It used to be, if you were unhappy with a product, you'd write a letter to the company and hope for a response back, maybe even a few coupons.
YouTube.com
Michael Whitford first describes his dealings with Apple on problems with his new Macbook, then destroys it. Apple offered him a new computer days after he posted the video on consumerist.com. Watch It
Today, there's a whole new way to express your dissatisfaction: It involves a camcorder and the Internet
and the potential to damage a business with a single upload.
A New Jersey woman, Jessie, was unhappy with the way a car dealer treated her mother while buying a new car. So, Jessie turned on her video camera and went into the dealership. While taping, Jessie returns the car keys to an unsuspecting salesman and cautions other customers against purchasing a vehicle.
"Don't buy a car here," she warns as she exits the dealership.
A few days later, she uploaded the video onto YouTube, labeling it "Beware of Brad Benson."
Brad Benson is a former offensive lineman for the New York Giants and the owner of the Monmouth Junction, N.J., car dealership. We met with him last week and watched Jessie's video together. When asked whether it upset him, Benson replied, "I would love to throw a bucket of ice on her.
She deserves it, and I don't mean Gatorade either."
Benson, like business owners across the country, has been forced to face the powerful impact angry consumers can have on the Web. Benson denies Jessie's allegations and insists his dealership did nothing wrong in its dealings with her mother. He acknowledges, however, that customers' rights to bring cameras into businesses and record their experience online, "As long as their facts are correct," he said.
Keeping Them Honest
Businesses may not like it, but they better get used to it as more and more consumers are uploading.
Michael Whitford posted a smash-and-bash video titled "Macbook Destruction" in which he demolishes his malfunctioning laptop.
A systems engineer from Chandler, Ariz., Whitford was distraught when his new Apple Macbook konked out only six months after he purchased it. When Apple refused to fix the computer for free under his extended warranty, Whitford took matters into his own hands.
With a camera and a sledgehammer, Whitford went to work, explaining his gripe to the audience before systematically reducing the Macbook to smithereens. He posted the video on the Web site consumerist.com and within four days Apple contacted him, apologizing for the problem and offering up a brand new $1,700 computer.
Meghann Marco, editor of consumerist.com, the site that earned "Macbook Destruction" the attention of Apple, feels validated when companies take note of consumer complaints.
"It makes me feel good when any of our customer complaints get resolved. I think it's really great to see that, and that's why I like my job."
But it's not only complaint videos; consumers are now part of a global community where they share information about products both good and bad on Web sites like expotv.com and consumerist.com. They get hundreds of posts a day from consumers all over the world. The videos run the gamut from simple vacuum cleaner demonstrations to minivan reviews.
Self-titled Internet consumer reporter Gerald Rubin, a vacuum-cleaner authority, focuses on the duds, but also makes a point of highlighting the winners. Marco asserts this community can be as beneficial to the businesses as the consumer allowing them to put a positive spin on potential PR disasters.
"That's actually an opportunity for a company, too. If a video with a good argument starts to get really popular, a company can step in and say, 'You know what, we've taken this seriously
and we're going to step in and we're going to fix it, and look how great we are.' So it doesn't necessarily have to be, 'Oh, look at the mean consumer, like, beating up on the company.' "
Do Companies Get It?
"No, most companies screw it up," said Larry Weber, author of "Marketing to the Social Web" and an Internet consultant to Fortune 500 companies like IBM, Visa and General Motors.
Weber preaches an Internet involvement gospel: Companies have to give up trying to control everything that is said about them and surrender to the almighty Web.
"The first thing you've got to do is you have to understand who's talking about your company and your products and your competitors online. Get out and share and be a part of those conversations. Be transparent.
Don't try to hide."
If only Delta had that advice, before this video hit the Web earlier this summer. Robert McKee was one of several passengers on Delta flight 6499 that was stuck on the tarmac at JFK airport for seven hours. Delta did not feed the passengers throughout the entire ordeal and McKee kept his camera rolling, posting a minidocumentary online.
Eventually Delta provided the passengers with frequent flier miles and $200 rebates, but it was too little, too late, according to Weber.
"Delta should've come right out and said, 'We apologize. Here's free roundtrip tickets forever. We hope this never happe
