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Public relations consultants say the widespread forwarding of a rude email to a customer at The Great Marquee company reveals the financial danger from off-the-cuff email reactions in the era of viral marketing.
Email has been a boon to some advertising agencies, which can use commercial databases to send marketing messages to specific groups of people.
But emails also spread negative messages beyond the control of the original sender.
In this case, a customer passed on the marquee company's rude rebuke to a cancelled order.
Email lists expanded the readership to thousands, and it made headlines at the weekend.
The company's chief executive, Klaus Jorgenson, posted his explanation on its website and on its answering service.
Two days after the news coverage, the phone message said the company was receiving many calls about the email but now wanted to "move on".
Katrina Jorgensen, his wife and the office manager had emailed a customer who decided to cancel a marquee for her wedding.
The response said: "Your wedding sounded cheap, nasty and tacky anyway so we only ever considered you as time wasters. Our marquees are for upper class clients which unfortunately you are not.
"Why don't you stay within your class levels and buy something from Payless Plastics instead."
Deborah Pead of public relations consultancy Pead PR said that a staff member in her office had received the email, which she said would have "horrific consequences" for the marquee company.
"It is in a position now from which it is very hard to recover," she said.
"It is one thing when you are a company producing something that is fairly widespread but they ... are in a very small market. Probably they need to consider a change of name and rebranding.
"The reality is that it just takes a nano-second to push a button and send something that you have no control over."
Claudia Macdonald of Mango Public Relations said that a bad customer experience created word of mouth anyway.
Twenty years ago that might mean a dozen people, but with email lists it could spread much, much wider.
"And the wider it gets, the greater the chance of reaching people who might be your customers. But there are also people who tell about good things."
The Great Marquee Company experience was every business owner's nightmare.
Peter Hehir of public relations consultancy Senate in Wellington said the saga showed the wider reality of customer relations.
"The fact is that there is nowhere left to hide - and businesses need to get used to that idea."
He said, she said
* Steve Hausman tells the Great Marquee he won't require their services:
Thanks for your assistance and we are sorry that it turned out this way although we are glad we looked at the marquee prior to booking as that would have been a huge disappointment.
* Reply from the Great Marquee's Katrina Jorgensen:
Your wedding sounded cheap, nasty and tacky anyway so we only ever considered you as time wasters. Our marquees are for upper class clients which unfortunately you are not.
