The state-owned enterprise "Ukrposhta" explained its post-response to Xʼs sharp criticism of the sale of old cars through “Prozorro”.
Veteran and marketing director of “Ukrposhta” Maksym Kolesnikov said in a comment to Babel that the abusive response was situational marketing. The company is ready to apologize in case of "fuck-ups", but not in this case.
"We are not a ʼweak fishʼ that has to accept anything every time. We have a position: where we are right, we are right. On Twitter (Х) people are mad and this is the absolute norm there. But for some reason, people are used to the fact that they can lash out at someone, and these people have to ʼhideʼ it. By the way, we didnʼt swear at anyone ourselves, we just said that we are not like that [...]. We can talk in the ʼwe donʼt screw upʼ format. I donʼt understand why people are so affected by it? They wanted us to say, ʼYeah, we screw up.ʼ Sorry, this will not happen when we are right," said Kolesnikov.
He believes, based on his own experience of hate on Twitter, that the worst reaction is to hide and start apologizing.
"We are legally, from the point of view of selling this car, absolutely right. We are not obliged to take this [public insults] upon ourselves. At the end of the day, any person, company should have a certain dignity. It (or he, or she) can respond harshly — thatʼs normal," Kolesnikov added.
What happened?
On April 30, “Ukrposhta” General Director Ihor Smilyanskyi announced that the company had put up 531 cars for sale on “Prozorro”, mostly old cars from the 1990s and 2000s. Among them are Hyundai Sonata, Peugeot, Mazda, Citroen, Volkswagen, KIA, Daewoo, Skoda, Volvo, Mercedes Benz, MAZ, GAZ, UAZ, ZIL and others.
In social networks, especially in X (Twitter), this caused a storm of criticism with insults: users asked why the company could not transfer cars to the needs of the army. In response, a short, sharp message with abuse appeared on the “Ukrposhta” account.
Smilyanskyi then explained that the sale of property through “Prozorro” is required by law. "Ukrposhta" is a company in which the state is a shareholder, it cannot simply hand over these cars.
"I think it doesnʼt take a lot of fantasia to imagine how the same anti-corruption activists would come (together with the Bureau of Economic Security (BES), the Prosecutorʼs Office) to write about how 531 cars, including a Mercedes, "disappeared" from the state companyʼs balance sheet, and it doesnʼt matter that he is 20 years old. That is why there is a very simple and clear mechanism — “Prozorro”. Sales where everyone can see both the product and the selling price. And it is the market that will determine how much and what it costs," Smilyanskyi wrote.
Maksym Kolesnikov also responded to criticism that day. He was indignant that, on the one hand, people demand that "everything be according to the law" in the state-owned company, and on the other hand, they ask to give everything "for a hryvnia."