Abstract: Customers are increasingly using social media to voice their complaints openly, thus many companies seek to shift those complaints in social media to be handled off-line. Is it an optimal choice for companies to deal with the complaints of customers in secret? Based on the signal theory and the observational learning theory, this paper carries out three experiments to study the impact of transparent social media service remedy on the purchase intention of virtually present others. The findings show that, compared with the non-transparent, transparent social media service remedy can positively influence the purchase intention of the virtually present others; the perception of service quality is its internal mechanism, and the brand equity can play the regulatory role. Compared with the companies with higher brand equity, the companies with lower brand equity can more significantly improve the service quality perception and purchase intention of the virtually present others by adopting transparent service remedies in social media. This conclusion has certain reference value for companies to deal with customers' complaints in social media.

Key words: service remedy, transparent, brand equity, virtually present others