PR nightmare in progress

Martin Bosworth

The IRS’ justly-maligned private debt collection program is back in the hot seat—this time courtesy of Brian Ross and the folks over at The Blotter:

Congressional investigators say there have been hundreds of complaints about repeated and abusive phone calls from debt collectors participating in the IRS program. Among those who have filed complaints are people in nursing homes, wives of servicemen in Iraq and low-income taxpayers facing economic hardship…Under the rules of the program, collectors cannot say they are working for the IRS and are calling about a tax matter without first receiving proof of a taxpayer’s identity. This has led to complaints from consumers saying they have received calls that sound like scams from collectors who have pressed them to provide social security numbers without identifying the purpose of the call.

This is not the political environment for that sort of thing. Expect to be called on it.

Did Apple censor its online forum?

Lawsuit claims LCD screens on Apple's current notebooks are not capable of millions of colors

The complaint also points out that many of the disgruntled customers posted messages on Apple's own forums only later to have their posts moderated or completely removed by Apple forum administrators.

"It appears that Apple has engaged in substantial editing of the posts on the discussion forum," the lawsuit indicates.

If you have an online forum, and I think they are a good idea, be prepared for negative posts. If the criticism is merited, tell the customer what the company is doing to fix the situation. If the criticism is unwarranted, calmly respond with the facts and let the facts speak for themselves. Don't remove negatives posts, unfair ones can be self discrediting when the facts are immediately placed beside them.

Charlie Sorrel doesn't think much of this lawsuit.