Has your latest gadget gone belly up? Or are you finding mystery charges from your ISP or cell phone company? If you're getting nowhere by calling the customer service or tech support departments of the company involved, consider taking your case to the Web. More than ever before, the company may be listening.
Tales of ordinary people who used forums and blogs to get large companies to pay attention have already become Web legends. There's Thomas Hawk, who got Price Rite Photo temporarily kicked off shopping engines by complaining in his blog about hard-sell tactics; Jeff Jarvis, whose noisy dispute with Dell's customer support seemed to crystallize customers' discontent with the PC giant; Brian Finkelstein and his hilarious YouTube video of a Comcast cable modem repairman falling asleep on his couch; and Vincent Ferrari's recording of an AOL customer service representative who wouldn't let him cancel his account.
Not every instance of online grumbling will achieve those levels of notoriety: In each of these cases, the gripe captured the attention of traditional media, and the lousy publicity forced the vendors to pay attention. But these stories suggest some strategies for how--and where--to complain effectively. It's a good skill to learn, especially as more vendors participate in Web communities, either through their own blogs (such as Dell's Direct2Dell) or by monitoring, and sometimes posting on, independent forums.
"The consumer never has had a bigger megaphone than he does today," says Jackie Huba, co-author with Ben McConnell of Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message, a book about how so-called social media empower ordinary folks to spread the word about products and companies that they love--or hate.
However, the most effective way to use that megaphone--and to be heard above the pervasive dull roar generated by other unhappy customers--is to be creative. "The idea is, if you can, to create a meme that will spread," Huba says.
The Comcast video achieved meme-dom, if you will, because people who viewed it instantly understood and related to Finkelstein's experience. So one of the first lessons here is that a big target is an asset: The larger the offending company, the more likely it is that others will have had the same issues you have.
The video also stood out for its use of humor. "If you've got something in your complaint that's shocking or humorous, it's more likely to spread," Huba says.
Huba also recommends using multimedia to make your point. The Comcast video and Ferrari's recording of the AOL customer service rep speak for themselves, as did the photos of flaming laptops that led to recalls of millions of notebooks with faulty batteries. So if you have audio or visual records of your issue, by all means let the world see or hear them.
When posting, try to focus on the specifics of your problem, as opposed to ranting about the vendor. You may enjoy writing a post saying how much you hate Dell, HP, Microsoft...you fill in the blank. But it's not as likely to get your problem solved as a summary of what happened and what you think the company should do to make things right. Sticking to the facts is also less likely to get you sued for defamation, something you may have to take into account, especially in dealing with a smaller, litigious-minded company.
Where to Gripe
Choose your virtual soapbox carefully. The bigger the site where you post your complaint, the more likely it is to be monitored by mainstream media reporters--who are, after all, always looking for a good story. Write to entertain. If you can get your story on one of the big social news sites like Digg or Reddit, you'll stand a better chance of attracting the interest and comments of other consumers who have similar problems. There's strength in numbers: If lots of people join your chorus of complaints, you're more likely to get a company's attention.
And there's always the possibility that a fellow consumer might have a solution to your dilemma. Which brings up the other good reason to take your gripes to the Web: Even if they don't force a company to publicly eat humble pie, your complaints might lead to a good workaround for your problem.
The best place to get that kind of advice may be the vendor's own site. Not all vendors have user forums, but if you find one, it's the logical place to post. If a vendor is checking any forums, its own is sure to be one; and if you're lucky, you might run into a truly helpful technical or customer support rep. Be as specific as possible in documenting your problem.
Outside the vendor's site, look for busy forums that aren't overrun by flame wars or comment spam. The more focused the forum, the more likely it is to be helpful. For example, I've found solutions to every problem I've ever had with my ReplayTV digital video recorder by searching the Digital Video & Audio Devices section of either AVS Forum or Planet Replay.
And you might run into a helpful customer service type on a third-party forum. Hewlett-Packard's customer service department, for example, is experimenting with having some employees post on certain forums, visibly identified as HP reps. Addressing problems early on through forum posts has the potential of saving the company the expense of dealing with a lot of support calls down the road, says HP spokesperson Siobhan Flanagan. Flanagan admits that it's good public relations, too: "People are talking about their service experiences--and if you're not listening, you're missing the boat."
Dell, having experienced the fallout from Jeff Jarvis's blog posts, decided to fight fire with fire by starting its Direct2Dell.com blog last summer. Employees post news and commentary, and often respond to customer comments, which are encouraged. The blog "provides a human element to Dell, the corporation," says Dell digital media manager and frequent blogger Lionel Menchaca.
It's clear that Dell is getting the message: Even the largest firms must pay attention to their Web-savvy users, or suffer the consequences. You can put corporate America's consumer sensitivity to the test by airing your grievance online.