The HSN talent agent who wrote the infamous email — which WE first reported on — that chided the home network’s vendors and hosts for sounding like “used-car salesmen” is suing over his subsequent firing.
HSN Bans ‘Used-Car Salesmen,’ ‘Yellers’ and ‘Hijackers’ From Network
Gordie Daniels has filed a lawsuit in Florida against HSN and its new owner, Qurate Retail, the company that is also the parent of QVC, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Basically, Daniels claims that he was canned despite the fact that he was trying to create the on-air culture that Qurate wanted, similar to QVC.
The problem was that the email was about as tactful as your drunk uncle at that last wedding you went to. In a nutshell, Daniels told HSN folk to lay off the hard sells. He issued a list of Dos-and-Don’ts, which went over like a fart in church. Vendors were infuriated by the memo.
Daniels, who was fired because of his missive, in his lawsuit claims he was just the messenger that was killed for delivering the unpopular message from new management to HSN.
“QVC was very upset with how on-air talent was performing,” the suit said, according to the Tampa Bay paper. “Guests were stepping outside the roles QVC wanted them to play, and hosts were often unable to control their shows effectively. Guests were talking over hosts. Talent discussed topics such as pricing … and shipping which QVC did not want discussed. Some guests were also making overaggressive sales presentations.”
“(HSN) falsely branded (Daniels) as an insubordinate, unprofessional, rogue employee who launched an ‘insulting,’ ‘condescending,’ and ‘disrespectful’ email to on-air talent,” the lawsuit said, the Tampa paper reported. “(HSN) lied about what actually happened surrounding the email so it and QVC could save face and use (Daniels) as the scapegoat for a few people’s anger over QVC’s new direction.”
BTW, the Tampa Bay paper credits “Page Six,” the gossip column of the New York Post, with first obtaining and publishing the email.
Wrong. We broke the story.
Homeshoppingista's Blog By Linda Moss 