Hello. I hope everybody had a great holiday weekend. The last two weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind for this blog. There have literally been hundred of views everyday by people mainly in Utah, but all over the world. Kind of cool to see social media in action.
Brand Interactions was featured on the morning show of our local radio station 97.1. They read portions of the blog on air, which was pretty fun. The blog has also been included on several of the local newspapers online sites.
Thanks to everybody that has taken an interest, it is pretty fun. I do find it interesting that I continue to get so many people reading, but the followers don't match that. Not sure why that is, but interesting for sure.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Weber State Conductor Follow Up
Again, this seems to be a somewhat popular blog posting with over 106 page views and counting. As I mentioned, this is different than what I typically write about and how I write about experiences. Normally everything I write is first hand information, however, this was written from information obtained by talking to a friend who was in the audience.
Hello (Brand Interaction).
Thanks for taking the time to send me your thoughts. My question to you is "what did I do?" To answer my own question, I asked that a noisy child be removed from the concert so the other 1200 people in the audience could enjoy the music, and so the 160 performers on stage could concentrate on a very difficult piece of music.
I had no idea when I asked that the child be removed that I was dealing with a mentally handicapped child. If I had I might have phrased my request differently, but the end result would be that I would still have asked to have the child removed. It seems to me that the parents should have been responsible enough to realize the child would not be able to be quiet during the concert, or at the very least, have voluntarily removed the child when the child began to be noisy. I listened to the noise for 3 movements of the symphony before it finally got too loud for me, and the performers, to ignore.
(Brand Interaction), I read your blog, and you have attributed comments and attributes to me that I didn't make. I don't like that. It's one thing to get a quote wrong, but I never said anything even approaching "I don't care, get him out of here." If you knew me you would know I would never say anything like that. Also, I never said anything to anyone about being proud, or not proud of what I did. I point of fact I am neither. I did what I felt had to be done.
I also don't know where you got the idea that I invited Ogden area special needs groups. If they were invited it was not by me.
By the way, the Deseret News article is highly inaccurate, but I think you know that. Where did the "handicapped man" title come from. It came from an audience member who was completely incorrect. I never addressed anything to anyone about a handicapped man.
Come on (Brand Interaction), don't go off on someone without getting both sides of the story. You are supposed to be writing a responsible blog, not sensationalism for the sake of sensationalism at the expense of accuracy. Surely your blog must be more responsible than this when you are commenting about goods and services in the private sector.
By the way, my email is running in my favor by a considerable margin…
Sincerely,
Michael Palumbo
The Weber State conductor (Michael Palumbo) was thoughtful enough to respond to the blog post and provide his side of the story. I think it is important to consider both sides before passing any judgment as nobody knows what they would have done in the situation.
Here is Michael Palumbo's response: (edited only to change name to (Brand Interaction)).
Hello (Brand Interaction).
Thanks for taking the time to send me your thoughts. My question to you is "what did I do?" To answer my own question, I asked that a noisy child be removed from the concert so the other 1200 people in the audience could enjoy the music, and so the 160 performers on stage could concentrate on a very difficult piece of music.
I had no idea when I asked that the child be removed that I was dealing with a mentally handicapped child. If I had I might have phrased my request differently, but the end result would be that I would still have asked to have the child removed. It seems to me that the parents should have been responsible enough to realize the child would not be able to be quiet during the concert, or at the very least, have voluntarily removed the child when the child began to be noisy. I listened to the noise for 3 movements of the symphony before it finally got too loud for me, and the performers, to ignore.
(Brand Interaction), I read your blog, and you have attributed comments and attributes to me that I didn't make. I don't like that. It's one thing to get a quote wrong, but I never said anything even approaching "I don't care, get him out of here." If you knew me you would know I would never say anything like that. Also, I never said anything to anyone about being proud, or not proud of what I did. I point of fact I am neither. I did what I felt had to be done.
I also don't know where you got the idea that I invited Ogden area special needs groups. If they were invited it was not by me.
By the way, the Deseret News article is highly inaccurate, but I think you know that. Where did the "handicapped man" title come from. It came from an audience member who was completely incorrect. I never addressed anything to anyone about a handicapped man.
Come on (Brand Interaction), don't go off on someone without getting both sides of the story. You are supposed to be writing a responsible blog, not sensationalism for the sake of sensationalism at the expense of accuracy. Surely your blog must be more responsible than this when you are commenting about goods and services in the private sector.
By the way, my email is running in my favor by a considerable margin…
Sincerely,
Michael Palumbo
Weber State Conductor Lashes Out At Disabled Person
This is a slightly different post than what I typically write, but I was so upset by this, that I thought I would write about it.
Last weekend, during the Sunday evening performance of the Weber State Symphony Orchestra, the conductor (Michael Palumbo), stopped the orchestra by slapping his sticks on the podium. He turned around and searched the crowd for what he thought to be a child making noise. It turned out however, that it was a handicapped person.
