The rise of anti-consumerism on the internet

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I find it increasingly a weird thing I see on social media and forums in general. Say a decade ago,people tended to be much harder on companies.

However,I increasingly see forums and social media exhibit something somewhat different - a sheer defence of any kind of potentially anticonsumerist behaviour,instead attacking people and industry commentators who are pointing it out,ironically for the good of consumers(and their own wallet).

People literally making cases for companies to exploit consumers,or attacking those pointing out poor or confusing practices.

An example of this is microtransactions - people in the industry pointed out the issues it would bring with regards to game design and even potentially more government regulation in games,and were actually attacked for it online(!). Yet fast forward a few years and much of what was pointed out was true,and none of the people doing the attacking even apologised.

People criticising poor game design elements,who were hounded so much they even removed the commentary,but were proved correct when the devs tackled the issues in game updates.

I mean even with tech - the iPhones which needed to be held "right",or were too bendy or exploding Samsungs(even worse). Certain chips going kaput prematurely,or even buggy product launches with poor QA/QC. People were attacked for pointing out the issues,and eventually the companies did address these big issues.

I seriously don't understand this at all - unless you are vested in company financially(like shares),why not point out any potentially anti-consumerist behaviour,or real bugs in products?? Even if you are a fan,there is no downside,you probably will get a better product overall for your dosh or even a cheaper one. Or is it just trolling for the LOLs??

[DanceswithUnix]

Have you not said a bad word about someone's car brand or worse still the football team they support?

It's like people have a need to worship things, perhaps churches would get better attendance if they switched from all this god stuff to praising Nvidia. I just just picture the church of Intel, instead of "Amen" the priest just says "Bing!" and the congregation can reply "de-de de-dum".

[peterb]

Or perhaps people are better informed and realise that their pensions, income and livelihood depend on business of all types, and they have the power (if the choose to use it) of not purchasing products from company A if they prefer company B. They also realise that the owners of a business are there to make a profit for themselves as a reward for the risk they take.

They also realise that competition and diversity is good so that choice remains, and no one company has a monopoly on a market.

[Corky34]

I pretty much gave up pointing out what i saw as potentially anti-consumerist behavior decades ago when DirectX versus 3DFX Glide (openGL) was a thing, not only did DirectX look inferior IMO but it latter transpired that Microsoft cheated the benchmarks in order to show DirectX was faster, once 3DFX went bankrupt i realised what i wanted, did, or said mattered very little in the grand scheme of things so it's probably better to go with the flow despite not liking it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I like some of the best examples of the behaviour - competition is bad for the consumer being an example. I think that was in reference to Intel and it's increased segregation and a response to people saying companies like AMD and ARM were important to push competitive pressures, etc. TBF,was not sure why ARM got negativity,which was utterly weird.

[Corky34]

I'm only guessing hear but i think it maybe something to do with psychology that causes people to react in that way, they don't want a company or product to poof out of existence, it's like some sort of cognitive dissonance.

[peterb]

Consumers and manufacturers have a symbiotic relationship - neither benefits or can exist without the other.

[Saracen]

Consumers and manufacturers have a symbiotic relationship - neither benefits or can exist without the other.

It is certainly the case that some prople can get very .... protective, tribalist almost, about their favourite brands. Where it seems to get a but daft is when liking Brand A, perhaps because of good personal historic experience, leads to some misguided sense of loyalty, a protective reaction for it, and an antipathy towards competitors.

I'm certainly guilty of bring positive towards brands, be they manufacturer or retailer, with which I have had positive experiences, though I don't extend that to antipathy fir competitors.

For instance, about 40 years ago, I had some car stereo work done by a small, local company. Their service and workmsnship was great, so I'm still going there. The first time they screw me over will be the last time I trust them. Hasn't happened yet. I now go there because I regard the risk of getting screwed as minimal.

Similarly, I've mentioned Le Creuset kitchen pans. My personal experience has been very good, albeit that they are expensive, and I will buy Le Creuset over competitors unless there's a very good reason not to. But that doesn't mean I don't regard several competitors as having similarly good (and pricy) products.

Where I get less rational is after I regard a company as having given bad service. Do that and you can end up on my blacklist for a very long time, or permanently. Tesco are on that list. Some years ago, I was shopping there regularly when they messed up. The attitude of the duty manager stank, and despite my complaint having been both polite and calm, his reaction was insulting. I referred that as a complaint to head office who took the details and promised to "get back to me" after making inquiries. Here I am, about 15 years later, still waiting. And I won't use Tesco again until they do get vack to me which, clearly, will be never.

The original issue was a substantive issue but over a trivial amount of money. None the less, over the years, it's lost them tens of thousands of pounds (which is trivial to them, no doubt) over a broken oromise. My blacklisting them isn't over the original issue, and certainly not over the trivial amount, but over the broken "we'll get gack to you" promise. That, I will not forgive. I see it as "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me and I no longer have enough trust to give them the chance. Besides, I've changed my habits and am content shopping elsewhere (roughly, 80% Waitrose, 18% Sainsbury, 2% Aldi/LIDL - by a rough guesstimate).

