Business Bytes
Renee Oricchio

Best Buy Gets The Tweetment

 

Here it is; yet another cautionary tale illustrating that there is absolutely no margin of error when it comes to your company's online presence.

Best Buy has a 52-inch television (HDTV, of course) that normally goes for about $1600. The other day, kerwhoops, it was listed on their site for $9.99. It didn't take long for word to spread and wiseacres everywhere to purchase at said price.

Best Buy cancelled the $9.99 orders citing language in the fine print on their web site that reserves the right to correct boo-boo's even if money has already exchanged hands. In other words, saved on a technicality.

It was a pyrrhic victory.

That faceless online crowd hates technicalities and tends to love complaining about it. Twitter, as we all know, has become the global grapevine where ulcers are born for PR types. Needless to say it was an "Oh Mylanta" event for Best Buy. The only comfort to be taken is that the Twitter pirannhas will move on to the next available food supply soon enough.

What can we learn from this tale of woe?

If you don't have a stringent editing process for updating your site, then get one now.

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio