Recently in Bad Customers Category
Because of my pro-business stance, I occasionally receive emails from readers who accuse me of being anti-consumer. I'd like to say once and for all, that I am not anti-consumer. I believe in excellent customer service, which means giving a consumer the best possible product at the best possible price.
Now I'm no fan of the iPhone. I'm quite attached to my Blackberry Pearl with awesome Microsoft Outlook Integration and push email services (for the life of me, I cannot figure out why Apple doesn't support Microsoft Outlook)! But I really do have to weigh in on the current debate over unlocked Apple iPhones.
You see, some customers think that just because they buy a product, they can go ahead and use it in any old way they want, even in a way that hurts the company they bought it from. Apple very generously produced this product with the expectation that users would sign up with AT&T. Perfectly reasonable deal–you want an iPhone, you sign up with AT&T.
But a small group of malcontent users has decided to hack the iPhone to avoid signing up with AT&T, which hits both AT&T and Apple where it hurts: the bottom line. These customers are nothing more than consumer terrorists, breaking the rules to put their own best interests in front of others.
Apple would not be a good corporate citizen if it allowed these terrorists to go unchallenged. And as we all know, you can't negotiate with terrorists. If Apple doesn't render their phones useless ("brick" them, in the internet vernacular), the consumer terrorists have already won.
