities simply don’t have the same freedoms that nobodies enjoy. I’m sure President Obama once received the wrong pizza from Domino’s or Bill Gates’ Wired magazine didn’t come one month or, the example Anna used, Oprah got a pair of defective Manolos. The difference is, they are savvy – and graceful – enough to know not to take their gripes to the public sphere with the twin goals of seeking redress and teaching the offending companies a painful lesson in choosing to tango with the wrong customer.

(But did those superluminaries dispatch an underling to handle the matter privately – and give the assistant the go-ahead to remind the company just who they were dealing with  – until restitution was made? You bet. Celebrities don’t get where they are, and what they have, by being doormats. They’re just smart enough to keep their tantrums on the down low.)

Ever the trailblazer, it’s possible Heather performed a service for us all. By taking Maytag to task she might have taught them to ignore the pleas of customers at their own peril, because you never know who’s on the other end of the Internet and how much influence that customer has at their fingertips.

So how can I get Heather to help me with this cable problem of mine?

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3. Soy un Perdedor

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