Planet Feedback

[mnehr]

That is the problem with PF, they have the stupidest people there.. and now PF took away the ability for most people to leave 'reality check' comments... only a select few who leave 'positive comments' can leave them.. too bad.. there are so many people who need a reality check there..

[frazzledspice]

I haven't visited Planet Feedback for awhile. I found that companies were very responsive in the beginning and much less so after PF was established.

For example, I wrote a complaint to Old Navy. The Old Navy in our town is very unsafe. About a year ago I slid on a plastic clotheshanger on the floor and fell, getting a bang and a black and blue mark on my leg. I didn't complain. Then, the day after Christmas, I went there with my three kids. Just as I was about to get on the checkout line, I slid on a clotheshanger on the floor again. Grabbed onto the counter for dear life, didn't fall. Looked around and noticed there were clotheshangers on the floor all over the place.

I won't shop at Old Navy anymore until they can guarantee I'll get out in one piece. But when I used Planet Feedback to complain, Old Navy's mailbox was so full of complaints (or correspondence---maybe one or two nimble-footed people had compliments...) that my complaint wouldn't even get through.

Planet Feedback was a wonderful concept when it worked. But the companies are just stonewalling them to try to put consumers back in their place.

[Joubert[$]]

Originally posted by frazzledspice


Planet Feedback was a wonderful concept when it worked. But the companies are just stonewalling them to try to put consumers back in their place.

I've actually sat in consumer affairs meetings with representatives from dozens of companies when the topic of self-appointed watchdog sites run for profit came up. The business community's sense is that Planet Feedback and its ilk are a joke. Few take the company seriously, and those who do are simply wasting their time.

The consumer community has two clearinghouses for complaint activity: their local consumer affairs agency (up to the state level) which has regulatory authority, but won't release information, and the Better Business Bureau, which has no authority, but does release information.

Anyone else is wasting your time.

[frazzledspice]

The advantage of Planet Feedback to a consumer is that it's easy to send your complaint right on the internet. The site even finds the company's address.

Consumer Affairs Divisions usually resolve product disputes. I don't know if they would be the appropriate agency to deal with with in regards to the slippery plastic clotheshanger littered floor of Old Navy.

[Joubert[$]]

Yes, Fraz, Consumer Affairs would be the appropriate venue for any regulatory action against a business. They do much more than handle product disputes.

Planet Feedback is worthless. I'm sure they are nice people, and I'm sorry if you like the site. Maybe there's some level of value in reading about other consumers' experiences, but the site has absolutely zero power and is a laughingstock in the business community.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

Originally posted by frazzledspice
The advantage of Planet Feedback to a consumer is that it's easy to send your complaint right on the internet. The site even finds the company's address.

Consumer Affairs Divisions usually resolve product disputes. I don't know if they would be the appropriate agency to deal with with in regards to the slippery plastic clotheshanger littered floor of Old Navy.

You could try sending a letter to the company's President (a letter, not an email). What you described is a classic slip-and-fall accident lawsuit just waiting to happen, and I think somebody would get word down to the store to be more careful.

[pluckyduck]

Originally posted by joubert
Yes, Fraz, Consumer Affairs would be the appropriate venue for any regulatory action against a business. They do much more than handle product disputes.

Planet Feedback is worthless. I'm sure they are nice people, and I'm sorry if you like the site. Maybe there's some level of value in reading about other consumers' experiences, but the site has absolutely zero power and is a laughingstock in the business community.

Let me ask you this (realizing we now have about three threads in this thread but I'm too lazy to split it up right now).... do you think the business community cares about Epinions, or has the potential to?

I think so, at least potentially.

One well written Epinion can pack a lot of punch.

Yes? No?

Andrea
looking for an ED moderator who isn't feeling lazy like this Admin....thread needs help

[Joubert[$]]

Yes, ma'am. Split and stuff. I hope I did that right.

[pluckyduck]

Originally posted by joubert
Yes, ma'am. Split and stuff. I hope I did that right.

Looks good to me. I'm on my third glass of Syrah this evening, though, so everything looks good to me.

