英语一日谈：Steve Jobs和女大学生，你支持谁？2010.09.20

bulaohu

Steve Jobs VS the Student journalist








Steve Jobs is known for replying to random emails sent to his personal Apple email address. Well, a college journalism student from Long Island emailed him about a problem she had with Apple's PR department. Jobs' response? "Leave us alone."

Long Island University senior Chelsea Kate Isaacs, 22, emailed Jobs Thursday with a complaint: Her journalism professor had assigned her a story on a new initiative at her college to buy iPads for all incoming students. She wanted to get a quote from Apple about the use of iPads in academic settings. But when she repeatedly called Apple's PR department, leaving six voice messages, they never got back to her.

Isaacs wasn't expecting a response. While Jobs has a history of replying to members of the public who email sjobs@apple.com (there's even a website which collects his replies), it's safe to say most are lost in his overflowing inbox. "My friend just jokingly suggested I email Steve Jobs," Isaacs told us over the phone. "I wrote him a long email not expecting that he would get back to me."

The lengthy email she sent yesterday was more of a symbolic vent: Isaacs explained her situation, expressing frustration that Apple, which markets itself heavily to college students, refused to help her in completing her assignment. She wrote:

Mr. Jobs, I humbly ask why Apple is so wonderfully attentive to the needs of students, whether it be with the latest, greatest invention or the company's helpful customer service line, and yet, ironically, the Media Relations Department fails to answer any of my questions which are, as I have repeatedly told them, essential to my academic performance."

But Jobs did get back to Isaacs. (Isaacs assures us these emails are "100% real, authentic and unchanged." A couple of technically-savvy people who looked over the email headers said they look legit.) About half an hour later he sent her this curt response:

Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade. Sorry

Isaacs was pissed. "I was a little surprised; it's just so unprofessional," she told us. "I was like, Wow, Steve Jobs, I get it. You made Apple, you have a shit-load of money but you have no class."

So, Isaacs responded:

I never said that your goal should be to "help me get a good grade." Rather, I politely asked why your media relations team does not respond to emails, which consequently, decreases my chances of getting a good grade. But, forget about my individual situation; what about common courtesy, in general —- if you get a message from a client or customer, as an employee, isn't it your job to return the call? That's what I always thought. But I guess that's not one of your goals.

And Jobs responded minutes later:

Nope. We have over 300 million users and we can't respond to their requests unless they involve a problem of some kind. Sorry.

Isaac responded again:

You're absolutely right, and I do meet your criteria for being a customer who deserves a response:
1. I AM one of your 300 million users.
2. I DO have a problem; I need answers that only Apple Media Relations can answer.
Now, can they kindly respond to my request (my polite and friendly voice can be heard in the first 5 or 10 messages in their inbox). Please, I am on deadline.

And at 6:27pm, Pacific Standard Time, Jobs delivered his coup de grace in a final one-line email:

Please leave us alone.

Isaac's email exchange with the 136th richest person in the world left her seething.

"Under no circumstances should a person who runs a company speak to a customer that way," she said. "I'm just enraged and I want people to know this was done."

As for Isaac's assignment, she never got through to Apple, and the deadline is today. "The article can go on, but it just won't be with the quote that I really needed. I probably won't get an A, maybe I'll get a B."

But Isaacs is going to be alright. A former hand model (she quit after getting sick of having to wear gloves to bed), she's certainly got the stubbornness needed for the career in journalism she aspires to. As for this Steve Jobs guy: What's his deal?

Article source: http://gawker.com/5641211/steve- ... -journalism-student







So, what do you think? Who's right? Who's been unreasonable? Is she right to mention her own "academic performance" in the initial email? Is she too self-righteous? Is he too self-righteous? Please discuss

bulaohu

I'll say it first then... OK methinks she attacked from a wrong angle to start with, which caused the entire email train to be off the rail further and further. Tactic wise, that's a fail.

floraz

I am with Steve Jobs, even though I found his first reply a bit hard to take also. But I understood him after I saw his 2nd reply.He's been polite and courteous in replying her second and third emails, and he said "Sorry" twice. What else did she expect? Just leave him a lone. He has much more important things to do.

