It has become increasingly apparent to me that if you want something free, just come up with a sob story, or maybe just a tale of mild discomfort, and people will do one of the following:
- Give you free stuff
- Raise money to get you free stuff
- Harass the hell out of a company, sometimes when they are not at fault, so they will give you free stuff
Here’s what I mean:
Legit example: Erased Xbox 360 Art: This is actually a case where the outcome was just and deserved. In short, a dude collected custom art and autographs from Bungie folks on his Xbox 360. Said 360 died, he sent it in to support after A) explicitly calling PSS to ensure that they not erase the art and B) putting a letter in the box asking not to erase the art. They erased the art.
He sought help from the internet, the story got picked up by everybody and their mom (and your mom), and Bungie and Xbox heard about it and gave him beaucoup compensation. Thumbs up! Company makes a mistake, and makes good on it, twice over, even.
http://kotaku.com/370915/microsoft-double-fixes-erased-xbox-360-memories
Bullshit story: Waah! my free pedal broke! This is the part where people take advantage of internet bullying. A guy WON A $2000 SHOPPING SPREE! Among what he bought was Rock Band. His pedal broke, lame, shoddy construction, etc.. He got the replacement pedal from EA, but instead of sending back the broken pedal, like you are supposed to, he tossed out the box, and the pedal. EA charged him $125 like they said they would. He cried, emailed Kotaku to see if he could get a pedal from someone else to send back, and they got a flood of emails with offers, plus EA is getting in touch with him personally to fix up the mistake which was his fault and not theirs. That’s ridiculous, the guy messed up, and the internet took undeserved pity on him…
http://kotaku.com/371220/dear-brain-rock-band-broken-please-help
http://kotaku.com/371581/
The first example, that’s all good. Microsoft screwed up, and more or less deserved to make the guy’s situation better. But the second example? That’s straight up whininess and a false feeling of entitlement when something goes wrong, something he did all by himself. There are plenty of other good examples of the internet coming together to help others, but there are also enough dumb examples of the other to make it frustrating.
Paul linked a good article about this sort of thing, from the seattle times, on how as a generation we are becoming grown-up brats who think everything should revolve around us, blame others for our mistakes, and expect everyone to feel sorry for us and to make it all better. I’m not saying the drum pedal dude is a bad guy, but I don’t see why he deserves attention for something that happens to a lot of people, so many that 3rd parties have made a business out of fixing the problem. Did I mention that instead of paying for it like everyone else, he got it for free? Oh well, that’s how it goes on the intertubes.
We should think of the good things that happen, not focus on the bad and feel entitled to have them fixed by everybody else.
Update!!
Mike showed me another example of whininess - thankfully this one does not yet appear to have resulted in any undeserved special treatment.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/03/28/apple-doesnt-care-about-its-customers/
Some whiny guy damaged his Macbook with water, and is horrified to learn that Apple support doesn’t offer a free service to send in your Mac and have its damage assessed. This is despite the fact that such an assessment would take a paid professional a decent amount of time to do - you can’t just look at electronics and see if they are fixable, you need special equipment. It is also despite the thousands of other people who are sending their damaged computers to get fixed. Someone has to do the work, and they get paid whether they fix it or not, so you’re going to have to pay to get the work done. When you take your car to the mechanic, you pay for labor time, even if they can’t fix it. It’s the same deal here. Take your computer to your local mom & pop store if you want a free damage assessment, i hope you’re not horrified when they can’t help you, what with not being employed in a position whose sole job it is to fix broken mac books.
Granted, the reply from “Steve” is pretty unsympathetic (and funny), but this guy doesn’t deserve any special treatment above anybody else.
