Thursday, April 26, 2012

Bank of America - wriggling on its self-inflicted hook


Readers may recall my Doofus Of The Day award to Bank of America (BoA), a few days ago, over its treatment of McMillan USA.  If you missed it, you'll find it at the first link above, or you can listen to the interview below to learn what happened.




The community of firearms enthusiasts and Second Amendment activists on the Internet has taken up McMillan's cause with a vengeance.  Many (including yours truly) have called for a boycott of BoA.  It looks like the bank's finally woken up to the fact that it has (metaphorically speaking) shot itself in both feet.  It's apparently gone into all-out damage control mode - up to and including telling porkies about what it's doing!  McMillan posted on Facebook a short while ago:

We felt it important to let everyone know that we had a meeting with the Bank of America State President of Arizona. He asked for the meeting so that he could clear up any misunderstanding. We left the meeting confident that we had not misunderstood Mr Fox. I have since seen two different BOA statements that indicate that they now viewing this as a misunderstanding. The latest one stated that they were negotiating with the client to clear up the misunderstanding. Let me say as strongly as I can, we are not negotiating with Bank of America. Our position has not changed.

BoA sounds as if they're desperately trying to put whatever positive 'spin' they can on what's turned out to be a public relations catastrophe for them.  However, I won't pay any attention to their words.  I'm only interested in their actions, which speak a whole lot louder than their spinmeisters!

I'm also impressed that McMillan isn't trying to take advantage of the hoopla.  The company put up another Facebook message:

I would like to let everyone know that we at McMillan are proud of each and everyone of you for being concerned citizens willing to do your part in the battle to protect our constitutional rights. But I feel compelled to say to all who have indicated that they will buy something from McMillan to show their support; Thank you, we are honored. But I will ask please, unless you have a real need for a fiberglass stock or a quality bolt action rifle, your emotional and moral support is plenty. This is not about McMillan, it is not about money and we do not need any financial support. We just want our fellow patriots to stand up and say, to steal from an old movie "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more!"

Lets stand together and be strong. Thank you.

Classy!

As I said earlier, if this is its attitude, BoA can do without my business in future.  I hope my readers will adopt a similar approach.

Peter

2 comments:

Jess said...

I have no problem with anyone wanting to end a business agreement due to political or ethical reasons, but when the ethics, and politics, have a sliding scale depending on the amount of money, it's not really either. It's purely unbridled greed.

Julie said...

Anyone not need a quality bolt action rifle?