A few weeks ago we discussed a significant (and ongoing) customer service blunder by McDonalds.  It appeared that a disgruntled employee had put something in a child’s milkshake.  The parents are trying to find out what the something was, and McDonalds is refusing to tell them – only saying that it was a ‘store-related product.’  McDonalds has repeatedly tried to buy off the family, but has not come clean with the details the family is asking for.  One can only assume that this is on the advice of a legal team who has put limiting liability over customer service.

Now, there’s a new story – this time with furniture giant Ikea.

For the last 8 years, an Ikea fan in Malaysia has run a popular site called Ikea Hackers. It’s filled with cool pictures of creative things you can do with Ikea products. Ikea’s response? They sent a cease and desist letter to him because it’s not their accepted way of putting products together. One can only assume again, that this is yet another heavy-handed legal team trying to limit liability, protect a trademark, or whatever.

Pretty hard to ask customers to be loyal to you, when a company isn’t prepared to be loyal to their customers.