RJ van Spaandonk from Core had a minor tirade yesterday on Twitter and has now blocked some of the Stopcore members via Twitter. His tone in these twitter posts were extremely condescending and sarcastic, a tone we have tried to avoid. The simple truth is that while StopCore.co.za might be a strong message, all we want is some engagement. Ultimately we are his clients and instead of telling us off he should really rather be interacting with us. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that if the local Mac community was spoken to on issues rather than an attitude of ambivalence and derision then sites like this would never exist. His Twitter stream was solely about pricing and that is not the only issue, not by a long stretch. All the Apple users in this country we’ve spoken to have the attitude that they will pay a premium if they get premium service that one gets from a company such as Dell in South Africa.
This post is originally from The Mac Blog and can be found here.
So, RJ van Spaandonk, Executive Director of the Core Group, has discovered Twitter. And has chosen to use it, to get his point of view out. Excellent! What this debate needs is some real engagement and some real truth. Especially after Redi Direko (once again) kicked her personal journalistic integrity to the curb, in mis-handling the debate on her show on 702 Talk Radio yesterday.
Now, I’m all about the Twitter, and I believe he has a great opportunity to engage the small but vocal and highly-networked geek community that is the SA Twitter-sphere, to both his, and Core’s advantage. Well, at least, I did. Until I saw this morning’s RJ-stream:
Reading RJ’s tweets make it perfectly clear why the Core Group has such an adversarial stance toward it’s customers. And to be clear, that’s what started the whole brouhaha. The CAB issue, the StopCore website and the price-difference fixation are all expressions of the customer dissatisfaction at the appalling, arrogant attitude which has sadly become a hallmark of the Core Group.
It comes from the top. Core’s attitude is reflected in the snide tone of RJ’s ‘facts and suggestions’ tweets. The company line is clearly an extension of RJ’s personal way of looking at the situation and handling it.
I think it’s time for Mr van Spaandonk to acknowledge his PR-Disaster status, step aside and get some professional help.
A PR agency, perhaps…
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July 1st, 2009 at 6:40 am
Maybe this “proof” should be sent onto Apple in the US and UK. I’m sure the marketing dept. there would not take likely this kind of outburst. Seeing as they a company that tent to keep very tight lipped on any kind of communicationd with the press and public. Could convince them to look for another distributorship in SA. Just a thought.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:12 am
Well the aim of this site is to get Apple to take a look at the work of Core.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:26 am
This is simply unacceptable behavior from someone in a senior management position. It’s a disgrace to Apple …and Core refer to themselves as “brand custodians?”
July 1st, 2009 at 8:27 am
Reading the 3′rd Twit post it seems to me he made a really bad business decision to lock down the exchange rate at 9-1. SAA made the same mistake in their R/$ exchange speculation, we as taxpayers are paying the price for that mistake, should we be paying the price for RJ’s bad business decisions?
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:12 am
Is that why the updates are now protected and there is not even an option to email for permission to follow?
phahahahaha
July 3rd, 2009 at 8:15 am
Needed an iPOD sorted out – they told me they cannot do the PC upgrade as they do not have a normal operational PC – couold only do for Apple
Their service (Core) sucks – and speaking to Core they informed me that Apple don’t care about the S.A. Market becasue it is too small in terms of their other markets. Makes you think !!
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:15 am
It is amazing how incompetent managers in SA can be. What this nut is going on about that on THEIR forward contract rate they have to charge more. Who was the idiot to buy dollars at R9.10 when every single person with half a brain knows that the dollar is un-sustainably strong (trade deficit widening and printing money like in Zim)?
We, the customer, should not be held accountable for BAD MANAGEMENT MISTAKES. THE IDIOTSAT CORE that locked them in the contract is now passing a Core oparational issue on to the customer. But I forgot, they don’t give flying toss about customers.
July 21st, 2009 at 8:52 am
Ask ANYONE that has had the misfortune of doing direct business with Core, these issues start right at the top and end up in their nice looking, but totally useless I-stores. Core’s attitude towards Apple + Mac users is always the same, take it or leave it. Have you ever had someone there go the extra mile to get something slightly quicker or call you back when it finally arrives?? no chance. I also don’t buy that Apple.com doesn’t care, in these times I’m certain they do, they just haven’t heard the full story. viva stopcore!!