Angry Customers Use Web to Shame Firms : Blogs, Videos Are Tools of Retribution

By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 5, 2006; Page D01

Disgruntled customers used to have little recourse against poor service and broken promises.

But as angry clients increasingly turn to the Internet to settle scores, companies, independent retailers and everyday wrongdoers are learning that consumers can have the last word -- and often the last laugh. The Web has turned into a place where shame and humiliation are sometimes the strongest weapons in fighting scams and unfairness.

AOL got burned last week, for example, when an exasperated customer recorded and broadcast online a service representative's emphatic reluctance to cancel his service. Comcast Corp. fired a technician after a videotape surfaced purporting to show him asleep on a customer's couch. The clip became popular on Web sites such as amateur video site YouTube. People are also using the Internet to retaliate against common thieves and discourtesies. A popular blog on Friday posted voice mails from a man demanding that his date pay him back for half the dinner check after the romance fizzled. In June, a New York man posted pictures online of a girl who allegedly refused to return his friend's T-Mobile Sidekick that had been taken from a taxicab. The Web site became popular among other victims of cellphone theft, and it led to the girl's arrest. And there also was the South Korean woman who was humiliated last year when she didn't clean up the mess her dog left in the subway after a fellow train rider posted a photo of the incident on a popular Web site.

"There's no question that publicly shaming someone, whether it is a politician or a company, is the best way not only to get their attention but to change their behavior," said Jeff Chester, executive director for the District-based consumer-advocacy group Center for Digital Democracy. "People are going to be very sensitive to it."

Online disgrace creates so much buzz on blogs and in the media that companies are beginning to realize the devastating public relations effects brought on by these grass-roots expos?s, said Gemma Puglisi, assistant professor of communications at American University.

"This has been a wake-up call for these companies," she said. "The day where you send a little letter to the CEO is over. In the age of technology, you have to be even more careful of how you treat your customers because you don't know where they're going to go. Now everything's out in the open."

The Internet has long been a forum for rants about unsatisfactory service and faulty products. Just about every major retailer has a consumer-created counter-site that lists complaints, and dozens of all-purpose sites allow people to share their opinions on everything from apartment complexes to car dealers.

"I think the inherent nature of the Internet brings out the inner complainer in us," said Joe Ridout, a spokesman for Consumer Action, an advocacy group in San Francisco. "To get back at people who are out to steal or swindle, shaming may be a reasonable response."

There are so many anti-company sites that some customer service representatives are fighting back by starting their own sites to complain about annoying customers.

Such sites are also useful in showing a company's true character, Ridout said.

"Anything that produces more information, anything that penetrates this slickly manicured image, is useful information," he said.

The rise of user-generated commercials gives angry consumers yet another opportunity to get their message on the Internet. In March, Chevrolet added a feature on its Web site that allowed visitors to piece together images and text to create an ad for its Tahoe sport-utility vehicle. But anti-SUV activists used the site to make a negative commercial condemning the vehicle for harming the environment.

Such watchdog-type content has "become invaluable as a way of checking on firms, as well as countering them," Chester said.

But even as these public-shaming campaigns continue to crop up, the well-oiled marketing machines of the targeted companies will overcome the negative publicity in the long run, he said.

"As the Internet becomes more ad-supported, it's questionable if consumers and users will have any real clout," he said. "Will a Fortune 500 company hear the sound of one angry blogger in the digital forest?"


Source : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070401119.html

越来越多顾客上网  惩罚服务不好商家

（华盛顿讯）越来越多的顾客懂得利用互联网，惩戒那些服务水平差的商家和公司。

《华盛顿邮报》报道，他们把不愉快的经历录制下来，再将这些影像送上网广为流传，让这些公司和它们的职员丢脸。另一些人把别人缺德的行为拍下来，再利用互联网公布这些丑行。

去年，有人因看不惯一名韩国妇女，任由宠物狗在地铁列车上大小便，而将对方的丑陋行为拍摄下来，张贴在一著名网站上。这名韩国妇女顿时"名声大噪"，成为众人羞辱的对象。

华盛顿消费者组织数码民主中心执行主任切斯特说："毫无疑问的，公开羞辱一个人，不论对方是政治人物或是一间公司，绝对是引起对方注意，要他们改变行为的最好方法。"

美利坚大学传播系助理教授普利西说，人们通过博客（blog，个人网上日记）或媒体揭露他人丑行所引起的广大回响，使许多公司意识到，这种直接让他人在广大受众面前蒙羞的作法，将使一家公司的名声受到严重的伤害。

普利西说："在这个科技时代，我们必须更加注意对待客户的方式，因为我们不知道他们接下来会有什么行动。现在，万事都可公开讨论。"

事实上，互联网被消费者当成投诉平台的作法已经不是什么新鲜事。现在，几乎所有的大商家都会有至少一个为消费者设立的投诉网页。近来，网上也冒起了许多让人们交换信息及情报的多用途网站。

消费者行动发言人里杜特说："我认为互联网的固有性质，引发了每个人的投诉本能。对存心诈骗的人进行报复，将对方羞辱一番可说是一种合理的反应。"


来源 : http://www.zaobao.com/gj/gj060707_503.html