Understandably annoyed at T-Mobile’s move late last week to email its BlackBerry customers and suggest they switch to an iPhone 5S, the boss of the struggling mobile firm took to the company blog Tuesday to thank BlackBerry users for expressing their “outrage” directly to the wireless carrier through social media, adding that “we are outraged too.”
John Chen, who’s been in charge at the Canadian mobile maker since taking over from Thorsten Heins in November, said T-Mobile was badly mistaken if it thought its proposed deal was, as the carrier called it, “a great offer for BlackBerry customers.”
In his message to BlackBerry users, Chen said he was puzzled as to why T-Mobile failed to contact him “before they launched this clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion.”
Throughout the 275-word blog post, Chen spoke of BlackBerry customers’ loyalty, partnership and commitment to the brand, which, he said in a somewhat biting remark, drew “a sharp contrast with the behavior of our longtime business partner.”
He even offered a teaser to BlackBerry users with T-Mobile, saying an offer was in the works “designed especially for you.”
The backlash from BlackBerry users in response to T-Mobile’s iPhone 5S offer forced boss John Legere to acknowledge their anger via his Twitter account, saying, “We give our customers choices, but you don’t have to give up your loyalty. We will continue to support.”
The carrier announced back in September that it would no longer stock BlackBerry phones in its network of stores because they were failing to sell in any significant quantity, though T-Mobile’s David Carey said at the time that this was partly because BlackBerry was selling primarily to businesses rather than consumers visiting its stores. It’s still possible, however, to order a BlackBerry phone through the carrier and have it shipped.
Chen, whose monumental task to turn the company around won’t have been made any easier by T-Mobile’s recent offer, closed by addressing T-Mobile directly, saying he hoped the two companies “can find a way forward that allows us to serve a shared customers once again.”
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