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Update, 5:15 p.m.: GM on Wednesday posted five videos and an article with CEO Mary Barra discussing drivers’ concerns about recalled vehicles at its online "news magazine" Fastlane. (A brief one is at the end of this post.)
It also recently set up a consumer web address with recall information: www.GMignitionupdate.com.
Original article, 8 a.m.:
GM has more than a few headaches these days, as you've seen and heard.
In addition to congressional hearings, questions from safety regulators, civil suits and near-daily media revelations, the automaker also grapples with social media hostility over its delayed recall of cars with risky ignition system flaws. New Facebook pages include GM Recall Lawsuit, GM Recall Class ACtion and GM Recall Survivors.
It's customer vs. customer in this thread on GM's Facebook page late last week.
Here's a post on GM's own Facebook page, posted Tuesday afternoon in capital letters by Penny Brooks, a cosmetologist in Kingsport, Tenn.:
To the GM man that said he would let his wife drive one of the Cobalts that has been recalled, I have one for you! I would suggest you take out a huge insurance policy before seh drives it! Oh, and stay away from potholes, take everything off your keyring and don't try to cross any train tracks! Be sure to tell her if she crashes, the airbags won't deploy!!!!!!!
Brooks didn't get a reply, though other commenters receive openly posted responses and requests for additional details privately.
Technology writer Vindu Goel of The New York Times looks at online GM-bashing and its response strategy.
Car owners are using social media to trade tips and put public pressure on the company on issues like giving affected customers loaner cars until their vehicles can be fixed when the parts arrive in April.
The Times quotes Donna Genader of Atlanta, "who raged that her daughter 'used every penny she had to purchase her dream car and instead she is stuck with a death trap on wheels.' " He also cites an unusual plea from an Alaskan island resident:
@GM your agents keep telling me to take my car to a GM dealer for the recall, after I've explained I live on an island in Alaska! Help!!!!
— lauren munhoven (@AKLolly) March 13, 2014
Goel, the reporter, adds this sequel:
After a series of private messages with a member of GM's Twitter team, the company agreed to pay the $600 cost of a round-trip ferry to ship Ms. Munhoven’s car to the nearest dealer, about 300 miles away in Juneau, and pay for a rental car for the time she is without the Saturn.
She credited the public nature of Twitter complaints for getting GM's attention. “Over Twitter, the service was a lot better,” she said. She was so pleased that she posted a public thank-you on Twitter. . . .
GM has a team of about 20 people based in Detroit that manages its social media presence — including monitoring about 100 independent auto forums — and responds to inquiries and complaints seven days a week. . . .
Amrit Mehta, GM's director of customer and relationship services, said the company’s social media team tried to reach out to people . . . to understand and resolve their specific concerns.
Here's another example, spotted by Deadline Detroit, of what customers are saying:
Turns out I've been driving an unsafe car since 2005. @GM has known since 2004. I can't be the only one who sees something wrong? #GMrecall
— Jessica Newland (@jessicanewland7) March 18, 2014
