Comments on: SpinVox’s Unnecessary PR Disaster

By: mtupper

mtupper — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:18:55 +0000

In Chile, we have a saying for this:
El que se explica, se complica.

Translation:
One who explains himself, complicates himself
(but rhymes better in spanish)

How can I enlist the guy who’s raising the funding for them to join us on our roadshow? $100M? and just another £15M? Sounds like fund-raising is their real magic trick.

By: drjohnnyspin

drjohnnyspin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:40:54 +0000

Uh oh… more trouble for SpinVox: a high profile, yet secret (??), member of the board quits almost as soon as she was seated: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/18/spinvox_russo_hello_goodbye/

By: TimO

TimO — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:58:47 +0000

If you’d like to track how this story broke and evolved over the last month, see:

http://delicious.com/spinvox

Delicious very usefully gives a timeline view if you sort by “Most Recent” which is (I believe) the default sort order.

There are a couple of other articles/discussions out there on the PR/comms angle of this story, see (e.g.):

http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2009/07/spingate_an_accurate_summary_of_why_spinvox_is_screwed.html

http://www.nevillehobson.com/2009/08/09/how-bad-can-it-get-for-spinvox/

…

And Mike Butcher’s “meta” article (on TechCrunch yesterday) is also a good read, which touches on some good comms topics around this SpinVox story:

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/08/17/hey-julie-we-wont-get-great-startups-by-always-being-nice/

By: drjohnnyspin

drjohnnyspin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:28:54 +0000

Looks like SpinVox is suffering more bad news today, with one of the reporters invited to their recent media day not only writing about privacy concerns based on the demonstration he received, but also filing a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent authority set up to protect personal information. The reporter even invites concerned readers to likewise file complaints and provides instructions on how to do so.

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/08/17/spinvox-what-to-do-if-youre-concerned-about-your-privacy/

By: Connor Sweetman

Connor Sweetman — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:19:09 +0000

Wow! You are being WAY, WAY to kind in your analysis of SpinVox and it’s PR Disaster! SpinVox’s founders lied about their backgrounds. This I know for a fact because I was in the Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, NY. SpinVox’s demo was a disastser from all reports. SpinVox off-shores the transcription of personal Voice Mails without a BLARING, 72 Point Type notification to it’s users. SpinVox is holding people’s personal data for God Only Knows How Long!

It has been reported that SpinVox is burning through huge infusions of cash without any over sight or CFO.

It has been reported that SpinVox’s Executives are being accused of using INVESTORS MONEY FOR THEIR PERSONAL PLEASURES AND HUGE SALARIES.

It has been reported that SpinVox has acted in a very irresponsible corporate manner by letting Health Insurance lapse for the United States Employees.

It has also been reported that SpinVox has a secret formula to grade their transcribers so that they can keep from paying them, and will not produce the grading metric when challanged.

I really hope Ms. Meyer of Ariadne is still enjoying “this nice problem to have.” And Ariadne is the name of a character in Greek Mythology.. . .Yes! Mythology.

And VOX can be translated from Latin to mean Voice.

With all the threats to those who are trying to get the truth out, I guess that is how SpinVox uses their voice, TO BULLY and intimidate.

The PR Disaster is only beginning. All the hype, all the hoopla, all the extravagant lifestyles of these executives, and the minute someone asks for an explaination or tries to get some TRUTH out of them, they threaten them.

Wonder if they are threatening, bullying and intimadating the Investors who are now asking the questions?