Andrea

[mnehr]

wow, this is the first time one of my side-bars has been made a thread all its own...

but to make it on topic...
a few of my clients (Cingular, Verizon, etc..) rarely take PF seriously. They look at most of the message as 'canned'. Most of the customer's who complain through PF have already been long since helped before the letter ever reaches their office.

Mostly though, PF is just a place for people who 'want something'..
Unfortunately the adage 'the customer is always right' has gone so far that customers think they can bs their way into getting anything and that companies somehow become magical charities when they complain..

Many companies are starting to give people 'reality checks' of their own and draw the line at these so called complaints like what PF offers.

I love those typical PF letters…. 10 years later somebody breaks their iron and is angry because Target will not take it back and they are demanding a $50 gift certificate to compensate for the ‘poor service’.

At least Epinions provides both sides of customer opinion.

[pluckyduck]

At least Epinions provides both sides of customer opinion.

So, I repeat my question (drinking coffee instead of syrah this morning )

Do you guys think that Epinions might be regarded more highly than Planet Feedback? Isn't there a ton more credibility inherit in an Epinion? Now that the kinks are getting worked out after dot com mania, I'm seeing a lot of things I like.

Spurious rants about products or whatnot seldom get rated over SH, at least that I see. SH doesn't show up in star ratings.

Is Epinions onto something here?

Andrea

[frazzledspice]

I don't know, Andrea. My review about Econolodge in Minneapolis leaving my husband and daughter in a burning building (I had gone to get coffee and take a walk--when I came back the Fire Department was there. A fireman was going up the stairwell with a hose. I didn't hear a single smoke alarm blaring. There were some people outside, but my husband and daughter weren't among them, and I had to run in and get them out) got huge reads. Lots of e-mails and comments.

Econolodge never contacted me to ask me any further information about the incident.

I don't go to Econolodges anymore. When I visit a motel, I try to get ground floor rooms if possible. I pay attention to emergency exits.

I never wrote Planet Feedback about this, so I don't know whether I would have gotten a response.

I didn't want money, or a free night's stay (I'd NEVER go back there.) All I wanted was for motels, all motels, to care a little more about the safety of their guests.

(When I ran down the stairs with my daughter the smoke was already so thick we had to duck to keep from coughing. My husband had been in the shower, and was throwing on some clothes, so he got out a minute later.)

[mnehr]

The companies I deal with take Eps more seriously for the basic reason that they can gage sentiment across not just their own product, but on competing products. I actually have been using Eps lately to gage an idea of what really is important to people and what makes customers switch to different products or services. The advantage Eps has is that even though there are a lot of bogus reviews, there are so many across each field that statistically, you will at least have a semi-good sample of customer sentiment.
I mentioned in a review a long time ago that Epinions needs to compile this data, plus data we cannot see as writers, and sell it to companies...
I would love to know the statistics on who visits one cell phone company, then what company does that visitor check next (not on specific visitors but on trends).

[Joubert[$]]

I sent a link to one of my Epinions to two different companies. One offered an appropriate resolution and the other ignored me. In both cases, though, I initiated contact. I suspect that I wouldn't have received the first resolution without first contacting the company.

[pluckyduck]

I'd think that the more balanced the reputation is, the more seriously companies will take the source.

Consumer Reports.... I can imagine that companies sweat bullets over what they say. Nobody has a more balanced reputation than Consumer Reports. Of course, they also have a good PR team. They manage to get on my local news constantly "Consumer Reports says this. Consumer Reports says that."

Consumer Reports is a scientific study though, and not actual consumer experience. In the most ideal world, scientific product testing and actual consumer experience would combine together to give a full picture.

matthew wrote:

I actually have been using Eps lately to gage an idea of what really is important to people and what makes customers switch to different products or services. The advantage Eps has is that even though there are a lot of bogus reviews, there are so many across each field that statistically, you will at least have a semi-good sample of customer sentiment.

I mentioned in a review a long time ago that Epinions needs to compile this data, plus data we cannot see as writers, and sell it to companies...
I would love to know the statistics on who visits one cell phone company, then what company does that visitor check next (not on specific visitors but on trends).

Yeah, I can see all that. Cool.

There is no other place for companies to go for that information. There is a market for it....companies drop gobs and gobs of money on focus groups, but a focus group still isn't real world.

Andrea