German car manufacturer BMW apologized on Thursday for its imperfect internal management and its employee's dereliction of duty after controversy stirred by its employees suspected discrimination against Chinese visitors at its MINI model booth at the ongoing Shanghai auto show.
Screenshot from agencies
The hashtag BMW MINI trended on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Thursday morning after a video clip circulating online showing that representatives of the brand refusing to give free ice cream to Chinese visitors, whereas generously gave out ice cream to a foreign visitor.
BMW issued a sincere apology for the unhappiness that was caused by the incident, attributed the incident to imperfect internal management and its employee's dereliction of duty in its statement released Thursday noon.
The company vowed to review and improve its management, strengthen internal training, and strive to provide good service and experience for every customer.
The topic of the apology from BMW MINI topped China’s social media platform Sina Weibo and gained nearly 110 million views as of Thursday afternoon. Some netizens expressed their unhappiness toward the incident and demanded more feedback.
A video clip circulating online shows that two female staffers at the MINI model booth refused to provide free ice cream to Chinese visitors and told them the ice creams had already run out.
However, minutes later, when a foreign visitor arrived at the booth and asked about the ice cream, the two employees take out a box of ice cream from the thermal case and warm-heartedly instructed him how to open the packet.
When the representatives' attitude was questioned by other visitors, a male staffer took away the thermal case containing the ice creams.
According to media reports, the incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon and the uploader of the video claimed to witness the staffers refusing several Chinese visitors whereas offering ice cream to several foreign visitors.
The incident aroused heated discussions online on Thursday with many netizens criticizing the employees suspected discrimination against Chinese visitors.
Meanwhile, some netizens noted that the incident could be a result of a misunderstanding and pointed out that the two female staffers did not work for BMW MINI but for Luneurs, a Shanghai-based brand of ice cream and bread, which offers limited supply of the ice creams at the auto show as a partner of BMW MINI.
When contacted by media, representatives of BMW responded that the company was investigating into and dealing with the incident, will update the public of the follow-up. According to media reports, BMW replied that this incident was a misunderstanding resulted from mismanagement on staffers and the company is discussing the need for further internal training.