Have you heard of “Refrigeratorgate?”
Luo Yonghao, popular blogger and owner of Laoluo English Training School, discovered a little over a month ago that he wasn’t the only one having difficulty with the door of his Siemens brand refrigerator. Using the extremely popular Weibo (aka “Chinese Twitter”), he’s found more and more people whose refrigerator doors won’t close properly.
Early on Sunday, November 20, Luo gathered outside the Siemens headquarters in Beijing with 3 of the faulty fridges and a small cluster of protestors and media. They proceeded to smash the fridges with sledgehammers. Now, Luo didn’t want to create a public scene, so he hired someone to clean up afterwards. He was going for media attention more than public disturbance, anyways.
Now, the story is just reaching English media. Luo’s quite a character, and he’s made it his personal mission to seek justice for fellow consumers. He’s demanding that Siemens acknowledge the design flaw, apologize and offer a recall for the affected fridges.
So far Siemens of China has denied that there is a flaw in the design or manufacturing of the fridges. In October, Siemens published an offer to send repair technicians to owner’s homes to fix the faulty doors.
This story is a lot like the antennagate issue that came up with the launch of the iPhone 4 in July 2010. Apple didn’t offer a recall, but gave early purchasers a free case or bumper.
According to communications shared by Luo and reported in English on a Chinese blog (wait for it, this link loads slowly), Siemens’ PR agency spoke with Luo and discussed the issue with him. He made some recommendations for an announcement, which was then heavily spun before being released. Then the agency posted astroturf-style messages online defending Siemens.
This is all entertaining as an outsider, but this is a missed opportunity for a multinational manufacturer with a good international reputation in a gigantic market with the fastest growing economy.
Apple’s uniqueness, excellent customer service and a fantastic product easily overcame antennagate, but can a common fridge do the same?
One thing is for sure, social media is showing its ability to influence consumer behaviour in China, just as it’s shown here.
Recent Comments