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Consumer Revolt Spurred Via the Internet

Posted by Zonk on from the power-to-the-pocketbook dept.

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?"

6 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. Here in the United States by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Here in the United States by JonWan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  2. Must just be in England... by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "'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. "

    I'm actually surprised at the apathy shown towards the Bank of America fiasco of exploiting loopholes in the law to allow them to open accounts and credit cards for illegal aliens!!

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

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

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    1. Re:Must just be in England... by The+Zon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.
      --
      Some attitudes replaced or by cgi optimizes
  3. Consider my mountain bike... by AdamInParadise · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 ?

    --
    Nobox: Only simple products.
  4. "Advocate Mobs"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    Wait until such a "mob" hits Slashdot and demands journalism.