In a quirky twist of corporate apology-gone-awry, cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike has left social media chortling after reportedly offering a meager $10 Uber Eats gift card to soothe the frazzled nerves of IT staff and partners bogged down by last Friday’s catastrophic IT outage.
Crowdstrike’s apology falls short
The saga began when several IT professionals and partners received a supposedly consoling email from CrowdStrike, penned with a dose of corporate empathy that may have missed its mark. The message stated, in part, that CrowdStrike knows that it knows that its botched update has caused “additional work” for those IT partners. It added, “And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience.”
The message ended with CrowdStrike stating, “To express our gratitude, your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us!” It included a code for the Uber Eats promotion, or users could access a QR code.
lol Crowdstrike crashed millions of computers with a glitch and then sent an apology to partners in the form of a $10 Uber Eats gift card pic.twitter.com/6ZaYdf1TS6
— Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) July 24, 2024
Some users have said the emails were signed by Daniel Bernard, the company’s chief business officer. In the UK, the amount was said to be around £7.75, which is around $10 at today’s (July 24) exchange rate.
One user quipped, “CrowdStrike sending out an UberEats credit to everyone as a ‘my bad yall’ is so Gen Z.”
While another said: “The Uber Eats voucher in the email to partners stating ‘your next cup of coffee or late night snack is on us’ fails with ‘We’re sorry, this voucher has been cancelled by the issuing party and is no longer valid’ (at least in Aus).”
Oddly enough some of the recipients tried to redeem their snack on CrowdStrike’s dime, only to find the Uber Eats voucher “has been canceled by the issuing party and is no longer valid.”
Some mocked the fact that the amount was barely “enough for a pizza party!”
Not even enough for a pizza party!
— $0.02timmy (@002timmyNFTs) July 24, 2024
In what may go down in the annals of corporate apologies as a classic “what not to do,” CrowdStrike’s $10 olive branch has certainly fed the social media frenzy if not the stomachs of its intended recipients.
Largest outage in IT history
Around 8.5 million devices were impacted in what was described as “the largest IT outage in history” with CrowdStrike stating a significant number are now back online.
An apology was issued as part of the response from the company in recent days.
“We understand the profound impact this has had on everyone. We know our customers, partners and their IT teams are working tirelessly and we’re profoundly grateful,” said CrowdStrike.
“We apologize for the disruption this has created.”
Featured image: Canva
