This is an example of things that our craft is trained to do. Now if Dave were commenting back to folks the way that Gary Vaynerchuck does, then maybe it would have worked with his response. However going off half-cocked with no street credibility is a recipe for disaster.

I also love Amazon as they stand behind everything that they sell.

Some people have to learn the hard way.

Companies make mistakes, that I can handle. What the problem here was that they didn't have a plan mapped out for how to deal with dust ups like this when they do occur. Companies need to have clear and well publicized rules for when they decide to delete comments. Users need to know in advance that their comments will be deleted if the violate certain rules (language, copyright, etc) I'll bet that the person deleting was pretty isolated from everything else and simply trying to keep everything squeaky clean.

This really brings up a larger issue that we're beginning to see more in the social age of businesses – the fact that many executives and CEOs are being sold a lot of fluff about how they need to be in constant interaction with their customers and how they need to be as open, honest and passionate about their products and services as their customers are. That's all well and great, but in the real world that we all live in – the world that doesn't always take place online and can have serious consequences if one or two off-hand remarks that are made online on Twitter, Facebook or a company blog get out to the right people, this type of uber-transparency can have some serious consequences for the business.

It will be very interesting to see how businesses handle situations like this going forward an the balance they strike between being open and honest with customers, but also making sure they protect the business in the long run.

Great thoughts all around!