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How The Hell Is This My Fault?

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Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#111

Post by jacquesm »

jcunningham wrote: post #109
jacquesm wrote: post #91

Everybody calm down please. EJ is real, she's a real person, it really did happen, just in case anybody was still wondering about that. I've passed her contact info to PG and him being the smart man that he is I'm pretty sure that he can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody and will allow the victim to move on and get AirBNB past this crisis. Any words to the effect that AirBNB is 'setting precedent' a…

Wouldn't the Airbnb guys have already given her contact info to PG if they had wanted to? What made you decide to do so and did you ask her for permission to pass on her details to a third party?

> Wouldn't the Airbnb guys have already given her contact info to PG if they had wanted to?

Maybe.

> What made you decide to do so and did you ask her for permission to pass on her details to a third party?

I think that PG is a very smart guy and I have some personal reasons to believe that PG has his heart very much in the right place when it comes to things that are this personal. I can not go in to details there, you'll have to trust me on that one.

I did not ask for her permission, but I think that her information is in very trusted hands with Paul and I am 100% sure that he would never ever abuse it.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#112

Post by tghw »

dr_ wrote: post #103
jacquesm wrote: post #91

Everybody calm down please. EJ is real, she's a real person, it really did happen, just in case anybody was still wondering about that. I've passed her contact info to PG and him being the smart man that he is I'm pretty sure that he can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody and will allow the victim to move on and get AirBNB past this crisis. Any words to the effect that AirBNB is 'setting precedent' a…

If she's scared out of her wits, shouldn't she remove her blog postings, other than the last few that pertain to the episode with AirBnB? It's not that difficult to figure parts of her identity from her prior postings and personally, if it happened to me and I was concerned for my own safety, that's what I would have done.

The people she would be scared of already know her identity. In fact, they may have stolen it from her.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#113

Post by jacquesm »

dr_ wrote: post #103
jacquesm wrote: post #91

Everybody calm down please. EJ is real, she's a real person, it really did happen, just in case anybody was still wondering about that. I've passed her contact info to PG and him being the smart man that he is I'm pretty sure that he can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody and will allow the victim to move on and get AirBNB past this crisis. Any words to the effect that AirBNB is 'setting precedent' a…

If she's scared out of her wits, shouldn't she remove her blog postings, other than the last few that pertain to the episode with AirBnB? It's not that difficult to figure parts of her identity from her prior postings and personally, if it happened to me and I was concerned for my own safety, that's what I would have done.

> If she's scared out of her wits, shouldn't she remove her blog postings, other than the last few that pertain to the episode with AirBnB?

She's already lost her home and her possessions, I think that to ask her to wipe out her online life as well would be a bit much.

I've given her some hints about the ways in which she could tune her postings and some other little details that will make it much harder to track her.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#114

Post by johnsea »

I see airbnb as a match-maker and consider it quite naive to entrust a 'facebook-friend-like' stranger my appartment without proper checking who this person is.

Typical America were drinking hot coffee leads to lawsuits.

(Which doesn't mean i'm not sorry for the person, or that risks shouldn't be stated (more) prominently, or that insurances should be here)

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#115

Post by jcunningham »

jacquesm wrote: post #111
jcunningham wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't the Airbnb guys have already given her contact info to PG if they had wanted to? What made you decide to do so and did you ask her for permission to pass on her details to a third party?

> Wouldn't the Airbnb guys have already given her contact info to PG if they had wanted to? Maybe. > What made you decide to do so and did you ask her for permission to pass on her details to a third party? I think that PG is a very smart guy and I have some personal reasons to believe that PG has his heart very much in the right place when it comes to things that are this personal. I can not go in to details there,…

Ok but doesn't Airbnb have much bigger fish behind them now that could help with this? (Ashton Kutcher, Andreeson, DST, General Catalyst)

I would be surprised if these companies have not offered the support of their PR teams to help Airbnb dig themselves out of this hole.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#116

Post by AlexandrB »

todayiamme wrote: post #30

This might seem stupid, but given the line of events if I was AirBNB's founders I would do this; offer EJ my place to stay, and cook a simple meal for her. That's it. The shortfall of AirBNB over here is that they might care, but they aren't coming across as someone caring, and a little bit of empathy coupled with a genuine act of kindness will go a long way over here.

