14 DAY TRIAL // We didn't get the chance to read about the unpleasant (to say the least) experience that Samsung put two Indian bloggers through, having been visiting IFA ourselves last week, but now that we’re back we can give this matter the attention it deserves.
Apparently, two Indian bloggers signed up for attending the IFA trade show at Samsung's invitation, and were repeatedly assured that they would be going as reporters, not promoters, so long as they covered the product launch.
Unfortunately, when they finally got there, they were made to wear a uniform and, in their own words, act as “booth babes.” They had no choice but to comply, as the hotel and plane tickets back home would have been canceled otherwise, so they wore the shirts and did what they were told.
Eventually, Nokia offered to pick up those expenses and allowed the two to cover the IFA show properly, as they had consistently been told they would.
Samsung's statement, in response to this, as published by The Next Web, chalks everything up to a misunderstanding.
“We regret there was a misunderstanding between the Samsung Mob!lers coordinators and the relevant blogger, as we understand he was not sufficiently briefed on the nature of Samsung Mob!lers’ activities at IFA 2012. We have been attempting to get in touch with him.”
We might be tempted to believe the misunderstanding bit. After all, Samsung somehow missed our own e-mails and inquiries until just a few days before we were set to leave for IFA, despite them having been sent two weeks in advance. Then they tried to get us in despite the sign-ups being closed.
We were spared any major annoyances because we had always intended to go to Berlin through means of our own, and we did, but we digress.
We were saying that we believed the possibility of there having been a misunderstanding, even though bringing to light an extra misunderstanding as a supporting argument doesn't speak well of their planning and coordination acumen.
However, it seems more likely that there really wasn't any misunderstanding involved. One of the bloggers received an e-mail from a Samsung representative, one that arguably acknowledges that they were in the wrong.
“I would like to reach out to you and deeply apologize to you for your experience in Berlin at IFA. We put you through undue hardship and we are trying to rectify the situation.”
The e0mail was sent to Clinton Jeff, form India's Unleash the Phones. He is actually very well known in his home country, and not only.
We don't know how Samsung intends to “rectify” something that has already happened, since compensation doesn't really mean the same thing. All we can say is that all this bad publicity isn't coming at a good time at all.