Paul-Blacknight
You said Walsh is talking one sided, as his opinion supporting Tom. So why didn’t you guys let your side of the story out, and come clean? We are not bunch of losers that we won’t understand server side technical issue. We know tom’s side as he expressed it, so why not you guys express too. So we won’t talk only about side of tom. Consumer left you negative feedback and you send a notice removing site, well that doesn’t sound too transparent, does it?

Ed Byrne
I may never had experiance hosting with you but i really like your initiative of responding negative comments. Consumer always right, even if they aren’t. If they don’t like you, you won’t have biz. Every companies have draw backs, but still people lure into some just for one and only reason Customer care.

I had a recent experience with a bank security guard. I parked in the customer car park as I was withdrawing a large amount of cash. These days you’d never know whose watching you.

Anyway, as I’m leaving with two young children in my car he started roaring and shouting in the driver side window, writing my car registration number and stating he was calling the Garda. My kids thought we were getting arrested. He really upset them. I drove off rather than get out of the car.

When I got home I called the bank manager to make a complaint. I wasn’t the first to complain. Besides doing himself out of a job, that’s no way to speak to customers especially in front of kids. Luckily the branch manager understood this which made me (the customer) feel a little better.

Without the customer you have no business, it doesn’t take a lot to listen. Sometimes that’s enough

Paul – it was given less consideration for Tom’s post than you think. As I said, it’s a post I’ve been meaning to write but never got around to (like most things right now!). I thought Tom’s post was the perfect opportunity to give an example of a brand not addressing a blog. Whether or not the points expressed on that blog are true is almost irrelevant as I think the brand should engage anyway, even if only for the sake of the record.

Regarding your point on Tom’s reputation.
I think people respect him for his approach, so he must be doing something right. I don’t think enough people speak their mind. Mike Arrington will happily give his verdict on companies which can in some cases, make or break those companies. I think the public will decide on whether to believe Tom or Mike when they express an opinion.

Off topic, why don’t you drop by http://contentlabel.org and see if it’s of interest to you. I’d love to get as many people as possible involved, especially those that like to express an opinion

I appreciate your direct approach. I can’t debate your opinion regarding my commenting from one side of the fence. I am in fact, voicing my personal opinion as someone who knows Tom and believes what he says to be true. I am not claiming to know the full story, only Tom’s version and I make no bones about that.

I didn’t call Tom specifically to get his side of the story, we needed to catch up about something entirely different and got talking…

I would like to invite Blacknight to comment if they wish to explain their side of the story for the sake of the record.

Sometimes we need to trust what people say. There are commentators on Tom’s blog who support Blacknight because they’ve had a positive experience. I wouldn’t even begin to debate their points as I assume they’re true. I do apologise if my post misrepresented my intentions.

I don’t know Blacknight. I am simply commentating on a very specific point which was surrounding their decision to react badly to a blog. This is a mistake made by many brand owners and one I was hoping to highlight using Tom’s experience as an example.

If you look at Ed from Hosting 365, he got in touch with me personally. Given my original harsh words, most people would have ignored my post, or reacted as Blacknight did. So, not only has he been given the opportunity to address my original comment, I will only speak of his company in a positive light and reference its reaction to a complaint. I might even offer him a job!

Money can’t buy that kind of PR.

Quite a considered post on the situation. I do believe that while Michele should respect the power of the blogosphere, Tom should use carefully the power he has through his readership. After all , Tom works as a consultant to business and has his own reputation to manage.

Paul , Technology in Plain English

Thanks for the kind words. It’s always hard to read negative comments in a public forum about your company, and hard not to go on the defensive.

I think one thing I’ve learnt through our support issues - is that generally people don’t get annoyed when there is a problem - we all know problems happen - it’s setting the expectation on what service levels should be, and then delivering on them. Over-selling or over-promising will come back to haunt you.

The other point I’d like to highlight is that a marketing budget shouldn’t only be broken into advertising / event sponsorship and the usual brand building and customer acquisition areas - but also have a major part apportioned to ‘delighting the customer’ - which can’t be bought by media spending, but only by internal management, training and processes, that are customer- and service- centric. When you have thousands of customers you’re going to get compliants - people have off days, on both sides of the fence - it’s how you deal with it that sets you apart.

I presume before making this post you called Blacknight as you did Tom to discuss this so that this blog posting would be “fair and open” like you suggest that all bloggers should do? If not, then your post is one sided. With any situation there are two sides and without comment from the second party your are just jumping on Tom’s “band wagon”.