Just Another Reason Why Net Neutrality Matters

WaPo has a fantastic article about dissatisfied customers using the web to get back at companies with poor customer service. The story notes that, "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."

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


Oh, and by the way, Amex? I fucking hate your fuckng phone system. Even after the six goddamn minutes it took me to finally get the robovoice to say, "If you want to speak to a representative, say 'representative,'" then I had to listen to six more choices and say "representative" again. Fucking ridiculous.