ON "DELL HELL" TREND EVOLVING INTO "COMPANY X HELL"

CRIES IN THE DARKNESS

My last post made reference to the recent trend of prominent bloggers complaining about computer problems directly to the vendors via their blogs.  The trend got kicked off by A-list blogger Jeff Jarvis a few weeks ago complaining of bad service from Dell, which got picked up by hundreds of bloggers and eventually resulting in a response from Dell.  Businessweek has a good story (via BW/Blogspotting) on the whole thing.  VC Fred Wilson is trying the same approach on a problem with Amazon, with this post on "Amazon Hell".

Tablet PC user Eric Mack took a similar tack on problems with this Toshiba Tablet PC recently, which catalyzed an "Open letter to Microsoft's Tablet PC" folks by Tablet PC guru-blogger JK, of JKontherun.

If this is the start of a "Company X Hell" meme on the web, then count me in.  For the longest time, these types of complaints have been restricted to computer self-help discussion forums, with users asking/begging other users for help with their computer problems. 

It was and is largely a hit and miss affair, relying obviously on the kindness of strangers.  Occasionally, vendors would pay attention to the most popular forums and have a technical support person occasionally pitch in to help.

With the rapid mainstreaming of blogs, this "cry for help" is a natural use of blogs by users, A-listers or not. 

What's needed now is some kind of a tagging system, where "Company X Hell" posts can be aggregated and shared easily by anyone who has an interest in the reliability of a particular product or service. 

Whether we use tagging systems and/or other technologies, some sort of open source web-site where these kinds of "Company X Hell" problems can be addressed could be a welcome first step.

This would shine a brighter spotlight on service inadequacies, and better incent vendors to start monitor blogs for customer services issues and opportunities to alleviate product service problems.

To that end, I've reserved "www.companyxhell.org" and "www.xhell.org" as domain names to be used for a non-profit, open-source initiative.  If folks think this is a good idea, we could give it a go. 

I'd welcome your thoughts on this subject.

Comments

[Warner Crocker]

It makes some sense to me, Michael.

[Scott]

I think this is a wonderful idea! It seems everyone is quick to jump for joy that "technology is making the world smaller." But for what purpose? I can live without knowing what Britney Spears had for lunch or which member of Survivor is now in rehab, spare me... PLEASE! On the other hand, I can't get enough of tools that lend efficiency and wisdom to my repertoire. Delicious, bloglines, and flickr come to mind.

I think a wiki of some sort would be a great idea... Public site moderation is an attractive feature that I suspect would serve well for this idea. Perhaps a simple companyXhell blog would be sufficient. Now that Typepad allows moderation of comments that may be an option... Hmmm... That would require a decent time investment from an admin of some sort wouldn't it?

*shrug* Great idea Michael, be sure to post any developments.

[Rona]

Cool Website! Try mine!

[Ryley]

Very nice site. Looks like you spent quite a bit of time on it.