BlackBerry’s most loyal customers responded angrily on social media recently when T-Mobile offered them free iPhone 5s, a move that BlackBerry CEO John Chen has called “inappropriate and ill-conceived.”
Blackberry’s Z10
“As we were never told of their plans in advance, I can only guess that T-Mobile thought its ‘great offer for BlackBerry customers’ would be well received. T-Mobile could not have been more wrong,” Chen wrote in an official blog post.
He continued, “I can assure you that we are outraged too. What puzzles me more is that T-Mobile did not speak with us before or after they launched this clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion.”
He said BlackBerry customers’ “passion motivates us every day as we navigate our turnaround,” and hinted at an upcoming offer specifically for BlackBerry users on T-Mobile.
Chen’s words are quite an admonishment, but apparently the offer was so offensive to BlackBerry diehards that T-Mobile CEO John Legere himself took to Twitter over the weekend to respond.
“BlackBerry users, I’m hearing you loud and clear. Let me work with the team and get back with you,” Legere tweeted.
“We give our customers choices, but you don’t have to give up your #loyalty,” he said in a follow-up message.
To their credits, both Legere and Chen have remained #allclass so far.
“To T-Mobile, I would like to remind you that our long-standing partnership was once productive and profitable for both BlackBerry and T-Mobile,” Chen said. “I hope we can find a way forward that allows us to serve our shared customers once again. Notwithstanding the current challenge, we remain very excited about BlackBerry’s future.”
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