CrowdStrike's Effort to Make Amends Does Not Go Well

Company's $10 Uber Eats offer is criticized after massive internet outage
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 25, 2024 1:28 PM CDT
CrowdStrike's Effort to Make Amends Does Not Go Well
Screens show a blue error message at a departure floor of LaGuardia Airport in New York on Friday, July 19, 2024, after a faulty CrowdStrike update caused a major internet outage for computers running Microsoft Windows.   (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

They meant well. But the company behind last week's worldwide internet outage is being accused of failing to read the room in a big way with a $10 Uber Eats voucher for its affected partners. Also, the vouchers didn't work for many people. Details:

  • The offer: "To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!" wrote CrowdStrike in its email, per the BBC. The vouchers weren't sent to clients or customers—airlines, say, or people who got stuck at airports—but to CrowdStrike's "teammates and partners who have been helping customers through this situation," the company tells Mashable.
  • Blowback: The meager voucher given the magnitude of the problem is being ridiculed, as in this CNN post. "Now partners could risk losing their customers as a result of this mess, even though it was out of their control," writes Elisabeth Buchwald. "But a $10 Uber Eats voucher should make it all better, right?"

  • Blowback, II: The BBC notes that one such CrowdStrike partner wrote on LinkedIn, rather diplomatically: "The gesture of a cup of coffee or Uber Eats credit as an apology doesn't seem to make up for the tens of thousands lost in man hours and customer trust due to the July 19 incident."
  • Insult to injury: It's still 10 bucks, though, right? Alas, TechCrunch reports that when people started using the vouchers, they received an error message from Uber Eats and a message that the gift cards had been rescinded and were no longer valid. It seems that Uber Eats flagged the offer as fraudulent because of high volume.
(More CrowdStrike stories.)

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