OOHZ, and Im sorry, I just LAH-ooooVE the fact her comments are closed. After a “woe is me story” that continually had neon signs blinking “HEATHER, HEATHER, HEATHER” she done closed her ears and there you have it.

Hmmm. It’s interesting to hear another point of view (I was JUST at Dooce hearing about this for the first time). I don’t have twitter, so I did not read any of this first hand. I completely get what you’re saying about how ‘Heather the brand’ has more responsibility for what she writes than a small blogger with twenty followers…but still, I read her blog, and probably a lot of people do, because as many followers as she has she doesn’t censure herself. She still writes as if it’s just her family and friends reading, or at least that’s the feeling I get. And she got popular writing that way, so should she change what she writes now because her audience is bigger? I don’t necessarily think so. I agree that more of a story about the washer should make it on the blog or something before people boycott, but honestly, that’s on those people who are willing to take the word of one person, without knowing all the facts, and boycott over it. I think it’s a silly thing to do. But it’s silly of them, not necessarily of her. Blind loyalty to one person’s opinion is not good no matter how much you like that person, and that’s their fault not hers. Still, it is something to think about and I think your point is really valid too.

Wow, this is the most interesting comment thread that I think I’ve ever read “live”. Like, maybe I’m a Real Blogger now? Because I was part of the Maytag Sitch, as it was going down? I usually find out about these things days/months/years later….

Anyway, Linda you DO have BALLS, but also you have respect and civility on your side. You’ve handled yourself gracefully.

Also, Dude is killing me.

As for my opinion? I… uh… don’t have one. Really! I mean, I see both sides of the issue- hate big corporations taking advantage of working class people. If it had been me, I wouldn’t have had the power that Heather does, and I’d FOR SURE still have a broken machine, and no extra cash for another one. So if this makes big companies produce better quality products, and if it makes costumer service for the average joe better, than I’m glad someone is holding them accountable.

However, the kind of complaining she did made me uncomfortable. Probably because I’m not clear in my own heart/mind of how I feel about it…

In any case, I’m always a big fan of the devil’s advocate- many people outright agreed with you, but VERY FEW did anything about it.
Therefore, YOU RULE. =)

Nope, it’s her fault cause she knows what the good golly hell shes doing. She’s like super nova mom/wife/entrepreneur, she’s got connections the norm’s don’t have, but writes/blogs to be of the norm… but ::high pitch:: – itttts not haaaapin’n! Last time I checked the power of persuasion is super strong which brings us to square ONE. notoriety + leverage = jackpot!

dooce knows her audience and the impact her comments and tweets have on her large audience. She is the BULLY.

Your blog fortunately lacks the pompous attitude of dooce’s blog. Who the heck tweets while giving birth?!? Unless they know the LARGE audience they have awaiting her next post with bated breath?!?

Feel free to disagree…you’re entitled to your opinion. No reason for her to have “steam coming out of [her] ears”.

Poopey on her.

So… do you own stock in Maytag. Others have already covered it- Heather was ranting… Thankfully, despite the fact that I read Heather’s blog daily, I have the intelligence not to hurl all of my Maytag appliances onto my front lawn. And when I shop for a washer next spring… I would have barely remembered what brand she was ranting about (well had you not started this huge “debate”). But rest assured, you have brought new people to your blog… “who is this person harassing Dooce for bitching about her broken washing machine?” HAVE YOU NEVER BITCHED IRRATIONALLY ABOUT SOMETHING WHEN YOU WERE BOTH SLEEP DEPRIVED AND GETTING SCREWED BY A BIG CORPORATION?? Give it up.

*Sigh* People, please. Slander = an untruthful oral statement that harms the subject’s reputation. Libel = an untruthful printed/written statement that harms the subject’s reputation. Slander =/= mean or inflammatory.

And yeah, Linda, I think you’re making much more of this than necessary. 11 paragraphs? Really? I don’t understand the need to spend so much energy worrying about how Heather does or doesn’t wield her audience power appropriately. And despite what others here will tell you, it doesn’t take “balls” to use a relatively anonymous forum to take issue with someone’s position. As you point out in a response here, your Twitter account doesn’t point to this site, and your full name isn’t attached to your Twitter ID. You can tweet whatever you want to or about Heather with essentially zero consequence. So a few people write nasty @replies to you – that’s hardly a consequence with any gravity. Right?

