Best Buy Says Creator Of iPhone/Evo Video Can Keep His Job; Guy Says He'd Rather Not

from the backtracking dept

Last week you probably saw the story of how the guy, Brian Maupin, who created this hilarious iPhone vs. HTC Evo video was suspended by Best Buy and told he was going to get fired:

Given the massive backlash against Best Buy for this move, it appears the company is backtracking quickly. Best Buy’s CEO did a blog post saying the company had “completed its investigation” and Brian was being offered his job back. The CEO also points out — as people did in the comments, that some of the original concern wasn’t so much about the famed iPhone/Evo video (which doesn’t mention Best Buy), but other videos he had done that had mentioned the company (which have since been taken down).

Reader Jupiter points out that Maupin is now saying he’s not sure he really wants to go back to working at Best Buy, and noting that the CEO’s backtracking is very different than what he was told by the company last week:

“(The company statement) is a 180 from what they were saying Thursday, but I guess me they either made peace with the videos I left up or decided the others weren’t so bad. Here’s a statement I’m issuing as well:

“Right now I’m planning on taking a leave of absence so I may survey my current career plans and the future. I’m not sure if it would be comfortable returning to Best Buy considering the circumstances, but I will definitely consider all options.”

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Comments on “Best Buy Says Creator Of iPhone/Evo Video Can Keep His Job; Guy Says He'd Rather Not”

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30 Comments
DrGonzo42069 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

Tell Me about it. Once while between IT Gigs I took a spot at a Best Buy in Oregon. I was originally offered 10+/hr to sell PCs over priced PCs to grannies that where way more than they ever needed for their intended use the entire time lying to them about the technology in general. After my first pay check i received a letter from the mother-ship stating that they needed to adjust my pay rate as i was offered too much $ and the hiring manager didn’t have the authority to pay me more than minimum wage. Luckily the job was just for kicks and to kill time. I feel sorry for anyone who HAS TO work there. Its worse than anyone can post without possibly getting smacked by some NDA you signed when you weren’t looking.

Blatant Coward (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Because he’s fired, or because he was offered his job back? Perhaps option 3, you are an iPhone4 wanter. Go to Walgreens and shush, adults are talking.

From the CEO’s blog:

“The videos in question did not illustrate ‘humility, respect and integrity’ and that’s unacceptable to me, our customers and our employees.”

As a Best Buy customer, I want a sales person with knowledge of their assigned zone, and a willingness to at least offer to assist me. If they have opinions, that’s fine, frankly I don’t care what they are, I’ll make up my own mind.

Humility is false modesty-a form of lying-as far as I’m concerned, look me in the eye, say your piece clearly and we’ll get along fine. Respect and integrity would be counter to humility in the event you have an opinion as in this case.

Being a kowtowing sack of manure is fit only for management, and no co-workers would want to be around cleaning up after that.

Perhaps the CEO should look over the video again and ask himself, would he like a wakeup call or to be cursed to visit walgreens forever? Oh and one more thing if he does happen to see this post…

IT’S A FREAKING CARTOON! GET OVER IT!

Blatant Coward (profile) says:

Re: Re: uhhhh

“I’ll take time to survey my other options to find a job where people won’t be trying to make a few dozen brownie points with the powers that be by frakking me up the butt sideways as they fire me for “poor work habits” or some other tripe that is “definitely officially not related to the videos this guy made.””

You left out some of the quote, fixed that for you.

Bugsy says:

BUT!!!!!!!

He should not be fired for making a silly movie, he should publicly humiliated for misrepresenting the iphone in the “humorous” vid.
1. 3x faster internet? Fiction. Even if your lucky enough to live in one of the scare 4g cities, it’s been reported as being a little bit faster than to new iphon4.
2. Yes, the screen is bigger but NO WHERE near as beautiful, not as high a resolution, does not look as good in the daylight.
3. APPs? Are you kidding me? You’re comparing a one month old phone with a new app store to the hundreds of thousands of established, working and USEFUL apple apps? Pull-ease…
4. No phones camera takes better shots than the new iphone. Piss on megapixels. ANd the VIDEO CAM blows anything else away AND the videos can be edited IN THE PHONE using imovie.

Maybe you should go to work for Obama. He needs more spin doctors.

B-Eck says:

Re: BUT!!!!!!!

1. 4G is reported to be significantly faster than any other networks 3G. You can read countless reviews on it. As far as 3g vs 3g, it completely and utterly depends on your location… just like just about every other phone known to man. Get a clue.

2. NO WHERE near as beautiful? I’ve seen both phones up close and in person. The Iphone screen does look better, but it’s really only noticable on video that is extremely vivid. Most Youtube videos look fairly comparable.

3. The EVO is using the Android app store… the Android app store has been up and running much longer than a month. Does Apple still own the advantage in the app deparment? Yes, but to ignorantly state that it’s a new app store is well… ignorant.

4. Find reviews on the camera’s. I’ve seen half say that they’re very comparable, and the other half tilted in EVO’s favor. Most reviews on the video have tilted in the Iphone’s favor. Either way they say if you’re looking for high quality pictures, don’t throw away your newer digital camera just yet, and neither of the phones are worth using as a legitimate camcorder.

At least political spin doctors are informed…

Mike Masnick (profile) says:

Re: BUT!!!!!!!

He should not be fired for making a silly movie, he should publicly humiliated for misrepresenting the iphone in the “humorous” vid.

You do realize he also made a video posting “the other side” as well, right?

http://www.youtube.com/user/tinywatchproductions#p/a/u/0/UAOtC9QfXac

He’s making fun of silly fanboyism — like the kind that gets you all upset about a joke video. He’s not endorsing one phone over the other.

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