Listening but not paying attention

I've been presenting a talk titled, "Complainers into Champions" lately that gives examples of why many companies can benefit from using social media to engage with customers and talk about their problems in public. I'm usually pushing companies to engage more, listen more, respond more.

However, I recently had a personal experience where a company was listening to social media, but wasn't really paying attention - and it cost them. A tweet that I sent was taken out of context and a big company spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars investigating it. Bryan Menell also talked about my experience on the Dachis Group Blog.

It all started with a phone call to my cell phone. This was strange to begin with, because I use Google Voice and I don't give out my cell phone number to anyone. I was immediately suspicious and figured that it was some kind of strange solicitation. Here my best recollection of the conversation:

Caller: "Is this Joshua Baer?"

Me: "Who's calling?"

Caller: "Enrico XXXX"

Me: "Who are you with?"

Caller: "Bose Security"

Me: "What's this regarding?"

Caller: "It's a personal matter."

Me: "You're going to have to give me more information than that."

Caller: "Is this Josh? It's regarding your business selling stolen Bose headphones."

Me: "This is Josh. I'm not sure what you're referring to. What makes you think that?"

Caller: "I'm looking at a Twitter message that says, 'joshuabaer @jotto I've actually got a side business moving hot bose headphones'. Did you send that?"

 

Me: "I didn't say that. It must be some kind of mistake... Oh wait a minute. I think this was part of a joke. I was selling some used headphones on Facebook and my friend said that as a joke. I think if you look at the tweets before and after that it will be pretty obvious that its a joke."

Me: "Look, I'm a big fan of your products and just got the latest version. I was selling two old pair."

Caller: "Do you know where you purchased the two headphones?"

Me: "Not really, it was a long time ago. I probably bought them directly from you, or maybe from Amazon. Come to think of it one of them was my wife's so I have no idea where she purchased it."

Caller: "Are you sure?"

Me: "No, I just told you I'm not really sure because it was a long time ago. I was really just selling my used ones on Facebook."

Caller: "I know, we bought a pair from you."

Me: (laughing) "Are you serious? That's hilarious! So you know it wasn't stolen then."

Caller: "Well we can't verify that. I need to know where you purchased them." 

Me: "Look, I wish you the best and must admit that I'm kind of impressed that you're paying attention to Twitter, but this is a waste of your time."

Caller: "Well we're going to continue to investigate this. Is this the best number to reach you at if I have further questions?"

Then we exchanged contact info.

So basically, Bose Security was watching Twitter and took this one tweet out of context. They spent at least $165 so far (that's how much they paid me when they bought the headphones) and have spent many hours researching it, tracking down my number, calling me, etc.

If they had looked at my Twitter page and just seen the tweets sent around the same time, I think they should have been able to tell it was a joke.

 

How much did this cost Bose? At least $165. Assuming that they spend a few hours researching it, we're probably looking at hundreds of dollars if not more! 

Here is the original Facebook post in the marketplace:

 

Comments

[what is strattera]

Why you blame jotto?

[Damon Cali]

I blame jotto.

[Kyle]

Absurd on an almost Strangelove level. Thanks for recounting.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to unload a cachet of Bose speakers out of the back of my van.