Nerve Endings Firing Away

People got yet another reason to hate Apple’s corporate behavior. A nine-year old girl, Shea O’Gorman learnt letter writing skills in her third grade English class and decided to put her newly-acquired skills into action by writing a letter to Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers. She wrote a cutesy letter with squiggly handwriting offering some suggestions like karaoke capability for her iPod (quite a useful one actually) and waited for a reply. She did receive a reply…from Apple’s Legal Department asking her not to write any more letter offering unsolicited advice and suggestions since it was against company policies.

What? Does a company not place the consumer on a pedestral and literally beg for feedback especially if it happens to be a nine-year old. The poor girl shocked at the official legalese ran to her room crying and her parents stunned, immediately called the local news station who helpfully carried the story in their evening news.

Of course, it might be impossible to reply to all letters that a company receives but they should be cognizant of the fact that they are hurting their target audiences by letting lawyers decide their actions. Being suspicious of their consumer doesn’t help the cult of Mac. News has trickled in since that Apple has apologized to the girl and promises to modify their policy in replying to children.