When somebody in the audience informed the conductor that it was a handicapped child, he responded by saying "I don't care, get him out of here". The kicker here is that Ogden area special needs groups had received a special invite to this show. Reports from the audience state that the person involved wasn't disturbing the music but was just enjoying the concert in his own way.
After being asked to leave, the mother wheeled the person out of the room with the audience member staring. How awful is that? It would have been great if every person in that audience had stood up and left the auditorium.
The conductor did not apologize at any point for his actions, in fact, it is said that he was proud of what he did. It is sad that somebody can be so self absorbed that he didn't stop to think how this would make the person in question and his family feel.
Here is a link to the conductors information. Send him an email and let him know how you feel about his actions. http://departments.weber.edu/performingarts/faculty_staff/mpalumbo.htm
Here is a link to the Deseret News article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705394312/Conductor-shocks-crowd-orders-mentally-disabled-man-to-leave-Weber-State-concert.html
*** PLEASE SEE UPDATED POST FOR THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY as well as some corrections to information contained in this post.
Last weekend, during the Sunday evening performance of the Weber State Symphony Orchestra, the conductor (Michael Palumbo), stopped the orchestra by slapping his sticks on the podium. He turned around and searched the crowd for what he thought to be a child making noise. It turned out however, that it was a handicapped person.
When somebody in the audience informed the conductor that it was a handicapped child, he responded by saying "I don't care, get him out of here". The kicker here is that Ogden area special needs groups had received a special invite to this show. Reports from the audience state that the person involved wasn't disturbing the music but was just enjoying the concert in his own way.
After being asked to leave, the mother wheeled the person out of the room with the audience member staring. How awful is that? It would have been great if every person in that audience had stood up and left the auditorium.
The conductor did not apologize at any point for his actions, in fact, it is said that he was proud of what he did. It is sad that somebody can be so self absorbed that he didn't stop to think how this would make the person in question and his family feel.
Here is a link to the conductors information. Send him an email and let him know how you feel about his actions. http://departments.weber.edu/performingarts/faculty_staff/mpalumbo.htm
Here is a link to the Deseret News article: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705394312/Conductor-shocks-crowd-orders-mentally-disabled-man-to-leave-Weber-State-concert.html
*** PLEASE SEE UPDATED POST FOR THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY as well as some corrections to information contained in this post.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Strong Audi - Salt Lake City, UT
And I am back! It has been way too long, I have been really busy with work and life in general. I still am not sure how so many people read this blog, it is kind of crazy to me. I would like to focus more on my brand interactions with national companies, so that more people can relate, but my experiences seem to happen with some of the local companies. Hopefully this story will be helpful to others in the sense that, if you have a car dealership that isn't working for you, know that there is always one that IS willing to help.
I have been looking at entry level luxury sedans for a while now. I had narrowed my search down to the BMW 335xi or the Audi A4 Quattro Premium Plus... ultimately I decided that I was most interested in the Audi, so I began working with the three dealerships in Utah; Ken Garff Audi, Cutrubus Audi, and Strong Audi. I contacted each of the dealers to see what they had in stock and see what type of deals they would offer. Both Cutrubus and Ken Garff got back to me immediately and seemed very wiling to help, Strong on the other hand, never responded.
Despite their non-response, I visited their dealership because it was the closest to me. The sales associate that I was UNfortunate enough to get was named Chad. When you hear about the stereotypical car salesman that is over the top cheesy, that is what I got with this guy. I found a vehicle that I was interested in and when asked to come talk price, I went in. Chad sat me down and started the conversation by saying "we are the biggest and best dealer in Utah and we set the pricing for all of Utah, we have this nice dealership to maintain, so don't expect to get too much off the price".
Nice opener Chad. To think that a customer wants to "pay for your nice dealership" is a total misunderstanding of what the customer is interested in. I want the best deal for ME, not for you. He proceeded to tell me that Audi doesn't offer rebates (although they are listed all over edmunds.com etc) and that the most you could get off a car in Utah was $500. He told me that it was illegal for dealers to go lower than that, WHAT???!!!
When I objected to a few of the things he had said, and let him know that I had researched pricing etc, he said "clearly you don't understand this type of car", "this isn't a Honda dealership". Wow! Insult the customer, that seems like a brilliant move. Needless to say, I left the dealership after coming with the intent to buy.
Recently I purchased my A4 from Cutrubus. In addition to the A4, I was able to get a family member to purchase an A6 at the same time, creating a combo sale. The service I received was far superior, in fact, I found a better deal price-wise, but still went with Cutrubus because of the way we were treated. I was able to negotiate the details via email, which is what works best for me. The whole process was very convenient and led to the sale of not one, but two new cars.
Strong missed the mark on every level. They didn't respond to my initial electronic request, they weren't willing to listen to my concerns as a customer, and they went as far as insulting my intelligence. Ultimately, they lost out. If you or anybody you know is looking at Audis, be sure to avoid Strong Audi at all costs. They are dishonest and not worth the time. Both Ken Garff and Cutrubus will provide a much better experience. If you go with Cutrubus, Spencer Webb is an excellent resource (although the other salesman seemed to be very helpful when I picked up my plates as well).
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