I am not saying she's narrow sighted, but people really need to understand what they think is important to them can be at the bottom of others' To Do list, or maybe not on their list at all. Everyone has their own goals and priorities, they do not match all the time and actually, most of the time they do not. So don't always expect others to think the way you are thinking.

btw. I don't think HRs and recruitment agencies go back to every and each of candidates who sent CV to them either. This girl may have a lot of calls and emails to do when she's looking for jobs.

[ 本帖最后由 floraz 于 2010-9-20 13:01 编辑 ]

floraz

btw II ： I didn't bother to read her 3rd reply.

floraz

原帖由 bulaohu 于 2010-9-20 11:48 发表
I'll say it first then... OK methinks she attacked from a wrong angle to start with, which caused the entire email train to be off the rail further and further. Tactic wise, that's a fail.

couldn't she figure out, after 7 calls and 0 reply, that the answer was "Not interested in your business (full stop)"
apparently she has a lot of time but some others don't.

vandia

Why did SJ answer her first email, which she did not expect at all?

WTFAUS

I don't like that girl's look in the photo, as well as the way she thinks of herself.
She's just one of those normal private users. Then what on earth made her think to call Public relation department instead of customer service just for the assignment?? Plus she couldn't even ask  right questions to appropriate personnel.
All I can say is that she might not be suitable for being a journalist.
I reckon Steve was kind enough to reply to her for THREE times!

bulaohu

原帖由 floraz 于 2010-9-20 12:59 发表

couldn't she figure out, after 7 calls and 0 reply, that the answer was "Not interested in your business (full stop)"
apparently she has a lot of time but some others don't.

She's a college student right? Heaps of time to kill for sure!

bulaohu

原帖由 vandia 于 2010-9-20 13:13 发表
Why did SJ answer her first email, which she did not expect at all?

Steve Jobs sometimes answer emails directly addressed to him. This is a well known fun fact in the industry.

bulaohu

原帖由 WTFAUS 于 2010-9-20 13:16 发表
I don't like that girl's look in the photo, as well as the way she thinks of herself.
She's just one of those normal private users. Then what on earth made her think to call Public relation department ...

I wonder had she not mention her own grade in the first email, things may unfold differently...

floraz

原帖由 bulaohu 于 2010-9-20 13:38 发表


She's a college student right? Heaps of time to kill for sure!

I don't remember having so much spare time when I was a college student.
Of course I was busy watching Japanese comics and cartoons

bulaohu

原帖由 floraz 于 2010-9-20 13:42 发表

I don't remember having so much spare time when I was a college student.
Of course I was busy watching Japanese comics and cartoons

For the purpose of studying Japanese law system during the Shogunate era, I'm sure

iami

reading thru this article i just dont understand if steve is not able to help customers problem, why can he be bothered to reply them at all?
his reply is not to the point that the student asked either. bringing up things irrelevant to the question is not professional, and when he has nothing to say, then rudely replied "leave us alone". also the pr department should suggest a correct number to get her issue solved at least. you cant blame customers come up to ask you questions. thats arrogant and unwise

floraz

原帖由 iami 于 2010-9-20 13:56 发表
reading thru this article i just dont understand if steve is not able to help customers problem, why can he be bothered to reply them at all?
his reply is not to the point that the student asked eithe ...

I think because her tone in her first email didn't sound friendly or humble as she so called, and Jobs was just not happy with this hit.
And god knows what msgs did she leave in Apple PR's voicemail.

I have to say, if someone is making a request and sounds like it's all about him/her, I would say "why would I care" for sure.

[ 本帖最后由 floraz 于 2010-9-20 14:13 编辑 ]

aud

This is Jobs, a arrogant asshole. He always behaves like this.

iami

原帖由 floraz 于 2010-9-20 02:03 PM 发表

I think because her tone in her first email didn't sound friendly or humbly as she so called, and Jobs was just not happy with this hit.

no customer will be happy if he/she is ignored for seven times. customer service is not meant to deal with happy customers. the point here is not just being polite to each other, but accurately to answer the question the student has asked.

steve chooses to be rude bacuse the student is rude. dose this sound right for a company ceo?

floraz

原帖由 iami 于 2010-9-20 14:09 发表


no customer will be happy if he/she is ignored for seven times. customer service is not meant to deal with happy customers. the point here is not just being polite to each other, but accurately to a ...

but she is not a customer yet? at most a potential customer.
and i think PR is the wrong place to go to for her type of query from the very start, she should contact sales.....

well, i saw Jobs said "Sorry" twice but she kept going with her rigmarole.
Jobs didn't choose to be rude, he is.
but i think he got a reason.

btw, i got 10,000 points!!!

