Consumer Revolt Spurred Via the Internet

sas-dot writes "UK's newspaper Independent outlines the brewing consumer revolt being fomented on the web. 'Consumer militancy' is becoming ever more common, as individuals join forces on the internet to fight back against the state and big business. Businesses from banks to soccer clubs have been the target of these groups, in each case facing the fury of consumers who feel they have been wronged. For example, 'A mass revolt has left the high street banks facing thousands of claims from customers seeking to claw back some of the £4.75bn levied annually on charges for overdrafts and bounced cheques. More than one million forms demanding refunds have been downloaded from a number of consumer websites. The banks are settling out of court, often paying £1,000 a time.' Are these kinds of organized 'advocate mobs' going to be the future of internet activism?"

Comments

Soccer.. arggggggh!

[Ckwop]

Businesses from banks to soccer clubs have been the target of these groups, in each case facing the fury of consumers who feel they have been wronged.

English: Football
Spanish: fútbol
Protuguse: futebol
Romanian: fotbal
Galician: fútbot
Catalan: futbol
French: le football
Russian: futbol
Turkish: futbol
Serbian: fudbal
German: Fußball
Dutch: voetbal
Norweian: fotball
Swedish: fotboll
Danish: fodbold
American: Soccer

The United States, it seems, is the only country in the world that prefers to use the name football to refer to a game that doesn't actually use the feet.

All we ask is that you please call the biggest sport in the world by its commonly accepted name! :)

Thanks in advance,

Rest of World

PS: Now if only we could get our overpaid under-performing team to win something...

Re:Soccer.. arggggggh!

[DoomfrogBW]

Wrong! The football you are referring is aka soccer or "Association Football". There is also rugby football, etc. So your bigot-like comment is way off. See quote from Wikipedia:

"The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863, and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time, specifically rugby football. The term soccer first appeared in the 1880s as a slang abbreviation of Association football, often credited to Charles Wreford-Brown.[18]

Today the sport is known by a number of names throughout the English-speaking world, the most common being football and soccer. The term used depends largely on the need to differentiate the sport from other types of football played in a community. Football is the term used by FIFA, the sport's world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee. For more details of naming throughout the world, please refer to the main articles above."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_(soccer)

Re:Soccer.. arggggggh!

[Skrynesaver]

No, no other English-speaking nation in the world is on your side in this .. well, maybe Ireland.)

Nope, In Ireland football is a game played with 15 players a side and run by the GAA
Soccer is something played by delicate flowers who fall in a breeze and generally bring disgrace upon themselves and their nation and shouldn't be confused with sport being more in the realm of performance art.

Though footie as played in Oz seems suited to a bunch of ex-crims, they really shouldn't be allowed abroad to perpetrate International rules on others ;)

Consider my mountain bike...

[AdamInParadise]

A few months ago, I bought a nice mountain bike from a well-known vendor. Right from the start I had issues with the front crank. So I went online and founds hundreds of people having exactly the same problem on the very same model. It gave me a much stronger case to get the shop to replace the problematic part by another brand: they could not claim that it was my fault. So yeah, online consumer activist is good, but you already knew that, right ?

Re:Must just be in England...1 Problem

[Nom du Keyboard]

I figured there would have been a much larger rush of people to move their accounts away from them.

The problem is that there are fewer and fewer acceptable choices every year as alternatives. BofA isn't the only bank you wouldn't want to do business with.

Re:Must just be in England...

[Anonymous Coward]

"A good example of this is Shell, when it tried to sink an oil platform in the North Atlantic, which resulted into massive boycotts all over Europe."

Yup, very good example.

Where Greenpeace lied through their teeth to pretend that the platform was contaminated (later proved not to be), and Shell had commissioned environmental reports about what to do with it which all said that an artificial reef was the best idea.

Net result, major environmental nightmare caused by Greenpeace as the platform is dismantled in a quiet bay in Norway, and no decent home for the fish.

Way to go, Greenpeace!

consumer revolt

[crimperman]

Are these kinds of organized 'advocate mobs' going to be the future of internet activism?

I'm not sure, probably, but one of the best I have seen so far is saynoto0870 which lists the equivalent geographical telephone numbers for the 0870 (national rate non-geographical) numbers that companies give out for support and such. ( Okay so it should have been called saynoto0870.co.uk but that's a little OT )

Considering how long some of them keep you on hold, dialling non-geographical numbers (which are often excluded from discount pricing plans) can cost you a fortune.

Re:Must just be in England...

[mspohr]

I agree with you that a fence is a waste of money. Also, numerous studies have shown that illegal labor is not a drain on taxpayers.

However, you can't really stop using the services and businesses of illegal aliens. In California, the entire economy is dependent on illegal labor. If all of the illegal labor left tomorrow, the economy would collapse.

This is the real hypocrisy of the problem. Everyone is dependent on illegal labor so they shouldn't get upset but they do get up and make stupid statements.

Re:the bush administration is in pocket of big biz

[AK Marc]

This requires either investigation (Judicial)

What branch does the FBI fall under? The Attorney General is appointed by whom? The Executive branch is the branch in charge of enforcement. Judicial tries them after the executive investigates.

Basically, Canada's government artificially limits the prices on drugs, and some people want that price control to apply in the U.S.

Nope. People want to be able to exercise free-market buying. That is, if I can buy from anywhere, I buy wherever it is cheapest. If the drugs are sold for a loss in Canada, then the drug companies should leave that market. That's what a free market does. Blocking importation from Canada is blocking the free market so that the drug companies can gouge the Americans with inflated prices that are illegal to circumvent. I can buy a DVD player from Canada. Why can't I buy drugs made in the US from Canada as well? The US government claimed safety only, and never protecting profits. So you disagree with our government as to why such a ban should be in place. I don't think you even understand the issues. You obviously have only a tenuous grasp as to what the three branches do.

Re:Must just be in England...

[The_Wilschon]

Our economy is bleeding money as a result...

...of a raging trade deficit across the board. I'd wager that "immigrants sending money home" doesn't make up a significant part of the trade deficit at all. If you're really worried about the economy "bleeding money", then the trade deficit is what you ought to be taking a look at.

Enforcing immigration laws isn't going to work, and building a big fence is a waste of money. If you really want illegal immigrants to go away, stop using businesses that employ them.

If we have unenforceable laws (about anything, including immigration), then those laws need to be changed. So yes, economic means perhaps are the proper way to make illegal immigrants go away. However, thinking that they need to go away because they make the economy bleed is sloppy thinking. Not pulling their weight in the tax system OTOH is a good reason to think they need to go away (or become citizens, one way or the other).