Apple Might Be Watching You

What is good customer service? Customers would usually state that good customer service means fast and effective solutions for difficulties with a product of a company. What about a company that actively monitors forums and initiates the contact with the customer?

That is apparently what has happened to Nicole Gorski (via Softpedia, thanks Dante) who stated on the official Apple support forum that she got a customer service call from Apple after posting about a problem she encountered with her MacBook Pro.

She confirmed in the thread that she did not contact Apple on this behalf and that the company could only got the information about the problem from the forum thread. Another user weighted in that the behavior was scary and (privacy) invasive.

To come back to the initial question: Do you think it is good customer service to monitor the official support forums actively and contact them without the customer's consent? Good or scary, what is your take on the story?

Update: Apple users who post on the official support site should not expect to receive calls from Apple Support whenever they do. It is however still likely that Apple is actively monitoring the forums to spot larger issues or users who are not satisfied with a product or have issues with one.

As Ghacks readers have stated, it is not really an invasion of privacy if you publicly post in a support forum on the developer's site. While you may be surprised to receive a call in first place, most users who do will surely feel positive about it as it may resolve the issues that they have with a product or service.