Clearly companies are beginning to take their Twitter communication channel a little more seriously. For one Vodafone Hungary employee, Müller Tamás, this fact has left him stunned and unemployed.
It all began on Friday when T-Mobile had issues with its mobile network in Hungary. The Vodafone competitor was having trouble connecting phone calls and to keep its customers informed, decided to use Twitter.
The first tweet said
“Hungary´s T-Mobile network partly down, software to blame”
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then another to calm some presumably furious customers saying:
“There will be an official statement (released) about the network problem. Please be patient!”
Tamas, as a member of Vodafone’s marketing staff responsible for the carrier’s Twitter messages, decided it would funny to retweet T-Mobiles tweet with a dash of humour to send it on its way.
The tweet is below, but its translation:
“OK, give us a ring! ;) RT @tmobilehungary There will be an official statement (released) about the network problem. Please be patient!”
Needless to say, Vodafone were not best pleased and quick to issue a statement of their own saying that Vodafone had nothing to do with this reply but it would gladly lend a helping hand to T-Mobile to fix its problem.
Vodafone didn’t leave it there either, the company announced that the Twitterer acted without authorisation and remark was inappropriate.
As such the company and Vodafone Hungary’s communications director, János Suba, would be taking the most severe action:
“The employee’s behaviour goes against fair competition and we decided the action called for sacking,”
Extreme or justified? Personally, the letters O T T come to mind.
(thanks Dniel Baranyi)
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