Harvey Norman’s baffling Twitter behaviour is drawing fire after its flippant dismissal of a tweet alleging to be from a former employee driven “suicidal” by their work at the company.
The consumer electronics retail giant has for several days been blocking consumers, MPs, and unions who complained about its refusal to pay back $22 million in JobKeeper or commented on wage protests by its employees.
One tweet by user Sisyphysical claimed that working for Harvey Norman “drove [them] to suicide in six months”, only for the official Harvey Norman account to respond with a pair of emojis.
https://twitter.com/HarveyNormanAU/status/1398247082423558144
The outrage has fuelled the #boycottharveynorman hashtag, with users condemning the company and urging others to take their business elsewhere.
Harvey Norman is rapidly shifting from “no real reason to shop there over somewhere else” to “several reasons to never ever shop there” .
(The below is a reply to a former employee saying they were suicidal after working there) https://t.co/rWQ587RuZO
— Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) May 30, 2021
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a business behave with such disregard for their customers and more importantly their staff. I will never buy from Harvey Norman again, and I hope that applies to other Aussies, too. #BoycottHarveyNorman pic.twitter.com/tZ7t8drWhO
— otm shank (@SupercruiseTom) May 30, 2021
Find someone who loves you as much as Harvey Norman loves utterly sucking in every imaginable way. pic.twitter.com/ur2xpqtzSi
— Benjamin Millar (@BenjaminMillar) May 30, 2021
Harvey Norman apparently laughing at an ex staff member who felt driven to suicide. Blue tick official. 198 comments to 12 likes. The ratio is strong.
And of course, I stand with suicide attempt survivors. What utter filth whoever behind that account is.
— Paul Meek (@PaulMeekPerth) May 30, 2021
Harvey Norman are the face of corporate greed.
1) They refuse to pay back $22m in JobKeeper after increasing their profits in 2020 by 116%
2) They’re campaigning to stop the minimum wage increase
3) This reply when an ex worker alleges they were nearly driven to suicide pic.twitter.com/R9EAxLkftQ— Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia) May 30, 2021
You can’t block me because I blocked you.
Suck a fart.
Happy Monday. #boycottharveynorman pic.twitter.com/NrW24XOq39— Celeste barber (@celestebarber_) May 30, 2021
The official Harvey Norman Australia Twitter account, which in its description says it is “no longer a customer service channel and is unmanned”, has for a while now been almost exclusively retweeting sport-related tweets.