When a company really, truly, fundamentally annoys you - whether because of bad service, a lack of interest in you or your needs, a general lackadaisical attitude to quality, whatever - then you might have felt compelled to act. You might have thought about writing a letter, but, wait, that’s so old-millennium. You might have considered an email, but you know that they’ll never read it. You might even have tried calling to register your dissatisfaction, and ended up in the IVR maze from hell.

If you’re a normal person, you might fume a bit. You might tell your friends over a few beers and fume some more. You might even try to talk random strangers out of buying the products/visiting the store/doing any business with your hated organisation.

There is, however, another way. It’s the sort of thing that I have even considered. Me, mild-mannered janitor of mystery. Me, taker-of-paths-of-least-resistance (at least when it comes to these sorts of things). Me. Yes, your amiable host…

Some people, driven insane by the incredible short-sighted, can’t-give-a-damn attitude or intrinsic disastrous service of (generally bigger) companies, resort to a real ‘don’t get mad, get even’ tactic. One I secretly admire. Damn, cat’s out of the bag.

What we’re talking about here, people, is the concept of the Corporate Hate website. For instance, if you really hated CallCentreGurus and were really mad at us, you might send us a nasty email, which we’d ignore. Probably. Or, you might register CallCentreGurusSucks.com and try to get your own back. Now, of course, you’d never do that to us, as we’re the good guys, but you might do it for a larger company.

Bearing this in mind, I direct you now to this interesting article which I have just discovered. It’s a fascinating insight into the mindset of the truly offended, deeply unhappy, disrespected and angry customer. Customer with the time, and willpower, to really play hardball.

I have a lot of sympathy for some of these people. They’ve been driven to it by uncaring or ineffective organisations with lousy customer service. They’ve seen no option but to lash out in the public arena. They’re the extreme cases, for sure, but they’re customers no less.

As customer service and call centre people, it’s our duty to try to prevent such customers reaching this plateau of dissatisfaction. However, not everyone sees it this way, and so it’s no surprise that sites like this exist.

Links:
Corporate Hate Article @ Forbes