Yup.

I think the original sin in all this was yanking the original AirBnB support person who was helping EJ and replacing this contact with CYA bullshit. From EJ's perspective it probably looked very much like AirBnB turning their back on the problem and clamming up. At that point, any offer of financial help just looks like AirBnB trying to pay her to go away.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#117

Post by loy22 »

jacquesm wrote: post #91

Everybody calm down please. EJ is real, she's a real person, it really did happen, just in case anybody was still wondering about that. I've passed her contact info to PG and him being the smart man that he is I'm pretty sure that he can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody and will allow the victim to move on and get AirBNB past this crisis. Any words to the effect that AirBNB is 'setting precedent' a…

One question remains to be cleared: how did the guest got inside the apartment? What was the system used for the key transaction?

I don't know how it usually goes, but I'd like this blind spot to be cleared. She published a number, an email address and a nickname on her blog, but no postal address. So the keys weren't shipped.

She never called the number, and can't tell the gender of her perpetrator. Only the neighborhoods acted as mere witnesses of a "group of people" coming in. This suggest that nobody else was involved in the transaction, no friend or neighborhood to give the key and see the guy.

So the guys "came to her house" and got inside, but it doesn't tell us how. Nobody has been in physical contact with them, and the keys weren't shipped.

I don't want to sound insensitive, but this blind spot buggers me a little. Wonder if she can tell more about it, even if it doesn't sound relevant to her horrible experience. I believe her, maybe the key transaction process was bit naive as well and it wouldn't be relevant (hiding the key somewhere), but it could also mean that the burglary might have happened after the host left (while still being an improbable hypothesis, it would just open a new possibility). It's just a small bug that I'd like to be squashed.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#118

Post by jcunningham »

tghw wrote: post #112
dr_ wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If she's scared out of her wits, shouldn't she remove her blog postings, other than the last few that pertain to the episode with AirBnB? It's not that difficult to figure parts of her identity from her prior postings and personally, if it happened to me and I was concerned for my own safety, that's what I would have done.

The people she would be scared of already know her identity. In fact, they may have stolen it from her.

I'm not sure whether she is more scared of the robbers or the consequences of her publicity because of this event and going up against a well-funded company in a potential legal battle.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#119

Post by jacquesm »

jcunningham wrote: post #115
jacquesm wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wouldn't the Airbnb guys have already given her contact info to PG if they had wanted to? Maybe. > What made you decide to do so and did you ask her for permission to pass on her details to a third party? I think that PG is a very smart guy and I have some personal reasons to believe that PG has his heart very much in the right place when it comes to things that are this personal. I can not go in to details there,…

Ok but doesn't Airbnb have much bigger fish behind them now that could help with this? (Ashton Kutcher, Andreeson, DST, General Catalyst) I would be surprised if these companies have not offered the support of their PR teams to help Airbnb dig themselves out of this hole.

Possibly.

PG to me is the 'father' of all these start-ups, and as I wrote I have personal reasons to believe that he is exactly the right guy for this.

What is needed most at this moment in time is someone with a capacity for empathy and some adult supervision.

PR can come afterwards, my own view of PR is that is mostly about putting something bad in as favorable light as possible, right now there are two parties that simply need some help and some mediation.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#120

Post by dr_ »

jcunningham wrote: post #118
tghw wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people she would be scared of already know her identity. In fact, they may have stolen it from her.

I'm not sure whether she is more scared of the robbers or the consequences of her publicity because of this event and going up against a well-funded company in a potential legal battle.

Give me a break - this is not Exxon Mobil we're talking about.
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