The tools are out there for us to use. Contrary to Cuba, North Korea and some other countries, here in United States and many other western countries, people have the opportunity, or perhaps I should say, the privilege to use computers and Internet. We can never be entirely sure of the exact amount of freedom that we can apply to our behaviour through the Internet; however, as a free country we are allowed to use these amazing tools.
Consumer protection is one of those benefits of the Internet if we really are engaged to protect our money. What I suggest is that a capitalist economy, with a free market, have freedom to choose from. As consumers, we suppose to be the ones to dictate what products, what prices and what quality we want. However, seems that it works the other way around; although, sometimes we are not happy with the service or the good that we are buying, there is a tendency of feeling ashamed if we demand our right of a good service or good quality. The result, those who provide the goods or the service feel entitled to reject a single complaint.
The whole point remains in the fact that if we as consumers have the voice and the tools to demand what we deserve for what we pay for then we should ask for it. Have you ever complained or asked for a different table when the hostess assigns you a table very close to the bathroom?
What about when they bring your coffee not in the cup but mainly in the dish. Would you ask the waitress to replace it? At least, would you bother not to leave a tip as a protest for bad service? If not, how are they going to know that they are not doing it right?
Further, what about poor quality goods that we buy and the realization that is not worth what we pay for them, and we never take the time to return or complain about it.
Evidently better than ever before we can feel the power of a massive community against poor goods or bad service; we can create a valid Electronic Disturbance to any company that mistreats its costumers. In fact, there is out there already some websites that somehow represent the voice of the consumers.
If we as consumer have the voice, we should use the Internet as a tool to grade products.
What has brought me to this point is to understand how a poor community far from the advantages of technology were able to create such an exponential wave of people willing to join their cause by Internet in times when the Internet was not for massive consumption. The poor neglected indigenous of Chiapas in Mexico have not even human rights, but they are a community who uses Electronic Disturbance to communicate with the entire world.