But really, learn the difference between slander and libel, and recognize that when you accuse someone of either, you are calling them a liar.

I am totally with you on this one Linda. This has bugged me since I first read about it.

The way I see it is if her job were anything other than blogging, there would be some serious ethical issues with blasting an email or tweet or whatever out about this kind of experience. I mean whose job would let them send the equivalent of a mass email to your entire company about a personal problem? Not many I’d guess, without some consequence. I mean we all complain to friends and family when we are on the receiving line of some shitty customer service but frankly it is a nutjob who doesn’t know when to quit and takes the fight public in hopes of getting it resolved.

Also, I just told my husband about this and he agrees with your stance on the whole situation.

Love your writing, love your blog, but I gotta say, I think you overreacted on this one. Hopefully we’ll be back to the regularly scheduled programming soon…

I certainly don’t want to make this a bash-session excuse for Heather, but I agree with the commenters making a point that this isn’t just some unknown woman bitching on the internet . . . her site and her “brand” is her job also. Of course everyone has the right to rant, vent, what have you, but when your site is your job and your income, and when you seriously sell your logo on t-shirts on your site, and have that many followers, I think one ought to have a little more forethought before going on a brand name calling rant.

I just wanted to chime in again and say some of the comments – like saying that Dude (who was being unnecessarily nasty) was Jon Armstrong, or that even if he isn’t they are the same – seem a little overly personal, especially since Jon Armstrong wasn’t even part of the original fight. Being mean (yes, I know, sounds very grade school to use mean, but it fits) to him, or getting personal about either writer, doesn’t help make anyones point. Either Heather has the right to over react sometimes, or she is popular enough that she has a “responsibility” not to. Either way, no reason to declare her, her husband, or Linda the anti-Christ. This is just one little issue.

I’m in complete agreement with your take.

I’m of two minds about Dooce. While I enjoy reading her, at times the narcissism that has grown with her celebrity turns me off.

If people want to bitch all day on the Internet about a broken appliance, I have no problem with that at all (been there, done that). But starting a boycott based on a bad few days with one appliance was over the top. My immediate response was “take a goddamn pill and move on.”

One appliance breaking down and temporarily lousy service isn’t evidence of a systemic problem with a manufacturer. Boycotts are generally founded on such evidence, not one blogger’s bad day.

Past that, the woman earns a 6-figure income. Can’t she call a cleaning service? Or drive to her mom’s house?

As far as business saavy goes, she’s got it, but her fortune is also somewhat incidental.
She entered the blogging scene early enough, before there was much competition. She had the smarts to brand herself back then. If she was entering today, her chances of earning a living purely from blogging would be uncertain.

Her brash, frank, funny, fearless voice keeps readers coming back, including those who dislike her. She’s emerged as a saavy business woman, of that there is no doubt. And her blog is sustainably entertaining. I enjoy it, but I’m not a worshiper.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t I guess. You put your link on your Twitter account and you’re stirring up controversy for publicity. You don’t put your link and you can say what you want with no consequences.

