In the spirit of consumer revenge - GRIPE

RadfordG

Hi all,

I came across a new app recently called GRIPE.

Gripe is all about harnessing the power of social networking in order to persuade companies to provide you with the level of service that they really should.

What gripe enables you to do, is start a public complaint. Why it's exciting is because it utilises your social network to do so...Imagine, you have 300 friends on Facebook, and 50 people follow you on Twitter, and so on. Those friends and followers also have another 300 friends each, and so on and so forth. Gripe uses that network to spread your 'gripe' (complaint) which gives your complaint a total potential 'reach' of well into the thousands!

If you can go to a company who has not fulfilled your expectations, or even really let you down, and threaten them with spreading the word of their poor service, that's fine. But imagine how great the impact when you can threaten to spread the word to 25,000 people!!!

I hope I have explained this well enough, I just thought it was really in the spirit of the site, give it a Google if you want to find out more!

bris

What about the potential liable issues for you if one of these gripes is unjustified. These big companies don't muck about if you start a gripe with no foundation, which I'm sure many people will, you open yourself up to the might of the big corporation's legal departments.
Is it your app by any chance?

Hintza

Sounds like blackmail to me.

Laz123

Sounds like a good idea to me. Too often on these boards people have a gripe and then you get loads of prats condeming them.

whatmichaelsays

It sounds like Twitter and Facebook to me.

Not all of your friends will care whether or not Topshop wouldn't accept your return. In fact, most couldn't care less.

I was working in a store when an irate customer once used the line "Do you know how many friends I have on Twitter?" to one of my colleagues. I had to be picked up off the floor, I laughed that hard.

OlliesDad

Laz123 wrote: »

Sounds like a good idea to me. Too often on these boards people have a gripe and then you get loads of prats condeming them.

It would be a good idea, but i can see it just getting abused. People would use the system to blackmail companies even if they were in the right.

RadfordG

Interesting points all round guys - and no not my app.

I think it just highlights the ever growing need for companies to fulfil consumers basic expectations when it comes to service.

We've all felt and seen others experience the strong emotions around customer service, and the impact of a great (or poor) experience has a tangible effect on whether or not they get to keep our business.

And in a connected world companies have to be aware of consumers ability to shout about service.

Interesting to here some of you feeling for the companies - I empathise - and the original post was put up in the spirit of the site, which is, after all, 'consumer revenge'

I may be wrong, but I don't think people go out of there way to try and 'screw over' companies, and my understanding is that that is not what this app is about. For me, anything that gives consumers a louder voice when they have received sub-standard service - which can be very frustrating & upsetting for many - can only be a good thing.

And let's all remember that in a connected world there is opportunity as well as risk for firms in what is shouted about!

All the best

RadfordG

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

It sounds like Twitter and Facebook to me.

Not all of your friends will care whether or not Topshop wouldn't accept your return. In fact, most couldn't care less.

I was working in a store when an irate customer once used the line "Do you know how many friends I have on Twitter?" to one of my colleagues. I had to be picked up off the floor, I laughed that hard.

It all comes down to expectations. No you wouldn't care if your friend couldn't get a refund in Topshop - because (depending on the circumstances) you don't really associate that sort of retailer with great customer service (nor expect it).

However, if for example your friend tells you about an awful aftercare experience with a particular brand of laptop, and they felt quite let down by this experience - then here it might well have a real affect on whether or not you would purchase that brand.

You may disagree, but hopefully you see where i'm coming from

All the best

Crazy_Jamie

RadfordG wrote: »

Interesting to here some of you feeling for the companies - I empathise - and the original post was put up in the spirit of the site, which is, after all, 'consumer revenge'

'Consumer revenge' is not a slogan that I like personally. It has malicious undertones which I feel like are inappropriate, as does this app.

Here's the problem. The focus of this site is on individual consumers ensuring that they get the best deal that they legitimately can, and also making sure that they are treated fairly and in line with their statutory rights. That is achieved in a number of ways, based around the act of informing the consumer as to what their rights are and how to pursue them. It is that knowledge more often than not that secures a good result.

The point is that good results are obtained via appropriate means. Within that process this app doesn't appear to have any legitimate place. You suggest that it can prompt good customer service, but it appears that even on your own case it does this via less than honourable means. Lest we forget, you actually used the word 'threaten' in your original post. This app is giving more force to 'threats' which, to my mind, is inappropriate.

Consumers can and should know the full extent of their statutory rights to deal with difficult issues in relation to companies. In circumstances where a company does not adhere to those rights, there is legal redress. In circumstances where a company displays poor customer service but has not done anything legally wrong, a consumer can and should vote with their feet and not use that company again. Those are the two basic routes. And whilst there is nothing wrong with making a complaint in principle, turning that complaint into an emphasised 'threat' using this app in order to get what you want is, for me, not a justifiable course of action.

vikingaero

Less than half the people posting on here have a genuine gripe/complaint/vent. Most of the time it's because they haven't read the T&C's or are so inept/stupid/lobotomised that they claim they have when they haven't. As soon as someone posts RIP-OFF!!!!!!! you know that the firm has done nothing wrong. These people are often so stupid they don't even know what Rip-off means.

Why does this matter? Sometimes people with these spurious complaints often get some form of unjustified recompense/redress. Most of the time it's because they shout the loudest, are the least deserving, and the companies settle with then to GTFO. What this means is that it makes it much harder for those with genuine and deserving grievances from getting a reasonable outcome.

fthl

if this was used, and the complaint was without merit, then I think the complainer could find themselves on the wrong end of lawsuit. For this reason I don't think it would be viable.