Rip-off Report™ is the next best thing to getting your story on TV or in a newspaper?

February 25, 2004 5:31 AM

Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Victim of bad business practices? Have a deadbeat ex-husband? Want justice? Rip-off Report is a worldwide consumer reporting Website & Publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file & document complaints about Companies or Individuals who ripoff consumers.
posted by Macboy (11 comments total)

As soon as I have time, Staples will be getting a plug on the report.
posted by a3matrix at 5:55 AM on February 25, 2004

talk about "happy fun slander"....

i wonder if they're going to last....i can hear the lawyers revving up their laptops now.
posted by taumeson at 5:56 AM on February 25, 2004

Yeah, this sort of site is wide open to abuse. I don't know that I'd ever turn to it for consumer research.
posted by orange swan at 6:12 AM on February 25, 2004

Exactly. In a medium where anonymous posters enjoy telling me about their anus, and idiots want to know why their wireless computer won't work while not plugged in, I doubt this can work well.
posted by y6y6y6 at 6:24 AM on February 25, 2004

I just mulled over the "If I'm not prepared to trust this site, why am I willing to trust AskMe?" question, and came up with the answer that I'm much more willing to trust *any* community of users who are disinterestedly helping me resolve a question I've posed than a bunch of people posting in order to vent, seek revenge, etc.
posted by orange swan at 6:35 AM on February 25, 2004

I think it's the closed status of MetaFilter that generates the trust in AskMe. I participate in another support type forum at my web host. All of the veteran users there are very helpful and will go out of their way to try and help. But most of the questions come from anonymous new users who ask bad questions. Which makes the whole thing largely a wank much of the time.

With AskMe we've gotten over the "First hot grits post" stage long ago, so we can settle in and be productive. Ripoffreport.com seems to just be encouraging the hot grits folks, and not providing a happy hope for the sincere veterans.
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:33 AM on February 25, 2004

This one won't work but there should be some mechanism for handling this. Corporations have one for us: our credit report. It doesn't always work as it's supposed to and when it doesn't it's not usually in your favour but there's nothing that I've seen that performs an equal service for the consumer.

So the only test it needs to pass is "it usually works" where the definition of works means protecting consumers from businesses. It might occasionally wrongly accuse a business but that's ok.
posted by substrate at 7:43 AM on February 25, 2004

There are consumer advocacy groups out there. I think they do a very good job of policing this stuff. On balance at least.
posted by y6y6y6 at 8:13 AM on February 25, 2004

Who are these "anonymous posters enjoy telling me about their anus"? Is there a photo from Mr Goatse as well? URL please.
posted by Pericles at 8:19 AM on February 25, 2004

I'm dealing with some incredible issues with a credit agency for the past 10 months. I've found this site to be useful as a open forum. Orange Swan has some valid points, but after all avenues are exhausted, posting here can help others avoid similar situations. And I don't find many "anonymous posters" venting. I'll be looking for any anus refernences in the future.
posted by Macboy at 9:15 AM on February 25, 2004

i wonder if they're going to last

The site isn't exactly new. I'm sure it's been around more than 2 years. A lot of folks worked together through the site to help organize a class action lawsuit against OCWEN, a mortgage loan outfit that just LOVED screwing it's customers over hard. I'm not one of them, but I followed it somewhat as I was looking into mortgages at the time.

Yeah, this sort of site is wide open to abuse.
What site isn't, really?
posted by Nauip at 8:17 PM on February 25, 2004