Agreed. Dooce is simply gettiing too big for her britches these days. I think her internet celebrity has turned her into a self-aggrandizing, self-promoting, whiny, entitled, narcissistic, out of touh, Oprah wannabe. Her posts seem mocking to regular folks who don’t make $500k a year posting about their lives in their pajamas, while this country is simultaneously in the middle of a recession. “I bought a $1,300 washing machine…I bought brand new patio furniture to enjoy the Utah summer nights…I bought these ironic new pillows on Etsy…look at my daughter’s expensive crib and nursery, blah, blah, blah.” She knows the power she weilds on twitter and through her blog, which tells me she consciously twittered about Maytag just because SHE COULD. Because she’s dooce, damnit. Her daughter’s a genius, her newborn baby has dimples to die for, her husband is perfect and she’s an esoteric hipster with great taste in music PEOPLE — even Leta has her mom’s penchant for indie rock — the Armstrongs are just COOL. She’s become increasingly narcissistic and entitled. “Oops, how did little ‘ol me get to be #26!? Oops, how did this TV crew unexpectedly end up in my living room this morning?! Sooo, as I was flying to an interview with Dr. Phil.” Ugghh, her narcissism is always shrouded in an inauthentic attempt at self-deprecation. Let’s face it. Armstrong has built a calculated empire — she even wrote her birth story in 3 installments like a TV mini-series to keep her audience in suspense and coming back every second of every day. She’s brilliant in that regard, but there’s something about humility when you’ve achieved success at her level and she’s gone in the opposite direction. “I’m dooce, when you spot me in the grocery store…say ‘hi'” What, are you Angelina Jolie now? Anyway, she consciously bashed Maytag on her twitters, simply because she COULD. She knows her clout, but instead of using it for good, instead of maintaining some humility and appreciation for an internet who’s built her up…she’s almost gloating in her power, which quite frankly, is just obnoxious. God forbid the woman has to use a laundromat and throw in some quarters like “normal” people…while she awaits a brand new machine (or two or three for free) after snapping her little internet cyber fingers. I know it’s so pedestrian, but it seems like a small sacrifice to me when you live the life of dooce.

Once again Sundry hits the nail on the head. Exactly. You’ve touched on every point that went through my mind about this today, as well as some other, subtler points that hadn’t occurred to me yet (if ever). And you’ve articulated those points with grace and measured reason, which is always a plus for one’s position in a controversy of any kind. Well said, and bully for you for saying so!

I kinda wish Anon 6:36 had left their name & blog address. If they have one. I would totally read him or her.

This was really well written; I think you might have written what a lot of people were thinking and just didn’t articulate.

Dude
You are not Dwight Schrute.

FACT.

Holy Humility batman, Anonymous on August 27th, 2009 6:36 pm – paaaaaaRAISE the mighthayy heavens you have made a wonderful point about humility. He who is standing beware he don’t fall on his ass’ish. I don’t care if your a recovering mormon or a all out and proud smurf, logic is logic and she’z didn’t use mucho in this here battle of “steam comin’ out of said: ears”

agreed! that is all.

Just read “dude”‘s comment and while the statements he presents might certainly help one form an educated opinion of the manufacturer, not one of those was cited or referred to by Dooce.

Additionally, her boycott suggestion wasn’t based on Whirlpool exploiting a cheap source of labour, or amoral production methods, but her own bad day with her own broken washer.

She bought the washer. She wanted the washer they built exploiting poor people in the Third World. So his is not really an effective argument.

Beyond that, most manufacturing is done overseas in sweatshops now. So uh, Whirlpool isn’t exactly unique in that amoral regard.

And Dooce didn’t care anyway, because she bought the washer made in overseas sweatshops. That isn’t her issue. Her issue is it broke and she didn’t get service.

I really appreciate how the majority of these comments have been handled, and Jon’s comment is truly respectful and high class. And Linda you’ve handled yourself wonderfully. I know you, and know you’re not doing this for traffic or attention. That suggestion actually made me laugh.

I have to be honest, when you spoke out against her I was scared for you. She has SO much power and influence I was afraid she would literally take you down. And the more I thought about it today I’m like, “Who the fuck cares.” I haven’t been a fan of hers for a while but still follow her and continue to read. I got some (albeit tiny) balls today too and am taking her off my blogroll and unfollowed her on Twitter. Her rant just sealed the deal for me. I TOTALLY got the “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!?” vibe and I’m done.

And it feels good.

this whole situation reeks of grade school. for anyone familiar with twitter, companies contact folks all the time regarding their tweets – whether they be positive or negative. i do believe twitter is the perfect forum for the kind of spur-of-the-moment frustration heather was feeling.

i’m not ‘for’ or ‘against’ either one of you, but one thing is for sure – if you were looking for traffic to your blog, you certainly got it, because i never heard of your blog until today. so…congrats? i hope for your sake this was the attention you wanted.

Rock it out Sundry!
Nicely said.

