451–460 of 510 posts
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Whatever happened to "the customer is always right?"
The customer is definitely not always right. But this one is very convincing.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20085741-245/sf-police-arr...
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How do you do #1? The card you get with many bank check accounts is a bank card, is a debit card, and will auth through your payment gateway as a credit card just fine. AFAIK, you don't know what backs the number someone just gave your web form, only whether your auth/capture on it worked or not. Would they need to require a faxed copy of the card?
The same way a hotel does it. Pre-approve a deposit on a credit card or actually remove a deposit on a debit card.
Airbnb & YC, just fix this please: 1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything. 2. Help her restore her virtual identity. Use any resources at your considerable disposal. 3. Help her find her irreplaceable stuff. A few private detectives and a small team of scouters can make more progress in 2 weeks that the SFPD can make in a lifetime. Publish pictures of her grandmother's jewelry to enlist a gia…
I've just learned more about this situation, and it turns out Airbnb has been offering to fix it, from the very beginning. From the beginning they offered to pay to get her a new place and new stuff, and do whatever else she wanted. The story Arrington wrote yesterday about Airbnb not offering to help was bullshit. He asked a company spokesman what Airbnb was doing to help her. The spokesman, who'd been told by their…
No one really cares what Arrington wrote. Everyone knows Arrington's rep.
What people are upset about is how the blog post that Chesky wrote sounded like. His post sounded like...
"Ummm...here are our security features..."
The correct public and private response is:
"This is a horrific. This is unacceptable. As CEO, I'm not going to rest until this is made right. I've assigned 3 people to this problem to do whatever is necessary to make this right.
We are extremely concerned about this, and we have a lot of work to do to make sure something like this will never happen again. Safety is job 1." Of course backing up those words with actions.
That way, even if the lady is lying. Even if it's a hoax... Even if it's complete crap... it doesn't matter, because people know that you take this seriously, and you're pulling out all the stops.
If there's a follow up blog post that details more horror stories... And, you have indeed made those phone calls.. then you say, "I'm really sorry that our response has been less than what you have needed or less than what you expected. That's on me, (as CEO). I will personally make this right. Call this number, they will put you directly in contact with my cell phone. and, I will make this right." And, of course, backing up those words with actions.
That way, no one can accuse you of having a less than stellar response to this. You are above reproach...
Because you've done the right thing for the person. The right thing to do is to do the right thing for the person.
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If she was being coached by a lawyer, said lawyer would surely not let her write another word about it. That's his payday she will burn. I doubt she has one.
Why's that? What has she written so far that would jeopardize settlement negotiations, or her ability to bring a case to court? Companies are invariably advised to clam up in the face of litigation, but that's because they have a lot to lose and because they have to maintain message discipline across the whole company. Also, because they usually don't want to talk about it.
The only way that would fly is if the lawyer is vetting everything before it is posted, which is more work for the lawyer. Since lawyers in cases like this are not paid hourly, and taking a cut of the settlement, they are not going to waste their time with that unless they think it increases their payout.
I think Occam's Razor suggests that she genuinely feels ruined, and that is why she is posting. Your attitude is borderline victim-blaming, and to suggest she is faking tears for money is kind of cold.
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Arrington aside, EJ's own blog post here seems to contradict what you're saying. The story she paints is one of AirBnB doing as much as they can in terms of damage control, but precious little in terms of repair. If they've offered to "fix it", and are doing "everything they could be doing", why is she talking about feeling neglected? I quote: "But the staff at Airbnb has not made a positive contribution to me person…
I don't know her so I couldn't say.
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I've just learned more about this situation, and it turns out Airbnb has been offering to fix it, from the very beginning. From the beginning they offered to pay to get her a new place and new stuff, and do whatever else she wanted. The story Arrington wrote yesterday about Airbnb not offering to help was bullshit. He asked a company spokesman what Airbnb was doing to help her. The spokesman, who'd been told by their…
The thing is, Paul; I am fully willing to believe that TC are grabbing the sensational as best they can - and twisting the story. I more than believe the spokesman spoke in careful legal terms and inadvertently caused the fuckfest. I can totally get that we are getting tiny snippets of the story - even from EJ herself. however EJ has posted a blog in which she clearly feels upset, distraught, confused and worried. Wh…
If this is all playing out in her head the way she is blogging it, I don't think she wants something nice. First, she probably wants what nobody can giver her (her peace of mind back). Secondly, she probably wants her dignity back - and that is the kind of thing where only a totally honest public apology for any wrong AirBnB have done to her, real or imaginary will achieve.
I mean, if she perceives that they have publicly denied things that she believes are true, I don't think they can buy her off at this stage, so one is down to "Grovel long, grovel hard and make it believable".
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I've just learned more about this situation, and it turns out Airbnb has been offering to fix it, from the very beginning. From the beginning they offered to pay to get her a new place and new stuff, and do whatever else she wanted. The story Arrington wrote yesterday about Airbnb not offering to help was bullshit. He asked a company spokesman what Airbnb was doing to help her. The spokesman, who'd been told by their…
it turns out Airbnb has been offering to fix it, from the very beginning No one really cares what Arrington wrote. Everyone knows Arrington's rep. What people are upset about is how the blog post that Chesky wrote sounded like. His post sounded like... "Ummm...here are our security features..." The correct public and private response is: "This is a horrific. This is unacceptable. As CEO, I'm not going to rest until t…
The problem is that this woman sounds like everybody's friend/sister/cousin. She sounds totally believable, and her story taps into a fear that a reasonable person would have a priori with the AirBnB model ("what if I rent to a wacko?").
So there is zero point in nickel-and-diming her with whether it was 8 hours or 24 before she heard from them, whether the dude is in custody for this crime or another crime - the point is that this story is now apocryphal. There is no point arguing the facts - AirBnB must focus on the concerns that every single person out there who read that story now has.
For the record: I live in a popular holiday destination, and yet dismissed listing on AirBnB when I first became aware of them because I have a child in the house, and did indeed think "what if I rent to some wacko, risking my own safety is one thing, risking my child's is another". If AirBnB want to move beyond the so-young-they-feel-immortal single set, they have to plausibly deal with these fears.
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we are standing by, and we just contacted her again telling her that we will do whatever we can to help.
Stop standing by and start taking action. Don't ask the victim to come to you for help, start offering help . Be proactive. Be a man about this.
Brian Chesky (Airbnb CEO) here. My heart goes out to our host. My co-founder has contacted her multiple times, as recently as last night, and we have again offered to help her in any way that she needs. We will continue to make ourselves available to her to do whatever she asks of us in this time of need. We have encouraged her to reach us so that we can help her through this, and we are standing by.