Creating havoc on the internet

[Scotty]

Companies Beware Here Comes the Little Man Ready to Knock You Out

Disgruntled consumers are voicing their opinions on products by posting videos on the internet. Smart companies realize consumer attitudes can live on the internet forever and ever, wrecking havoc on their companies.

By JOHN STOSSEL and POLLY KREISMAN

Oct. 13, 2006

Many consumers are realizing that the internet acts as a powerful tool to talk back to companies. Savvy companies are listening, because they know just how damaging the internet can be to brand recognition.

More and more consumers are video taping their encounters that document funny or downright bad customer service and posting that video to the web. Viral video can get millions of hits a week, causing some companies to have a knee-jerk reaction and make necessary changes to mend the consumer problem. So some complaining consumers have actually helped make changes to company policies. Why? Because smart companies realize consumer attitudes can live on the internet forever and ever, wrecking havoc on their companies bottom line forever and ever.

Here are some consumers who have done just that—talk backed and gotten companies to listen.

Repairman Asleep on Customer's Couch

Last June, a Comcast customer, who doesn't want his picture shown, was surprised when the repairman that came to his house to fix his cable service? went to sleep on his couch. The repairman fell asleep because when he tried calling Comcast, he spent over an hour on hold!

So the customer took a video of the sleeping repairman and added a music track by the Eels and posted it to his blog along with a list of his complaints about Comcast.

Within days, his video shot around the internet like a rocket, appearing on many web sites. Hundreds of thousands of people watched it, including Comcast executives, who immediately fired the sleeping repairman, sent someone else to fix the modem, and revamped its customer service.

What Don't You Understand About "Cancel"

Well, right around when that Comcast repairman was sleeping, Vince Ferrari was trying to cancel his America Online account. Ferrari says he wanted to cancel his account which he paid $15 a month for because he wasn't using it. He had heard that cancelling an account with AOL was not easy and he soon found that to be true. Here's an excerpt from the 21 minute taped conversation Ferrari had with John, the AOL representative.

AOL REP:: Hi, this is John at AOL, how may I help you today?

FERRARI: : I wanted to cancel my account.

AOL REP:: What was the cause of wanting to turn this off today?

FERRARI:: I just don't use it anymore.
AOL REP:: Is that for business or for—for school?
FERRARI:: Dude, what difference does it make? I don't want the AOL account anymore.

But the AOL "retention specialist" just would not let him cancel.
AOL REP: : Well, explain to me what's — why…
FERRARI: : I'm not explaining anything to you. Cancel the account.
AOL REP:: Okay. Well, what's the matter, Vincent? I am trying to help.

Help? It took John 21 minutes to "help" Ferrari simply cancel his account.

"It used to be if a company did something wrong, you go, well, I'm gonna have to eat it because they're never gonna admit to it," Ferrari said. "But, now, it's like, you know, a lot of people can kind of get together, and say, 'Yep, it happened to me."

Years ago, there wasn't much that Ferrari could do about it, but today he can plaster it on the internet. And he did just that. A million hits later, AOL apologized to Ferrari, fired the retention specialist and told its phone operators to make it easier for people to cancel.

A Consumer Party Worldwide

Through the magic of the internet you don't even have to be in the country to talk back. Just look at Capt. Eric Wright who, while serving in Iraq, had a run-in with Hewlett-Packard. He called the company to complain about his broken printer. Wright was outraged when he called HP and had to pay to get the company to tell him how to fix his printer.

He made a video of his experience and once that video went viral, Wright says HP sent him a new printer, thanks to the direct communication between consumers and companies that the internet provides.

One Consumer Changing Company Policy

Three years ago, the battery died in Casey Neistat's iPod.

"I called Apple and I said my battery's dead what do I do and they said buy a new iPod, that's 400 dollars," Neistat said.

So he and his filmmaker brother made a video that showed Neistat stenciling iPods irreplaceable battery last only 18 months on top of iPod ads around New York City, paired with the music track of Northwest Airline's Express Yourself.

Within a week the video got a million hits and Apple changed its battery warranty. However, the company says the video had nothing to do with that, but policy change or not, the video still plays smearing iPod forever.

"So let people see the website, let people see the movie and maybe then when they get screwed over a product they know they have a place for it.

Internet as a Microphone for ConsumersPopken is calling this audio visual consumer revenge. Popken runs consumerist.com, which lists 18 different consumer tips and complaints a day.

"It's you know up with the little guy," Popken said. "He can share his experience with others and become empowered."

So there you have it. The internet is giving consumers new power. While not all of the complaints may be trustworthy, where there’s smoke there’s fire and if it ever looks too good to be true it probably is.