As a consumer advocate I have experienced myself, and read of other's experiences, where the consumer's time is never compensated for being LEGITIMATELY victimized. I recently purchased an external hard drive from Iomega, and had to return it, because a disclaimer/disclosure (the only software CD they ship for that product - Retrospect Express - requires a minimum 32X CD) wasn't put directly on the web page of that product I bought, using their own e-commerce function. I wasted many hours over a weekend, when their support function was closed, trying to find a way around the problem.
But, the good news is that Iomega readily issued a return authorization on the following Monday, and there were no "restocking fees" of any kind, along with the fact that Iomega paid the shipping charges both ways. However, Iomega's upper management need to get Retrospect Software to make "Express" usable with a 24X CD drive, as they lost "time = money" on the "returned non-sale" too. Therefore, I did not think Iomega's intent was to deceive, so I did not file a complaint with the FTC citing their "Clear and Conspicuous Disclosures in Online Advertisements" portion of their "Facts For Businesses".
11/14/06 UPDATE - An "Escalation Mgr." from Iomega called me at 7 pm last night due to a new e-mail offer I made to them. She told me that their "Tech Specs" web page for Retrospect Express Software had wrong information on it (32X CD-ROM minimum was incorrect!). She said it does work with 24X CD, but I was shipped (by Iomega's mistake, and a lack of "choice" option on the Iomega website e-commerce function) "One Solutions CD" for a "Mac", and should have been sent one Retrospect Express CD that works for both "Mac" and "PC's". Contrary to this, I was told (as documented in my "Live Chat" courtesy e-mail - great customer service feature): "Bill: Can you send me a link to Retrospect Express (that works for a "PC")?
Iomega: No, Because we don't own Retrospect we don't have extra licenses for the software that didn't ship with a drive. I understand that yours did shipped with a version however it is a license for the mac platform.
Bill: Is there a Retrospect Express (Version 7.5 or not) CD that you can mail me that is licensed for a PC and will work at 24X CD speed?
Iomega: I can only sell you a New CD. I cant send you one, because you bought a mac version when you bought your drive." and I followed with this: "Bill: I just want to correct something you said. I did not "order" a MAC version of the Retrospect Express software as there was no option for me to check off on the iomega website when I ordered it from there.
Iomega: I understand that. What I meant was that, that drive ships with a Mac version of Retrospect. So when you bought the drive you purchased a Mac version of Retrospect."
I must add here that previous to ordering this external hard drive, I phoned Iomega and asked them if this specific unit would work with a "PC", and was told "yes".
I must, also, praise Iomega for providing me with a "written record" of the "Live Chat" conversation, as this proves that what the "Escalation Mgr." told me on the phone last night is in direct contradiction to what "Iomega" told me previously! There is more to come on this important consumer and vendor matter, and I will blog on it. I hope upper mgt. at Iomega recognizes that this is an important opportunity to improve its "online reputation". Good "public relations" is very valuable to any company. (2nd UPDATE Today - Iomega just sent me an e-mail saying they just shipped an external hard drive to me with a different order # on it from the first? A sales rep at their Utah Online Store said he was warned about this kind of "mistake e-mail", as it should have read that my returned unit was received & my credit issued!). Wow, Iomega needs to correct their "mistakes" ASAP! (See my ll/27/06 and 12/3/06 UPDATE POSTS on Iomega)
Now back to Jacob Lodwick who lost a lot of his time in dealing with his GE GXCF20E Bottled Water Cooler Dispenser initial design "mistake" and never heard from GE, according to what he just told me in an e-mail. I don't know if he complained through GE's regular complaint channels or not, but he did complain in his Vimeo video "Don't buy GE's GXCF20E Water Dispenser". The "slow pour" aspect of Jacob's video information may have been misleading, but he HAD to take the bottled water cap off, contrary to what the GE instructions were telling him (if he read them), because GE initially had a design flaw in that, now, discontinued model. All this is explained in my last post: "GE's GXCF20E Water Dispenser Disinformation & Misinformation" . By the way, due to my help in getting James P. Campbell (President and Chief Executive Officer - GE Consumer & Industrial, and a concerned GE executive, in my opinion) involved, GE is now willing to have Jacob contact them. I assume it is for some kind of "satisfaction" in this matter.
But, what about Jacob's time he spent? Although, in this unique case, Jacob is on the "staff" of Vimeo, and he admits in his 19 month old comment on that viral video that "I'm not sure if it's safe to say whether the first anti-commercial was a success yet, since not everybody searches for model numbers before they buy a product... but still, it's pretty satisfying." That video was uploaded on 3/10/05, and it has gotten thousands of views. In another comment there Jacob says: "Yeah, make sure you put the name of the product in the title of the clip... notice this one is called "Don't buy GE's GXCF20E Water Dispenser", which appears as the title of the link when you Google it." Jacob is giving advice on how to get "anti-commercial" complaint videos ranked high up on a Google search for where the seller's website probably is. Right now a Google search for "GE GXCF20E Water Dispenser" shows Jacob's video at #1 ranking (out of about 433), and GE's "Bottled Water Dispensers" web page at #4. Those Google rankings could change either way as more or less links come into those web pages.
This post is somewhat long, but the two parts are "related" and "relevant". So, this brings me to seller "Online Reputation Management".
I admit that it is a rarity for online sellers to care about wasting the time of their buyers. It is almost as rare as this photo of the moon over the sun at the north pole. 
