Phone case maker Dbrand is known for its defiant attitude toward users and tech companies. This time, however, this behavior played a cruel joke on the company and led to the payment of $10 thousand to a customer as an apology for a racist comment about his last name.
It all started when Dbrand reposted a complaint on Twitter on Tuesday from a customer, Bhuwan Chitransh, who said that the cover they bought for their MacBook changed color after only 2 months. Dbrand responded with a rude message that rhymed the customer’s name with the word «rash» («rash»).
«Your last name is basically a shit rash, be serious»
Chitransh later responded by saying that Dbrand’s post reflected its racist view of Indian customers.
The next day, the company said it had made a «big mistake». Dbrand wrote that it had apologized to Chitransh and offered him $10 thousand «as a gesture of goodwill». At the same time, the company said it would continue to ridicule customers.
Well that escalated quickly.
1. Yes – we made fun of a guy's name. It was a huge fumble.
2. We apologized to him directly and offered him $10,000 as a gesture of goodwill.
3. We've been poking fun at customers on social media for over a decade now. We're not going to stop, but…
— dbrand (@dbrand) April 10, 2024
However, Dbrand did not remove the original post until well-known tech vlogger Marques Brownlee posted a statement that it caused «unnecessary» damage.
@dbrand Won't be working with dbrand until that original tweet is deleted, at least. You're allowed to make shitty jokes, but the internet has made it pretty clear what it think about this one, and the harm from it is unnecessary
I've been around long enough to see a LOT of…
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) April 11, 2024
Source: The Verge