[ 本帖最后由 floraz 于 2010-9-20 14:42 编辑 ]

iami

原帖由 floraz 于 2010-9-20 02:19 PM 发表

but she is not a customer yet? at most a potential customer.
and i think PR is the wrong place to go to for her type of query from the very start, she should contact sales.....

well, i saw Jobs said ...

well it depends how you define a "customer".
in australia when you get into a shop inquring info of some thing in the window, ur called a customer in a salses standpoint of view. doesnt matter if u havnt boght any thing off them yet.
if u pretend to b a sales, when someone comes into your shop, how do you call this someone? we normally call him/her a customer. this remains true for the rest of the world i m afraid

as iv stated before, theres nothing wrong with customers doing wrong things due to lack of experience or unfamiliar with a companys customer service number. it would b better if the pr dept of apple could have suggested her a correct number, the following hussels can be saved then.

again in a business, ur not supposed to blame customers dont know ur customer service number. ignoring them or answering their questions with irrelavant info and/or in a rude manner is not professional.

胡须康

LOL
Last weekend when I had dinner with my cousin, I asked him why he never tried to use an Apple product. Guess what he answered?   ------ He said because SJ is too arrogant.
And now, I read this thread.

On the opposite, I don't think SJ's email reply is improper. The college student led it on the wrong track at the beginning and then she acted up.

bulaohu

&ptid

原帖由 胡须康 于 2010-9-20 15:33 发表
LOL
Last weekend when I had dinner with my cousin, I asked him why he never tried to use an Apple product. Guess what he answered?   ------ He said because SJ is too arrogant.
And now, I read this thr ...

ya she apparently has the princess syndrome...an illness with no cure...

JuJu

hahaha, I found this very funny,  Steve Jobs' response was very genuine and honest, and suits that whining student journalist just fine. If I were a company CEO, I probably would have said similar things to my customers sometimes. Unfortunately, since I am only a humble employee, I know that I won't be able to get away from these kind of emails and so I had to use a "professional" response.
Steve Jobs is also a normal human being, and if I were him I would be annoyed if I kept receiving small complaint emails every twenty minutes on my private email address written by university students, especially after a stressful day. However, I agree that he should have never replied her first email.

bulaohu

原帖由 JuJu 于 2010-9-20 22:43 发表
hahaha, I found this very funny,  Steve Jobs' response was very genuine and honest, and suits that whining student journalist just fine. If I were a company CEO, I probably would have said similar thi ...

Well, you know, Steve the God was bored of being God an decided to be a human being for a minute. And at this very minute, he saw this email. A princess needs rescue! But wait, the princess is hallucinating. So average Joe Steve pointed this out to her and hoped she'd wake up. She refused to wake up. Steve tried again, and failed again. Eventually he gave up and put on his God hat again. And stopped responding to that silly email.

World peace.

Happybanana

SJ's email is @apple.com, so I guess that's not a his private email address:-).

Customers are always right, I agree that he should not reply her email. Given he has replied, he should properly address her issues to build a nicer public image for himself.

Having said that, the student is not good at tactics as a  journalist, though she has got some qualities like stubbornness! If I were a PR, I wouldn't care about my customers personal problems, in this case the student's academic performance.

A funny story indeed!

bulaohu

原帖由 Happybanana 于 2010-9-20 23:03 发表
SJ's email is @apple.com, so I guess that's not a his private email address:-).

Customers are always right, I agree that he should not reply her email. Given he has replied, he should properly addre ...

But it's also entirely possible that for all the Apple fanboyz out there, what Jobs did here makes him even cooler than he was.

Happybanana

No one would doubt that! iPhone is the coolest phone I ever had, that proves to me Apple & it's leaders are the coolest, haha

floraz

原帖由 JuJu 于 2010-9-20 22:43 发表
hahaha, I found this very funny,  Steve Jobs' response was very genuine and honest, and suits that whining student journalist just fine. If I were a company CEO, I probably would have said similar thi ...

can't agreement more.

azurechris

she looks seductive, but too slow to pick up non-verbal messages and cues....