If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Posted on 04/17/2006 7:13:16 AM PDT by Panerai
Apple's corporate policy for dealing with unsolicited ideas may be changing. The company held a special meeting to discuss ways to improve its cold-hearted, boiler-plate response to any unsolicited improvements or suggestions submitted to the company, after it found out that it shattered a nine-year girl's heart. According to CBS 5 News, 9-year-old Shea O'Gorman wrote to Apple CEO Steve Jobs as her class was learning about writing business and formal letters. The third-grader wrote Jobs to offer suggestions on improving her iPod nano, such as adding song lyrics so listeners can sing along to their tunes. Although it took three months, the company finally responded to her letter--although it was not what O'Gorman and her family were expecting. Instead of a polite response from Jobs, the girl received a cold, stern letter from Apple's legal counsel telling her that the company didn't accept unsolicited ideas and that she should not send any suggestions to the company.
Apple's full legal policy, designed to protect itself from protracted legal battles about royalties and licensing from submitted ideas, was available online, according to the letter received and read by both O'Gorman and her family.
"She was very upset, and kinda threw the letter up in the air and ran in her room and slammed her door," the girl's mother told CBS 5 News.
Although Apple declined to comment on the story, a company representative reportedly called the girl to offer an apology (following an inquiry by CBS 5 News); in addition, the report says that Apple held a special meeting last week to discuss ways in which it could improve its corporate policy when dealing with children.
Judge finds karaoke violates copyright law
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1600326/posts
I'll bet this little girl thinks she can sing the "Happy Birthday" song without paying royalties!!! :-)
"Apple will have no clue as to how many potential and existing customers it lost because this boneheaded incident was publicized."
I wouldn't put it past them to have a pretty good idea of just how many customers they will lose ( or simply postpone slightly )
... and to know just how much money they would lose to lawsuits from parents of dewey-eyed children who stand up in court and say " sniff, but Mr. Judge, I wrote them a letter saying how they should do it, and when they came out with one two months later, they didn't even give me one for Christmas ... "
How 'bout a lawsuit from dweebs like me that have a beautiful iMac but can't figure out how to use it....
Lawyers are not about doing things. They're about telling their clients why they CAN'T do things.
Thus, a letter from a lawyer always sounds threatening.
Lawyers should not be allowed to communicate to the public at large.
I have a widget on my Tiger dash board called "Sing That ITune".. it displays
the lyrics and album cover of the tune currently playing from my I tune library.
"If nothing else, this nine year old got a major corporation to be aware that negative customer experiences tend to find their way into the public consciousness and have the potential to be ruinous."
A lesson that should have been learned after Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake" comment.
The only thing the company could have done differently would have been to have the form letter worded more politely, while containing the same information. Something along the lines of, "We appreciate that our users would like to offer suggestions for making their iPod experience better, however, we must ask that you do not send us these suggestions for the following reasons..."
And I always thought Apple was full of warm, fuzzy people.
Lawyers, schmoyers, they're the only ones getting rich in our society.
"Lawyers should not be allowed to communicate to the public at large."
... and just WHO do you think is going to have to give their approval to a warm-fuzzy sugar-coated version of the same letter before it gets communicated to the public ?
I disagree. Do not discourage anyone from sending in suggestions. Just let them know somehow that they are not the first (even if they are).
DISH lost me as a satellite customer last week when I asked, after nine years of buying programming, movies, and equipment, for a DVR. They said "We'll be happy to send one out, for $199, and you'll have to install it yourself."
I said "No thanks. DIRECTV will deliver all new equipment for four rooms, and THEY will install it, at no cost whatsoever."
When a manager called me later to ask why I had left, I told him "You guys don't really want me as a customer." He then had the nerve to offer me a free DVR and all new equipment if I stayed.
As I hung up, I told him "I don't do business with people who only give me what I want when I threaten to leave."
I really don't know how some of these clueless companies stay in business.
Let them give approval, but insist that anything they change will go through marketing before it goes out the door.
Go for it! ;)
susie
What she should have suggested is how to make an Apple run as seamlessly as a PC using XP. Why people like Apple computers I can not understand.
I work on one five days a week and would love to take a sledge hammer to it. When I get home to my PC to continue my work, it is like night and day. The PC running the same applications as the mac is smoooooth. It really is the difference between junk and a well honed machine.
I hope you learned your lesson and stopped using the idiotic machines. I can't stand them.
"Her idea was pretty good, but she's going to have to grow tougher skin if she wants to succeed in the business world."
No doubt she will grow a tougher skin, but she's just a little kid right now. There's a time for innocence, in my opinion.
I was half-joking. I can understand being miffed by the letter but it's hardly news-worthy. Back when I was a young-un I submitted an idea for Domino Rally. I got back a form letter from the president of Pressman thanking me for my idea and telling me to keep buying Pressman products. A better way of handling it.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.