Google gives refund and mea culpa
One of the most powerful things out there is the idea of a group of folks who decide to take on an issue. The blogosphere is full of issues that we take on every day. Lately though the trend has been for companies to monitor the blogosphere and once something reaches a critical level, the company does something other than what it intended to do in the first place.
We saw this with the Dell Consumerist issue right here and it ended up being a good experience, for dell, for everyone who was influenced by the issue, and for the consumerist.
Today sees Google following the same path with Google video, rather than checkout credits, they are giving a full refund for everyone who bought a Google Video, right back to their credit card. The official Google blog states:
We’re giving a full refund — as a credit card refund — to everyone who ever bought a video. We’ll need you to make sure we have your most recent credit card information, but once we know where to send the money, you’ll get it. Source: Google Blog
In so many ways, this is a better path, although for those that bailed on the credit card, or otherwise is not available to give a full refund to, that is also ok, companies loose track of customers and customers loose track of companies.
What is heartening, and what is very different from the protests of the 1960’s and early 1970’s is that companies are responding to the collective words written by so many bloggers. When we see things like this we know we did something good, and no one got hurt, no one had to call in the national guard, and so far we have not had our version of Kent State.
So thank you Google, and yes, everyone makes mistakes, it is the acknowledgement of the mistake and making things better that makes for a stronger company, a stronger community and eco-system around that company, and drives customer loyalty to that company. It is good business, and good community support, and everyone including bloggers can make mistakes, it is always fun to see the mea culpa (of which we have had to do a few, we also don’t get everything right all the time) and makes for a much stronger blogger base.
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