Wendy Knowler reports:
As corporate mess-ups go, it was pretty big. A “pre-legal credit controller” employed by cellphone service provider Altech Autopage sent an e-mail to 45 of its subscribers earlier this month, many of them former subscribers, telling them to pay up or face the consequences.
“We refer to your Altech Autopage account which has gradually digressed into an arrear status.
“As a result, the outstanding balance is now due and payable within 48hrs to prevent legal action,” he wrote.
“Should you require an extension of time to pay off your debt, we can agree on a fixed arrangement provided that you contact us, or settle your full outstanding balance.”
The last bit seems a bit confused, but his real faux pas was in openly copying all 45 of them.
Read more on IOL. Not only did the breach upset customers, but the way Altech Autopage responded to the breach infuriated them as well. Once again, breach response can go far to protect a firm’s customer relations or well, just make things worse.