Hm, man! People are RILED. Here’s what’s interesting–we’re creating a whole new world with communications via internet–and how the First Amendment may come into play.

I know as a journalist, if I did something like that without backing it up with facts, I’d likely either be sued by the company, made very uncomfortable by the company, or fired from my job.

On the other hand, I get nervous when people start talking about what you can and cannot say–j-school profs will call that “the chilling effect” when suddenly people feel they can’t challenge the people in power (government, corporations, etc.) through “printed” word.

HOWEVER, I do think that the main point is that dooce probably makes a jillion dollars a year on her website, and that makes her a professional, no matter which way you slice it. She’s super smart, and a great writer, (and I count myself among her fans)and yeah, when you have a big following, you have a responsibility to be careful with your facts/presentation. That is not to say I don’t believe she’s super irritated or in the wrong that buying a new washing machine gives you the expectation it should work.

But I come back to this, Linda, which is brilliant: “This isn’t consumer justice via social media. This is an unusually influential person slandering a company with no explanation.”

140 characters, respectfully done, well said. It takes a great writer to convey all that in that amount of space.

And I have to say, I thought that it was a respectful conversation between you two via Twitter. You both have sarcastic senses of humor and you’re both strong personalities. I get some sense that a little bit of opinionated banter got turned into a HUGE CATFIGHT because two women dared to disagree in public.

Oh, P.S. In case it isn’t clear–“HUGE CATFIGHT” is sarcastic.

Just to interject to the “if thats your REAL name” (baileys, kelli’s and max’s…and so on, that DON’T PUT ANY CONTACT INFO) you make a point of stating your view but are a internet phantom… so.. really, why post? what do you come from, what are your ardent and impassioned views on? talk about grade school and ridiculous, dooces cheerleaders have been a little on the “Im 12, I’z punch you in the arm and run” side. This has nothing in the EFFING sweeeeeet Caroline Neil Diamond to do with MAYTAG. We all know that!! Cut to the chase for the love of shiznick!!! Damn!

I hate that this has become such a THING. I, however, DO applaud you for following through on it, because it became such a ridiculous THING. I mean, I almost threw up when one of those Wise Obnoxious Mommybloggers (ironically not you, Heather OR me, though we were most vocal) threw out a pearl of wisdom on the topic, like we were all supposed to see the light. Oh YES YES OF COURSE! THAT IS WHAT WE SHOULD DO! Thank you, wise Mommyblogger. Thank you.

Dude — who is not Jon Armstrong, that I believe — is a frightening specimen, and should, if nothing else, serve to remind us all why being Heather is not that enviable. If I had a follower willing to go to SUCH GREAT LENGTHS for me, I’d be afraid to sleep at night. For real.

At any rate, what bothers me about the whole thing is that yes, I believe that with great power comes great responsibility (Frillionth Spidey reference HOLLA!), and that …well, this whole thing crossed the line. For the sake of discussion, and since all parties are reading, I’ll say why, and I hope it doesn’t sound douchey towards anyone involved:

– This was a person with a huge audience. It’s one thing if *I* say I have a problem with Maytag, but another if Demi Moore says it, and for chrissake, Heather has as many followers as Demi Moore, you know what I’m saying? You have to know, based on your experiences as a celebrity, that you’re going to get a response and that seems exceedingly self-serving, and is reminiscent of the behavior everyone flipped out about at BlogHer. The Crocs lady comes to mind, but remember, she didn’t get any results, because she was a “nobody.”

This proves the point that the Crocs guy would mos def have given free Crocs to Dooce, is what I’m saying. Or something. And that smacks of something that leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

— Dooce’s fans are rabid dogs. Not all of them, but a frightening lot. (Exhibit A: “dude”) You bet your bippy they were going to re-tweet that until the cows came home and scream BOYCOTT! until Maytag cried uncle. When we don’t even know the whole STORY.

— There was most definitely a sense of entitlement, intentional or not. The demand for an immediate response and phone call during the 12 hours that most Maytag repairmen are at home eating dinner (likely featuring old-fashioned glass milk bottles to match their uniforms), and TWEETING the demand for that phone call was a bit, “Don’t you know who I AM?” It was a bit off-putting, and I’m putting that mildly. I believe the word I used was “horrified.” Asking for decent customer service is one thing; demanding special treatment based on status is another.

