Let's say for a second that Dustin really is a ridiculously ignorant designer (he's not) - who gives a crap? He's a customer who is really displeased not only with the AA website but with the total experience. And the majority of the comments on the other submissions were about how even people here hated the company, before you found out about the firing of Mr. X.
Ignorant, fine. Harsh, fine. You guys are getting caught up in criticizing Dustin because it's the easiest thing to do. It's weird how all you anti bigco people are so riled up in the way someone expressed their poor customer experience and overlooking the fact that AA fired an employee trying to reach out. I know it violated the contract, whatever, but that just shows us where AA's mind is. Mr. X didn't say anything that made me look down upon AA. We know big companies run slowly, that's a constant. I doubt there's one person out there who read Mr. X's statement and learned something uniquely bad about AA that they didn't know of before. If anything, it made them look more humane.
You're right though, a 21 year old's ignorance is the real issue here. Forget widespread displeasure with AA, or the fact that they fired an employee for personally reaching out to a customer that else wouldn't have been reached out to, it's the arrogance that really kills you.
Oy, Kyro. Usually I side with what you've got to say but this time I think you're in the wrong.
> Let's say for a second that Dustin really is a ridiculously ignorant designer (he's not)
He is in that he's never worked for a major company in a design position.
> He's a customer who is really displeased not only with the AA website but with the total experience.
I've had to deal with customers before. I've had customers tell me to fire everybody in a movie theatre for incompetence. Usually we pretend like we care in front of them, then roll our eyes once they're gone.
> And the majority of the comments on the other submissions were about how even people here hated the company, before you found out about the firing of Mr. X.
There was just as much criticism before. The summary of mass opinion is: We hate American Airlines and their design, but the issue has been oversimplified here.
> I know it violated the contract, whatever, but that just shows us where AA's mind is. Mr. X didn't say anything that made me look down upon AA.
The deal is when you sign an agreement, you follow it. What if Mr. X had been an Apple employee leaking a new product? That's what he did here. Perhaps not as severely, but it's the same corporate crime. And his response let Dustin write a second article bashing people at American Airlines, so it invited even more bad PR.
> If anything, it made them look more humane.
Mr. X was paid to design web sites. AA has other people who're meant to make them look humane. Right now they're sucking, but it's sound in theory because it lets everybody know what they're supposed to do. It works well for other companies. AA is bad, but they won't fix the problem by growing laxer.
Let's say for a second that Dustin really is a ridiculously ignorant designer (he's not) - who gives a crap? He's a customer who is really displeased not only with the AA website but with the total experience. And the majority of the comments on the other submissions were about how even people here hated the company, before you found out about the firing of Mr. X.
Ignorant, fine. Harsh, fine. You guys are getting caught up in criticizing Dustin because it's the easiest thing to do. It's weird how all you anti bigco people are so riled up in the way someone expressed their poor customer experience and overlooking the fact that AA fired an employee trying to reach out. I know it violated the contract, whatever, but that just shows us where AA's mind is. Mr. X didn't say anything that made me look down upon AA. We know big companies run slowly, that's a constant. I doubt there's one person out there who read Mr. X's statement and learned something uniquely bad about AA that they didn't know of before. If anything, it made them look more humane.
You're right though, a 21 year old's ignorance is the real issue here. Forget widespread displeasure with AA, or the fact that they fired an employee for personally reaching out to a customer that else wouldn't have been reached out to, it's the arrogance that really kills you.