Today's New York TImes carries an interesting article about Brandon Dilbeck, a blogger who used his internet megaphone to complain the way Comcast posts ads in its on-screen program guide.
He soon got an e-mail from Frank Eliason, a "digital care manager" at Comcast, whose job is to "monitor public comments on blogs, message boards and social networks for any mention of Comcast, the nation's largest cable company. When he sees a complaint like Mr. Dilbeck's, he contacts the source to try to defuse the problem."
The Times reports that Dilbeck found Comcast's email response "a bit creepy," as if "Big Brother" were watching him.
While I stand second to none in my suspicion and distrust of corporate America, this strikes me as a smart and innocuous strategy on Comcast's part. In their understandable desire to defuse criticism, they are reaching out to be responsive to particular complaints. And it's not as if they've infringed on Dilbeck's privacy: he put his complaint out there on the Internet.