–Mom-101 made a great point that people were willing to LOSE THEIR SHIT on Nikon after a stupid party rebuff (that was justified, IMO). Why WOULDN’T people react similarly to this? And back then, there were all sorts of screams for people to use reason and act judiciously. I see no reason why this should be any different.

— The idea that you or anyone else would speak out against this for publicity is what’s wrong with the Internet and the inherent hierarchical structure. Are we not allowed to disagree with the big guns, lest we be smote like Sam Merlotte or accused of something awful?

Give me a fucking break, people. Linda is a bigger person than that, and whether you like her or not, is the LEAST self-serving blogger out there, and I genuinely mean that. Seriously. The least. I have been reading her for what feels like decades, and I have never — not once — seen her do anything to become bigger, more famous, more public, or be anything but genuine and thoughtful. Ever. And I believe after all these years, she and I are actually friends, so I can say that without sounding like a sycophant.

So that portion of this whole thing, you random commenters, you, is utterly ridiculous. Because Jesus, who even WANTS this kind of publicity, when people like “Dude” come crawling out of their rocks with an astonishing amount of research and vitriol?

Oh! And my point re: those dashes, is that all of this may or may not have been intentional, but that’s how it came across. Which leads me to the point that while there are many, many benefits to being Heather, one of the negatives is that you do, I believe, have to think before you Tweet more than the rest of us, lest you be misunderstood.

Ergo, Heather, if you are reading this, and if I misunderstood you completely, then I apologize. But I agree with Linda that thinking before Tweeting is your cross to bear.

I think you are awesome!

My what an interesting day! I noticed Dooce’s hissy fit a while back, and your responses this morning… and I think lots of things, not that it matters. Dooce’s missives were making me uncomfortable and I am glad someone called her out on them. I love what you said, it was appropriate, and just snarky enough to be hilarious. I can see why it pissed off Dooce, but it’s also obvious that she rectified the situation a bit, so good on you for being bold enough to do it.

I think this is the most interesting thing I’ve seen so far as social media is concerned!

Btw, I can say with 99.9% certainty “dude” isn’t Jon Armstrong. (Note: “dude” misspelled Jon’s name). The real Jon would identify himself, not hide behind “dude.”

Also, that’s just not Jon’s voice or style. I’ve been reading him for awhile too. And I wouldn’t if he wrote like “dude” does.

And oh christ, I meant to add that what proved my point was the fact that she was offered free washing machines from competitors. Dude, I could Tweet my BALLS OFF for DECADES about my broken Whirlpool washing machine (which, true story, was broken a week after we got it. For two weeks. While I, too, had a newborn), and the only free thing I’d be offered was a plastic washboard from Dan’s Laundromat.

And I’m FINE with that, I’m just saying, clearly there’s undue influence there.

Sundry–rock on. I agreed with all of your comments completely.
And I noted myself as a dooce reader to call the inevitable dogs off when I noted that I disagreed with her; but I should have also said that I’ve been a fan of yours, for oh, what, the whole time you’ve been blogging.

Doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose of Twitter if “popular” tweeters aren’t allowed to tweet their minds?

Heather needs to shut it. Your machine doesn’t work. I’m sorry. I have a freaking screw in my knee (installed on purpose by a surgeon) that has a crack in it (not his fault, not the screw’s fault, just no one’s fault). Am I telling 1M people to boycot the screw manufactuer? No. Sometimes life is a bitch.

Let’s get some perspective.

She needs to go read that story that you linked to in twitter, (the one from the LA Times about the 6-year old with schizophrenia). That is life. That is truely worth discussing.

Thank you for speaking out!

Have had you on my feed reader for ages since our kids are the same ages, but don’t comment much.

Don’t really have too much to add to the conversation, although I will say I agree with your tweets. Thought they were respectful, etc.

I really just wanted to say that OMGosh, twitter makes my head hurt! I’m not on twitter myself, had no clue of any fight until this post, and searched it out. Think I’ll happily stay twitter-free!

