“Groupon up to some dodgy tricks,” tweeted Good Hope FM DJ Stephanie Be, with a screenshot of evidence that the group buying site was offering a deal that sounded to good to be true, and was.
The front-page teaser says: “R500 instead of R6 300: A 10-book corporate photobook package for your business from Fotodeli.” When you click on the link, a prominent box says you'll pay R500 and save R5 800. In the fine print, however, it says you only qualify if you pay the merchant, Fotodeli, an additional R5 800. That's when you start reading again, from the top, to discover that what you're really buying is a 50% discount on a R12 600 product. Great deal, indeed, but it's not quite the same as paying R500 for a value of R6 300, is it?
This Groupon advert appears to be an error, despite the scathing views of some of the Twitterati who saw the original screenshot. They happen. But so does deception or outright fraud, even among companies that loudly profess to do no evil.
Google had to fire its Kenyan country manager in the wake of a scandal that revealed deliberate and systematic scalping of the database of a local competitor, Mocality. Its initial response was to express mere “mortification”, but this was no error. The operation ran out of two different call centres, and the Google sales agents lied, alternately claiming they were in partnership with Mocality, or that Mocality engaged in a fraudulent bait-and-switch operation.
Mobile games developer Rovio continues to run deceptive and very dangerous ads on the popular Angry Birds game, despite media reports about it. The ads warn players that their battery needs an “upgrade”, but go on to install spyware that harvests the phone's address book and technical data, which could be used for a range of nasty crimes. Lesser developers get banned for life from mobile application stores for such blatant chicanery.
This kind of thing isn't limited to the online space, of course.
Complain if you think you're being hard done by. Go to the top.
Ivo Vegter, ITWeb contributor
Woolworths SA has just lost a case brought by Frankie's, which makes a line of “vintage soda” drinks. The retailer rejected the product, but promptly stole the concept and launched an almost identical-looking range. Customers who knew Frankie's products were fooled into believing it was the same thing. The Advertising Standards Authority, a self-regulatory institution, found against Woolworths.
A friend recently was quoted R2 500 for a replacement airbag spring for her Toyota, despite the fact that the airbag had never deployed and the vehicle was still under warranty. The agent assured her this was correct, as it was a wear-and-tear item.
The temptation, whenever this kind of thing happens, is to call for better regulation. However, in the words of Thomas Sowell, an economist and social theorist at Stanford University: “When your response to everything that is wrong with the world is to say, 'there ought to be a law', you are saying that you hold freedom very cheap.”
As long ago as the 18th century, John Curran expressed this sentiment in words often misattributed to Thomas Jefferson: “It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.”
If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, vigilance is easier than ever. Complain if you think you're being hard done by. Go to the top. If that is impossible, or doesn't work, use the voice that social media gives you. Formal legal action is hardly ever necessary, if you're determined to get your own back.
Mocality blogged its experience in great detail, and the world's biggest newspapers heaped scorn on Google. And after this incident, who would you call if you needed a business directory listing in Kenya?
Frankie's was an obscure niche brand I'd never heard of, until Radio 702's Bruce Whitfield picked up the story of how Woolworths stole its idea. This led to a call for a boycott to punish the supposedly powerful corporate titan for stepping on the valiant little guy. Despite the fairly narrow ASA ruling, the company tweeted an embarrassing climb-down yesterday: “WW CEO Ian Moir says: 'Our customers' trust is more important to us than this product range. We're removing the vintage sodas from shelves.'”
Now, Frankie's can truthfully add “famous” to its tagline, and Woolworths will think twice about pulling such a stunt again.
My friend with the broken car got the company to apologise for its error with unsubtle threats about media exposure. She prevailed, but how many customers get ripped off - whether deliberately or in error - by Toyota service agents, only because they believe they have no power against big corporations?
I've watched many people get their previously intractable banking or mobile phone problems solved via Twitter, often by the CEO of the company. They know the media also hangs out on Twitter. Only people who don't bother to complain, or don't go beyond the scripted call centre drones, get nothing done.
Rovio is in a similar boat, right now. It is eminently deserving of a boycott. Luckily, it is very successful. It is eyeing a stock exchange listing in 2013. Anyone want to bet that the public scrutiny attached to such an event will prompt it to stop doing business with the cyber mafia? Until then, tell all your mates on Facebook to avoid Angry Birds.
I recently had a problem with my favourite football score app, FotMob. It wouldn't show upcoming fixtures anymore, because the English Football Association was asserting property rights over this data. I tweeted the FA, and copied Crister Nordvik, the app's developer: “Dear @premierleague lawyers. If @fotmob's app can't show fixtures because of 'rights issues', I will watch less football. Clever. @cnordvik”
My intent was merely to be sarcastic about the FA's stupid policies, and find another app. Nordvik replied, however, and a discussion about possible solutions ensued. Within days, a workaround had been found and was available for download. A one-man operation trumped a giant corporate lawyering department, and now has a customer for life.
As we speak, Groupon South Africa's CEO, Daniel Guasco, is looking into how the advert that prompted this column made it onto the site. The company's quality assurance process is designed to weed out unscrupulous vendors, as well as ensure the site accurately describes what is being offered and for how much. He admitted that it failed in this case, and promised to do something about it. He assured me that customers who bought the deal will have recourse if they feel swindled.
None of these problem resolutions required the heavy hand of the state, with all the bureaucracy and unintended consequences of badly-written law. In the modern free market, customers are not nameless numbers, bullied and controlled by faceless corporations.
Companies that don't do the right thing, whether out of carelessness or malice, make themselves vulnerable to very damaging public scrutiny. Customers who never used to have recourse, short of expensive legal action when wronged, can instantly become crusading avengers wielding terrifying power.
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