The worst possible thing you can do is to slight someone else at the expense of convenience. The result is bad publicity, regardless of the benefits you believe it yields for the short term. If you screw up, it’s a public relations nightmare. Can we say damage control?
Here are three cases that were blown way out of proportion but could have been handled a lot better if the companies thought of the consequences before acting. There’s a bottom line: it’s a lot harder to sweep your mistakes under the rug, especially as a company in a world of conversing markets.
Case #1: Sprint Terminates Customers’ Accounts for Complaints
It’s been all over the Internet already. One of the more recent fiascoes occurred when Sprint forcibly disconnected service for 1,200 customers. From News4Jax.com, Sprint released a rather disturbing statement, saying:
Rather than continue to operate in a situation that was unsatisfactory for Sprint and our subscribers, we chose to terminate our relationship with those customers to allow them to pursue other options.
I must have first heard of 
understanding of large words to score well on the SAT. In that way, I wish Quizlet, an online application to make learning vocabulary fun and engaging, was available back when I needed it. Fortunately, for students who do, 17-year-old Andrew Sutherland has already gone well along on his way to make learning big words a little more exciting.
It seems so routine (and often a burden) that it is often easily forgotten. But the end result evokes emotions that are priceless.
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Tamar Weinberg is a social media enthusiast with a passion for all things tech and productivity. She provides consulting in internet marketing and manages Community Support & Advertising at Mashable. Tamar is also the author of 
Digital Marketing Specialist, Social Media Consultant,
and Tech Geek at Heart