"..." Silence fell over the once jubilant venue. All the executives looked at Tucker with questioning eyes, seemingly asking what was going on.
"Mr. Tucker, may I ask if what this person says is true? Was this order really for a distance of 1,000 kilometers?" a senior executive finally asked.
"This..." Tucker desperately wanted to deny it, but he lacked the confidence to do so, as he himself didn't know where the order was being shipped.
In fact, Tucker hadn't considered this issue at all. After all, no matter how smart someone was, they wouldn't imagine someone shipping an order 1,000 kilometers away. And it wasn't just shipping it that far; they had the audacity to make a scene and bring it to the media. It was simply the act of a madman.
Tucker hadn't considered it, so he hadn't investigated. He explained very cautiously, "Because the situation arose rather suddenly, and the company's tasks were urgent, the relevant personnel did not investigate these matters!"
"I will immediately order our people to investigate this matter and present the investigation results to everyone as soon as possible!" With a few words, he shifted the responsibility to other staff.
"I don't think that's necessary. Since Oriental Amazon dares to say so at a press conference, it's highly likely to be true. Otherwise, if they are exposed for lying, Oriental Amazon will be completely ruined!" a senior executive sighed. However, another executive who supported Tucker smiled and said, "There's no need for everyone to be so pessimistic and disappointed. Even if what the other party says is true, their words also admit that the 26-hour delivery delay and the customer's shouting match on the phone are also facts. This matter itself is not a lie and is also a blow to Oriental Amazon's reputation."
"So, I think this event was successful, just not as successful as everyone expected. And this event is a minor issue. The real big one is the second event. We can remain optimistic!" This executive spoke very casually, as if it was "just not as successful as expected."
But everyone else present knew that this scandal had essentially lost its effectiveness.
Placing an order from 1,000 kilometers away and expecting timely delivery was simply impossible. Once the truth was known, the onlookers would definitely side with the outlet.
As for the shouting match on the phone, if anyone put themselves in the shoes of the outlet manager, shouting a curse would be considered mild. According to the "Wude" (martial ethics) of America, such an offense would warrant direct machine-gun fire.
At the press conference, a reporter asked, "Excuse me, if the order was placed 1,000 kilometers apart, why not ship it from the nearest local Walmart outlet? Why transport the order yourself from such a distance?"
"I will answer this question!" Liu Qiangdong took the microphone and continued, "This is due to our company's regulations. Because there are too many outlets, to avoid management chaos, the company has stipulated that outlets cannot communicate with each other, and even collaboration is not encouraged. Each outlet must handle its own affairs. Otherwise, if orders are constantly transferred, the company's management of the outlets will fall into chaos!"
"Therefore, this Columbia City representative could not directly contact the Columbus City outlet representative. And even if they could, they wouldn't be able to transfer the order through the company's internal network. Furthermore, this representative has a personality that dislikes troubling others and prefers to keep everything to himself, wanting to accomplish everything through his own efforts. Therefore, he decided to bear everything himself and drive 1,000 kilometers to deliver the order."
"On behalf of the company, I apologize to all users and all company employees, especially the grassroots outlet employees. It was the company's oversight, which led to this accident in pursuit of simplified management, and it also caused psychological and mental distress to some employees. I apologize to these employees on behalf of the company's senior management. I'm sorry!" Liu Qiangdong bowed to the camera as he finished speaking, and all the company executives around him followed suit.
A burst of warm applause erupted from the audience, but it wasn't from the reporters. It came from the company employees nearby, as Liu Qiangdong's apology was directed at them, the employees often overlooked by senior management.
Liu Qiangdong then added, "The company has finally decided to impose a penalty for this incident. Because the Columbia City outlet representative could not control their emotions and irrationally engaged in a verbal exchange with the user, the company has decided to penalize them with the deduction of one month's basic salary!"
"In addition, the company has also decided to commend and reward this incident. Because the Columbia City outlet representative, knowing that the order was 1,000 kilometers away and could not be delivered normally, resolutely drove a round trip of 2,000 kilometers. This spirit of customer service is even more worthy of the company's commendation."
"Therefore, the company has decided to reward him with half a year's salary and grant him the honorary title of 'Oriental Amazon Super Employee'!" As soon as Liu Qiangdong finished speaking, all the reporters were stunned.