Gotta admit, I’m girl crushing on you & Anon 6:36 pretty damn hard right now.

Heather gets a lot of free stuff. Tons. Because if she likes whatever it is, the senders know she’ll make mention of the product, link to its web site, and the next day their web site will crash from new business.

The woman who owns Daily Coyote didn’t start living off of her blog until Dooce mentioned it. Overnight she became a sensation.

That’s the positive side of pleasing/amusing Dooce; and Whirlpool, at least today, is cottoning on to that.

—————

How many variations of “seriously, totally abusing her influence. trying to get a free maytag me thinks” did you see today.

Plenty.

First impressions can make or not start a relationship.

Dooce wants to draw people in, not alienate them. At the same time she needs to not compromise her personality. I thought – like Linda said – she handled the criticism fairly well, partly because she’s a reasonable person at heart, but also she’s not dumb.

Agree with what you are saying in principle. But I just finished shopping for a new dishwasher and Consumer Reports panned Maytag too. LOL

@Smileen – not everyone has a website to list. Are you saying that makes us internet phantoms and that, what, we shouldn’t be allowed to comment on items of interest? Isn’t that a lot like saying you can’t vote if you don’t own property? Interesting take on things.

thanks for going on the other side of the argument, one that very much needed defending. Dooce seemed a little too blatant with the company-bashing, and I have to wonder if it was a stunt.

I read Dooce and you daily, and am totally on your side on this one. but then again, I’ve always related to you better. You haven’t lost yourself in this wayward world of selling out.

go you! does your husband know you grew a pair?

As a long time follower of both blogs, I feel like this post was unnecessary. A simple apology and not an explanation of what you did and why you did it would have sufficed. Instead I see a window for further internet bullying and put downs and unfortunately for both parties involved an invitation to further trolling and traffic.

I realize that some people see Dooce negatively as an online persona, but to judge someone in such a personal light that you have never even met is kind of ricockulus.

Instead it would make more sense if you both just shared a beer and talked about your experiences about washing clothing for newborn infants and such. This bile being spewed in the comments is kind of gross, but I’ll read your blogs regardless because I don’t know you that well as a person yet.

I owned a used Maytag dryer briefly in my last rental and it dried my clothes better than imaginable. The brand has significantly dropped in quality over the past few years.

No not at all @Max – I didn’t mean to poo poo you that way, just in a way thats like..dood, you so SHOULD come from someheres and be all like “HI Im MAX, Im from here & like this that and the other and I have something to say!” it’s nice to link it to other thoughts. Dats all. It just makes the full circle of commenting, threads and so on more viable.

I’m conflicted about this. I work for a company that monitors Twitter activity, too, and we are primed to address any negativity that comes our way, whether the person complaining has five followers or five hundred, so I don’t think all companies are ONLY addressing issues from those with the biggest pull. Also, my boss recently purchased a stove with bad parts and received terrible customer service; she hopped online, came across a blog dedicated solely to complaints about the stove’s manufacturer, posted a comment, and was contacted in 24 hours by that manufacturer, with new parts in hand by the end of the week. In the blogosphere nobody would know her from Adam, and yet her concerns were still heard and somebody took the time to get the issue resolved. When it comes to social media and all its various channels, the line between “little person” and “celebrity” is more blurred because we all have access to the same tools to communicate our message. Dooce received a substandard product and abysmal customer service. She had every right to complain about it and do it publicly.

That said, the multiple tweets stating DO NOT BUY MAYTAG didn’t sit well with me. It’s not that she said it, it’s how often she said it before giving the full story. But what is the full story? Why can’t a brand-new $1,300 washing machine that breaks repeatedly be enough to publish an all-caps rant? That question is just as much for me as it is for you. I feel like it shouldn’t bother me. But it does. Maybe because Dooce does have such a large audience.

I don’t think I’m explaining myself very well. But I’ve enjoyed following the discussion.

P.S. MAX, I don’t vote sooooooo… I can’t really hold up that end of the convo :)

Dooce is overrated. Just say’n.

Mostly I love that it was all about a broken washing machine. Go to the laundromat like everyone else.