Disgruntled Customers have Recourse thanks to Google
I was checking my mail (Gmail) last night when I came across and interesting text ad. Now – I NEVER and I mean NEVER click on text ads, but this one caught my eye for some reason or another. It read “Cinese Furniture Beware” and linked to a simple one page site. If you check out the site yourself, you’ll see that it shows a number of photos of damaged furniture and the complaints of a customer who was apparently shafted by the company.
In an age in which online marketing can have a hand in determining the success or failure of many third world country export companies, I think this is a very positive sign. Through Google and a little cash spent on adwords, the disgruntled customer has a reasonably viable recourse against bad business practises. If he targets “Cinese Furniture” as his keyword, then anyone who is getting email from that company and using Gmail will most likely see his ad, and think twice about making a deal. Also – the savvy customer who searches for “Cinese Furniture” will most likely see the site “cinesefurniturebeware.com” on account of the keywords in the domain name.
Certainly living in a more connected world has all sorts of advantage, and promotes general liberty and equality; like the press, it ensures that unethical companies / people are more likely to be held accountable for their actions, unlike the press, however, you don’t have to be a tycoon in order for people to hear your message. I can only hope that Google stays “not evil” as they say, and continues the good fight.
