Gripe Sites: When Something Sucks, Post Your Rant on These Sites
One example is the website Best Buy Sucks, located at http://www.bestbuysux.org. Like most ‘sucks’ websites, Best Buy Sucks was created by someone who was so annoyed by their experience with the mega-corporation, that he felt the need to voice his opinion on the internet in an effort to strike back against the company. Since his first initial posting years ago, Best Buy Sucks has flourished, mainly due to an abundance of consumers and employees alike also seeking to describe their negative experiences.
Those who regularly peruse such sites know that they are more commonly referred to as gripe sites, as many of the postings are basically gripes about a particular business. Some of these gripe sites consist of little more than one or two rants by a single individual. Others, such as Best Buy Sucks, O’Reilly Sucks, Dreamhost Sucks, and Survivor Sucks are popular, dedicated sites that either parody or gripe about their main subjects, and most are regularly updated.
Wal-Mart Sucks, at http://www.walmart-blows.com, is another largely populated site, with links as well to other ‘sucks’ gripe sites, including Home Depot Sucks, Target Sucks, and PayPal sucks.
Often, many of these sites can be disregarded as one man’s personal vendetta against a company, but other times, they can help paint an accurate representation of a company’s management and customer service attitudes as well as product quality and standards. For example, after reading through many of the postings by unsatisfied customers on the Best Buy Sucks website, I know now that it would be quite foolish to ever shop at Best Buy, and I have warned others against doing so as well.
Normally, gripe sites are relatively harmless to the company it is attacking, as these corporations usually have a large customer base that has likely never even seen the gripe site. But if there is any truth to the gripes posted on the site, then you can be sure its popularity will grow as other disgruntled consumers or employees seek redemption against the company that has seemingly done them some form of harm or injustice.
Technically not a gripe site, more of a consumer watchdog site, Reseller Ratings, at http://www.resellerratings.com, is an excellent guideline for online shopping. With a database of hundreds of online companies, you can easily search by name to locate an online company and discover reviews of that company as posted by many consumers, both happy and unhappy. Ratings for customer service and other factors are also given, easily helping you to decide if you are safe making a purchase with that company.
So if a company or corporation has done you wrong, and you want to tell your story to everyone you can, try searching the internet for a gripe site about your company, and post your story. You may never get the justice you deserve, but maybe, just maybe, you can influence others not to shop or do business with that company, and that at least will provide some satisfaction.
