Steve Jobs vs. the college student – would you buy from a company with a cranky CEO?

I want to start this post off by saying, I love Apple products. Our family has five MacBooks (yes five!), three iPhones, two iPods, an iPod Shuffle and an Apple wireless router. And we are only a family of four with an infant baby girl who hasn’t learned to use such technology yet. Not only that, but in the offices of Mom Central, we all use MacBook Pro laptops.

Is this an example of Apple’s customer service?

So I thought it interesting when I came across this headline last week: Steve Jobs disses college student. Intrigued, I read this story – and then went on to read an additional four outlets reporting the same story to see if they matched up.

Steve Jobs, whose personal financial worth comes to $5.5 billion, has time for such banter? Apparently, Mr. Jobs has a habit of personally answering his own emails – impressive for a busy CEO of that stature.

So the story goes like this – In an effort to go the extra mile for a class assignment Chelsea Issacs, a journalism major with Long Island University, tried in vain to contact the media relations department at Apple hoping to get three questions answered on iPad use in campus classes.

After many futile attempts, frustrated, she decided to take it up a notch. She contacted Steve Jobs himself not really expecting a response from the big cheese, but hoping someone would see her email and forward to the correct contact. What she got in response was rather surprising.

Mr. Jobs himself seemed to be responding, and in a less than friendly manner. He told this college student that it wasn’t his media relations departments job to help her get good grades. Chelsea replied that as a loyal customer, she figured she had an advantage in getting her three simple questions answered. Mr. Jobs responded that with over 300 million customers, Apple simply can’t speak to them all unless they have a real problem.

Chelsea, not satisfied with this answer let him know that her problem was very real, to which Mr. Jobs replied “Leave us alone.” (You can read Chelsea’s open letter to Mr. Jobs at ‘Dear Steve Jobs’ — An Open Letter From the Girl You Dissed.)

Now how do you feel about Apple?

I leave you with these questions:

• Do you feel the CEO of a major company should respond to customers this way?
• If this was, in fact, the real Steve Jobs, was he having a bad day?
• Will a story like this prevent you from buying Apple products in the future?

Like I said, my whole family loves Apple products and Apple has a reputation as a “status” brand. If a CEO responds to his loyal customers in this manner, does this make the products less desirable?

Perhaps Mr. Jobs was just offended that Chelsea emailed him from her Blackberry.

Erica Gatlin is VP, Client Services with Mom Central. She is also a wife and a mother of a teen and an infant daughter. Connect with Erica at Erica@momcentral.com and follow her on Twitter @erica7227.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.