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

Here in the United States

[Anonymous Coward]

Our businesses are smarter and have forseen the trend. They are rallying against the consumers who believe they have rights.

Re:Here in the United States

[JonWan]

Well customers do have rights, but so do businesses. I've run my own business since 1986 and people (in general) think you must be rich because you own a business. I have always used a modified version of an old saying, "The customer may not always be right, but it's OK to let him think so". I forgive late movie fees all the time. In fact my late movie fees exceed my movie rental income by a wide margin. Like wise I give refunds if people don't like my pizzas or I replace a pizza that the customer thinks is over or under done. I try to make my customer happy, but then you have people that try to take advantage of you. They bring a movie back and say it won't play "on their machine" and want another one, or they bring back the almost empty pizza box and say that the pizza was over/under done and want another. These people get what they want, but the are put on my "list" to see if it keeps happening. At some point I'll politelly refuse them and tell them why. This usually stops the problem and I don't lose a customer in the process. The problem is that when a business gets too big you start to lose the personal touch. You deal with employees that would rather be somewhere else, or a boss that has no stake in the business execpt a paycheck. I would like to make more money, but this is a one man operation and most of the time I am doing as much as I can. Getting bigger would require hiring people and the problem above would begin happening.

Re:Must just be in England...

[The Zon]

I guess aiding and abetting law breakers just isn't enough to get the typical US citizen's ire up....

I'm more concerned about banks that help the super-rich hide their money from the IRS than ones that help impoverished migrant workers open up checking accounts. By the way, isn't it better that they're putting their money into the bank system, where it can be reinvested back into the economy? I thought the main complaint about immigrants was that they don't give anything back.