So I'm not adamant about what I will buy, or who from, but I value good historic service higjly. But once on my blacklist a company is going to need to do something exceptional to get off it.

[kalniel]

The internet is extremely tribal - there are commonly instances, even on this forum, where people direct comments at other users (without possibly being able to know the real situation) rather than at just the idea that is being posted.

[Output]

There can be plenty of valid reasons for and against, with some people going to extremes in either direction (perhaps as a way to justify something to themselves), but don't forget that there have also been known to be some marketing companies who use such tactics to pretend to be normal forum (or similar platforms') users, to defend various companies that have hired them.

In such cases, it's possible that they could get found out rather quickly if forum (or similar platforms') staff and/or users are vigilant, but it's not guaranteed.

[spacein_vader]

There can be plenty of valid reasons for and against, with some people going to extremes in either direction (perhaps as a way to justify something to themselves), but don't forget that there have also been known to be some marketing companies who use such tactics to pretend to be normal forum (or similar platforms') users, to defend various companies that have hired them.

In such cases, it's possible that they could get found out rather quickly if forum (or similar platforms') staff and/or users are vigilant, but it's not guaranteed.

I believe it's called astroturfing

[philehidiot]

I pretty much gave up pointing out what i saw as potentially anti-consumerist behavior decades ago when DirectX versus 3DFX Glide (openGL) was a thing, not only did DirectX look inferior IMO but it latter transpired that Microsoft cheated the benchmarks in order to show DirectX was faster, once 3DFX went bankrupt i realised what i wanted, did, or said mattered very little in the grand scheme of things so it's probably better to go with the flow despite not liking it.

Is that why in games like Deus Ex on a Voodoo card there were reflections in mirrors but they then disappeared never to properly return until ray tracing?

[peterb]

The internet is extremely tribal - there are commonly instances, even on this forum, where people direct comments at other users (without possibly being able to know the real situation) rather than at just the idea that is being posted.

True - and here that is deprecated - but I fear I might have been guilty of that on occasions - and if so, I hang my head in shame.

There can be plenty of valid reasons for and against, with some people going to extremes in either direction (perhaps as a way to justify something to themselves), but don't forget that there have also been known to be some marketing companies who use such tactics to pretend to be normal forum (or similar platforms') users, to defend various companies that have hired them.

In such cases, it's possible that they could get found out rather quickly if forum (or similar platforms') staff and/or users are vigilant, but it's not guaranteed.

Yes, we have had those - and they tend to be weeded out quickly, either by the moderation team themselves, or, as often as not by our loyal an numerous community members who alert us so we can investigate.

And for that we offer our very grateful thanks because we cannot be on the boards 24x7! (A chap has to have a beer now and again! )

[Ttaskmaster]

On the one hand I'd hope that by attacking the people buying this junk, instead of the companies producing it, one will kill off the perceived demand for the junk and companies will start bucking their ideas up by making decent stuff.

On the other hand, companies are rich enough to ignore criticism levelled at them and people don't listen or pay attention in the first place, which is why companies are able to sell millions of pieces of junk. We're getting to a point where the next generation are the big buyers, but have never known good products to begin with.

[Bagnaj97]

the priest just says "Bing!"

Boo! Hiss!
All hail the mighty Google!

[Hoonigan]

I've recently had an issue with Virgin Mobile, but it turns out that all phone companies are doing this.

I took out a new contract via their website on Monday, then received a bill from them for the first month on Friday.
They had dated the bill from the 24th of September (Monday) and I still hadn't received the sim card on Friday, it arrived today, 7 days later.
The sim card wasn't even dispatched until Wednesday, so what right do they have to charge me for days which I absolutely could not use?

The way I worked it out is:

Let's assume that my contract is fairly average, at £18 per month. That's for a sim-only.
They then charge me for 7 days of usage on that contract which I can't use because the sim card isn't in my possession.

£18 x 12[months] = £216
£216 / 365[days] = 0.59p
£0.59 x 7 = £4.13

So that's £4.13 that they've charged me for something I cannot use.

Let's now assume they get 5,000 new customers per month, that's a fair amount, right?

That works out at just about a quarter of a million pounds that they're getting for absolutely nothing.

And we just accept this? Why? The very first thing I did was ring up and demand that I was not charged for this. The first guy said "This is what all of the operators do, I'm sorry there's nothing we can do" and hung up the phone; so I called back and spoke to someone else in retention after saying I wanted to cancel the contract within the cooling off period and I'd go into a store somewhere and pick up a sim card.

I got £10 off the first bill, so I'm now better off, but how many people don't bother?

Why are we letting companies shaft us like this?