Online Network of Dissatisfied Consumers to Prompt Business Changes

TennesseeTilapia:

Can you believe this? I can’t get my money back from UnscrupulousDealer.com!!

VeryVixen:

Why won’t they refund your money?

TennesseeTilapia:

They say orders can’t be canceled after 10 days and only if the product is discontinued!

MarvelousMarv:

Didn’t they say that it would be in stock in 3 days? It’s been a month!

TennesseeTilapia:

I found another place to get it but my money’s already spent.

VeryVixen:

They can’t get away with this! Let’s make them sorry!

MarvelousMarv:

You bet they can’t! Don’t worry, you’ll get your money back!

Exchanges such as this happen hundreds of times a day, with consumers exchanging points of view regarding merchants, debating the pros and cons of products or finding the best deal. Online consumers today have more information available to them than any generation in history, including unparalleled access to pricing and millions of pages of reviews.

The social network stands poised to spark the consumer revolution, evolving into the virtual syndicate. You have an option like https://socialized.me/free-instagram-followers/ that you can use in order to make your social media experience more comfortable and safe. 

Not Cosa nostra or the mafia, but the idea that any online consumer, given the right connections to social networks, blogs, and forums, can vastly increase the impact of word-of-mouth on a merchant.

Imagine the power of Web 2.0 brought to bear on a merchant like UnscrupulousDealer.com. Reviews would appear on sites like Amazon.com, Engadget and Gizmodo. Forum conversations would spring up surrounding experiences with this product. Facebook bulletin boards would be replete with negative epitaphs.

The Virtual Community crosses age, generations, incomes, education and even geographic boundaries. The immense reach of social networks gives social networkers power like no other. We’ve already seen bad buzz destroy businesses.

Online consumers will soon realize the power they yield over merchants. Imagine hundreds of social networkers hitting a merchant’s Web site to voice their displeasure with how one of their own has been treated. The servers slow — hits increase, but sales remain flat as real buyers abandon their purchases when pages will not load.

Syndicating for purchasing power, these consumers can come, en masse, to negotiate prices with merchants. “We will bring hundreds of sales RIGHT NOW, only if you give it to us at a discount.” Faced with the competition online, what merchant wouldn’t want to move merchandise vs. losing hundreds of sales to competitors?

The wisdom of crowds can be frighteningly accurate. Their power over commerce can be terrifying.

Cue The Godfather theme:

TennesseeTilapia:

I got my money back!! 🙂 You guys are great!

VeryVixen:

Well, we all flooded the site with support requests for three days. They got the message.

MarvelousMarv:

I had no idea that many Facebook members would respond. When Apple releases a new iPod, we should hit them for a discount.

TennesseeTilapia:

What a cool idea! We don’t want to spend $300. We’ll spend $250. We’ll give you 500 purchases RIGHT NOW!!

Cut to:

Steve Jobs wakes to scream from a nightmare about horse heads in his bed.