I
have experienced difficulty communicating with a business. The business Bacon and Barrels Festival
Series had no difficulty contacting me to request a quote for zero waste
services for their San Diego event. A
quote was provided and the contract agreed upon in writing over emails. Services were rendered and included the
hiring and paying of subcontractor support (all agreed upon in the event
contract). A full zero waste report was provided
within 48 hours of event completion at which time the invoice was presented.
Bacon
and Barrels to this day still has not paid their invoice, nor returned another
email or phone call and in person deny all responsibility for fulfilling their
financial obligation. Bacon and Barrels
has a Facebook page on which they promote their events. I was very interested in posting a warning on
their page and ours to the benefit of other support personnel and suppliers
that these unscrupulous people do not honor their contracts. I was further interested in giving their
clientele pause to reconsider supporting this event. It was decided that outside posts can be too
easily removed.
In
that instance, social media may have allowed for temporary venting but it is
clear that the business owner has unscrupulous practices and would have blocked
or deleted any comment they didn’t care for.
Since three small non-profits were left financially in the lurch by this
company we discussed it amongst ourselves and didn’t think the social media
approach would be of benefit. Hopefully
a business or individual with deeper pockets will be able to expose this
underhanded business owner and finally hold them responsible for their debts. Social Media did not make it easier to get
the problem solved in this case.
I do
have positive experiences communicating with businesses through social media, typically
with event postings. Event postings can
be helpful for directions and last minute questions. Just as frequently as an event posting is
helpful there are event postings that lack essential information such as price
of admission, location, or a link for further details and those are also the
events where no one replies to your questions.
If
it was my business I would address the issue at hand rather than blocking the commentary
or deleting commentary. When I receive positive
comments I thank the commenter or “like” the positive comment.
I agree it's a hard call when you are trying to say something bad about a company. They can delete your posting so fast that almost no one will see it. You also don't want to post a bunch of negative publicity on your pages about other businesses. The best thing you can do is give them bad reviews on google and yelp in hopes that it helps other people decide to use another company.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the situation, it certainly demonstrates one situation in which social media doesn't really help your ability to communicate. If the business is poorly run or lacks ethics it seems that the mandates or consequences should come from above not from the customer. I will say that I know quite a few people that spend a great deal of time reading reviews on companies so perhaps that would be an effective method to at least help others in the future to avoid the business.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about this more than frustrating situation. Maybe try reporting this business to the Better Business Bureau. I can relate and agree with you that social media can be a create communication tool for events. Thats probably the only instance where I've thought to use social media accounts to resolve an issue or to find out more information to better plan my time. If it is something more important or personal I believe their are better ways of communication outside of social media to resolve issues.
ReplyDeleteLaura,
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting to read about your thoughts about event postings. I never use the events section of social media so I don't have much experience. But reading what you had to say about it makes me feel more understanding of it and more encouraged to use this feature on my page in the future for events! Thanks!! :)