Telus Corp. apologized to customers who threatened to cancel their contracts after the telecom giant tweeted in support of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s price on carbon, but it was too late to say sorry to some Western Canadians who took it as a personal affront and took their business elsewhere.
It’s no secret that Telus has long advocated for sustainability – it is the only Canadian telecom on the Dow Jones sustainability index – but the country’s third largest telecom provider, which does much of its business in Alberta’s beleaguered oil country, made customers angry with the political tone of its tweet.
“As a founding member of @smartprosperity, we support @JustinTrudeau & @cathmckenna in putting a #PriceOnCarbon,” Telus posted Tuesday night, linking to a joint statement from 22 business leaders, including CEO Darren Entwistle, that called carbon pricing the best way to reduce emissions and spark innovation.
Backlash to the tweet was swift, with hundreds of social media users sharing their dismay and plans to cancel their Telus contracts.
Their outrage was amplified when conservative media personality Ezra Levant, who has 88,000 followers, retweeted users who expressed intentions to cancel subscriptions. By Wednesday afternoon, prominent Albertans including businessman Brett Wilson and MP Tom Kmiec added their voices in opposition of Telus.
@JohnGormleyShow @TELUS @smartprosperity @JustinTrudeau @cathmckenna Already done.
See in the corner?
New Bell customer. Tomorrow, employees pic.twitter.com/21yMuMPLmg— Scott Mac (@TheScottMac) October 5, 2016
It took Telus 17 hours to apologize with another tweet.
“Our carbon pricing tweet late yesterday was not meant to be partisan or political, but we know it appeared that way, and we’re sorry,” it posted.
“We take your input very seriously and your feedback will inform our sustainability policies and initiatives going forward,” it added three hours later.
It’s not clear how many customers followed through on their threats to quit, but the apology came too late for Rosetown, Sask. resident Andrew Vancha. He cancelled his six-year wireless subscription with Telus first thing Wednesday morning. He was disappointed with the tweet as he disagrees with the way the carbon tax is being rolled out.
“When I saw someone supporting it, I thought why should I support them,” he said. “Most of the anger is still at the whole carbon tax thing, not at Telus, but they’re taking the brunt of it.”
He and his wife, who paid about $135 a month for their plans, signed up with Sasktel instead. Other Twitter users told the Financial Post they cancelled personal and business contracts with Telus.
Meantime, Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., Wind Mobile and Shaw Communications Inc. swiftly jumped into the thread with messages offering their services to customers who planned to jump ship for political reasons.
“We can have one of our sales force experts reach out!” @RogersHelps tweeted to a user who said she “can’t support Telus.”
“I would cancel in a second if I was sure that Rogers and Bell wouldn’t take the same moronic stance that Telus did,” one user tweeted, eliciting a prompt response from @Bell_Support. “We’d love to have you on board with us,” Bell tweeted.
@owmyasshurts Hi Taylor. We’d love to have you on board with us. Can you DM a contact number? I’ll have sales reach out. ^MB
— Bell Support (@Bell_Support) October 5, 2016
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Most users didn’t spell out why they were cancelling and just expressed general outrage or disappointment. Others pointed to tax increases, called Telus a hypocrite for using carbon or criticized the company for taking a political stance.
Alfred Hermida, the director of the University of British Columbia’s journalism who wrote a book on social media, called it a misstep to release a tweet that “sounds super political” without any context in light of the controversy around Trudeau’s plan, said
“This is like setting a match in a forest that hasn’t had any rain for weeks because there’s an audience there that’s upset that Justin Trudeau has done this in the first place,” Hermida said.
The resulting firestorm should act as a lesson for corporations on how a single tweet can act as a catalyst for outrage and anger, Hermida said. On social media people tend to react instantly and emotionally without thinking about context, and things tend to snowball when other peoples’ reactions reinforce their views.
“Anger and outrage plays very well on social,” he said.
Telus should have responded more quickly and sent people personal messages to quell the outrage before it escalated, he added.
“If you’re going to be active on social media, you don’t just need to be broadcasting your message but you need to be listening and react.”
Telus did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the tweet, its aftermath and whether it stands by its position. The Smart Prosperity initiative behind the joint statement also includes leaders from Unilever, Loblaws, The Co-operators and Clean Energy Canada.
“Telus supports putting a price on carbon to help spur clean growth and clean technology innovation,” Telus’ senior vice president of strategic initiatives Andrea Goertz said in the statement.
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