So, in the end, the employee who made a mistake and insulted the customer had their salary deducted by one month but still received half a year's salary. The net result was a reward of five months' salary, plus an honorary title.
Although this honorary title might seem insignificant in normal times, considering the current situation, it undoubtedly signaled that the company would firmly stand by its employees.
Was this still a press conference to quell public opinion?
Shouldn't this be a symbolic killing of a chicken to appease the monkeys? Why, in the end, were they unwilling to even kill the chicken? Was this truly an apology?
The reporters were dumbfounded, but the applause from the employees present became incredibly intense. These employees were truly excited. They had never encountered a company that was so reasonable and so steadfast in protecting its employees. Oriental Amazon was simply amazing.
"By the way!" Liu Qiangdong continued as the applause gradually subsided, "Our company requires all work processes to be fully recorded, and in certain situations, even fully video-recorded. Therefore, we have detailed audio recordings of the four phone calls between the user and our outlet representative this time."
"Three of them were communication calls on the day the order was placed, and one was a call that lasted over an hour during the return trip after the order was delivered. To ensure that the truth of the incident is made public, I will now play several segments of these recordings."
"Considering the time constraints, the complete recordings will not be released here. After the press conference, the relevant recordings will be published on the Oriental Amazon official website and will remain accessible for one week. Any interested reporters can download them. We guarantee that all recordings are unedited and complete!"
After that, the distinctive sound of phone recordings and ambient noise filled the venue. Initially, a man stated that the order was incorrect and requested the order be canceled and re-placed. This speaker was clearly the Oriental Amazon outlet representative.
However, this request was quickly rejected, and the other party immediately began to curse the outlet representative's parents. The representative directly hung up the phone, and the first segment of the recording ended.
The next two recordings were largely similar. In all of them, the outlet representative pleaded with the other party to cancel the order and desperately explained why it couldn't be delivered. But the other party insisted on delivery and took the opportunity to curse the representative's parents and relatives.
These three recordings were actually complete, as their combined duration was not long, averaging about three minutes per recording.
The fourth recording, the one that lasted for an hour, was the one that was excerpted. The excerpt likely captured the most heated parts of the conversation.
The other party comprehensively cursed the outlet representative's parents. The representative initially endured it but eventually couldn't take it anymore and began to roar into the recording. Then, he also cursed the other party. The subsequent conversation essentially devolved into a shouting match, but the outlet representative's combativeness was clearly inferior to that of the user, and the entire situation was dominated by the user.
Upon hearing these recordings, the situation became completely clear. All the reporters present knew that the narrative of the incident had completely reversed. As soon as the news was published, the person who would be vehemently criticized would be the user who had gone mad, and the onlookers would sympathize with the poor outlet representative.
The more harshly the onlookers had previously condemned the representative, the more they would sympathize with him, and conversely, the more they would condemn the customer. This was a peculiar compensatory psychology.
"Then what about the second incident? Was it also due to an order placed from a thousand miles away that caused the product to spoil?" a reporter hired by a high-level executive quickly interjected.
"No, this was a perfectly normal order. The entire delivery process took less than two hours. As everyone knows, cat food is a processed product, and even if it's opened, it can generally last for over a month. So, anyone with a brain would know that the possibility of the cat food spoiling during delivery is almost zero!"
"Then the cat food itself was a counterfeit or inferior product!" this reporter stated without hesitation. "Are you suggesting that the products provided by Walmart are problematic, Chairman Liu?"
"No, after the incident, we sent dedicated staff to visit the customer. We also collected a small sample of the cat food and submitted it to the cat food manufacturer for urgent verification. It was confirmed that this cat food sample was indeed a qualified product produced by the manufacturer, and there were no toxic components in the cat food!"
"In fact, with the consent of the complainant, we invited a professional veterinarian to conduct a detailed investigation into the cat's death. It was found that the cat did not die from consuming inferior or spoiled cat food due to food poisoning!" Liu Qiangdong said calmly.
"If it wasn't due to poisoning, you can't tell me the cat committed suicide!" a reporter scoffed sarcastically.
"Well, that's hard to say!" Liu Qiangdong rubbed his head and then said, "Actually, during the subsequent investigation, we discovered a rather amusing video!"