Forbes Lists Top Corporate Hate Web Sites

windowpain writes "You've seen them. Maybe you've made one, like Walmart-blows.com or Paypalsucks.com. Now Forbes.com has a 'Special Report' devoted to what it considers the best of them. 'The following nine sites--there were ten, but one went unexpectedly dark during the editing of this story--are the crème de la crème of online rage. Note that we substantially cleaned up some of the posts, editing out odd capitulation schemes, iffy grammar and plain incoherence. Apparently blinding anger does not go hand in hand with dotting your i's and crossing your t's.' Maybe this will become an annual thing like the Forbes 400 and the Fortune 500." (I wonder what a capitulation scheme is.)

Well...

[inertia187]

I wonder what a capitulation scheme is.

They probably meant "odd capitalization scheme." YoU THiNk, hUh?

Actually, at first I read it as "odd copulation schemes," which makes a lot more sense, doesn't it? * fp

Re:Well...

[mog007]

I'm suprised sco.com isn't on the list.

What? Oh you mean hate site, not HATED site. Gotcha.

Re:Well...

[hawk]

I found that odd. Normally, slashdot doesn't need to find stories that *already* have grammar erros . . .

:)
hawk

Re:Well...

[ColaMan]

I wonder what a capitulation scheme is.

Ask the french.

AHAHAHAHAHAH!! Man, that joke never gets old.

It's probably an auto-suggest from their speel-checker:
Speel-Checker: "No match for capitalpitalization - did you mean capitulation?"
UserWithNoClue: "er, maybe... I guess speel-check knows best."
(Clicks yes)

Re:Well...

[networkBoy]

See link in sig :-)
well timed story. :heh:
-nB

Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[Neil Blender]

It's really a multi purpose hate site, hating so many things/companies. This list was more directed to sites that hated a single thing/company.

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[PopeAlien]

But what about slashdotsucks.com [slashdot.org]? I was curious, but I get a login prompt..

I mean, how are we supposed to know if slashdot sucks or not?

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[tompaulco]

Slashdot doesn't suck, but just like the internet, the signal to noise ration has been degrading ever since johnny everyman joined.
Plus the anti-Bush, anti-America, Anti-God, Anti-Microsoft, anti-slashdot-moderator, anti-conservative attitude is getting very tiring.
So where's the new slashdot? The one that hasn't sunk to the lowest common denominator yet?

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot's hatred is too hard to pinpoint.

I know what you mean. It's almost as if Slashdot isn't just one person but a whole bunch of different people saying different things. Weird.

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[Leo McGarry]

Dude, you just perfectly illustrated his point. Even down to the shrill tone.

And you did it without a hint of irony, too.

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[freeweed]

That's because bonch, like a lot of others as of late, seem to think that 800,000+ people are only allowed one collective opinion about anything. That way, they can decry 'hypocrasy!!!!!!!' all day long.

I swear, he must have had 5 or 6 posts to that effect on the recent CherryOS story alone.

He's also notorious for decrying "Slashdot's" "anti-Microsoft bias". Over and over and over in some stories. Again, we're all one person here, apparently.

Textbook trolling, but like-minded moderators don't seem to catch on. It's more useful to those types to post and moderate up the same lines again and again, because they feel they've somehow stumbled upon some great hidden truth that must be exposed to the world.

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[Leo McGarry]

Don't blame somebody else for the "Slashdot only has one opinion" thing. That's built right into the system. Have you looked at the way comment moderation works around here? Comments that don't toe the party line are moderated down until they get filtered right off the page.

Also, I don't think you know what "troll" means. Hint: It doesn't mean "he keeps saying something I disagree with, which infuriates me because I am disinclined to tolerate opinions which differ from my own."

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[PyroMosh]

Look through my post history. I'll give you a while. I can wait.

See that? That's me regularly posting comments that are pro-Microsoft and (shock, horror!) getting modded up for them. (Or at least not getting modded down.)

Is there a "party line" on slashdot? Yes, absolutly, 100%. However, if you post intelligent, relevant commentary, it doesn't matter if you go against the grain now and then. The moderation / metamod system on slashdot is very well done and works as it should far more often than not.

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut

[808140]

For what it's worth, Leo, I tend to seek out your posts in a thread and read them, because I find them interesting and generally well thought out. Plus, despite my lack of interest in Apple, your extremely detailed and technical knowledge of the company and its technology impresses me. I feel like you frequently teach me new things.

But it doesn't surprise me that many of your posts are modded down for "not toeing the party line", as it were.

The examples I'm sure we're both thinking of: you're as rabidly pro-IP as many Slashdotters are rabidly anti-IP, and post frequently to that effect; you're extremely pro-Apple, but to the exclusion of other, competing technologies (in other words, you're prone to insulting other OSs and their users).

Now, your opinions are generally well thought out, even though I don't particularly agree with some of them. The thing that gets you modded down, I think, is your delivery. You come across as having a chip on your shoulder.

Sometimes it also seems as though you not so privately think of yourself as being much smarter and better informed than the vast majority of people on here.

Now, for what it's worth, my impression of you from your posts is that you do have a chip on your shoulder of some sort, and that you are much smarter and better informed than the vast majority of the people on here.

However, what you no doubt think of as calling an idiot an idiot (goodness knows its a sacred hacker tradition) often comes off as offensive and belittling, and this is what I think has people modding you as Troll every so often (despite your clearly not being one).

Essentially, it's the delivery that matters.

Now, you're probably thinking that you shouldn't need to sugar coat your opinions just because they're unpopular here, and in a perfect world, you'd be right. But while we geeks pride ourselves on our lack of social graces, the truth of the matter is that the Slashdot community, despite its inherently geeky nature, is a community like any other, with its own set of norms. And like most communities, it is mostly made up of leaders and followers, and you're expressing opinions that go against the grain.

So you have two options, really. You can post whatever you want, and bugger the moderators. Frankly, someone as lucid and intelligent as yourself will probably always have karma that is good enough to be able to burn it with an occasional Troll or Flamebait mismoderation. Of course, this path (the one I see you've taken so far) has the side effect of pushing some of your posts below the thresholds of heathens that don't read at -1, thus lessening their impact. But you can be as cutting and arrogant as you want to be.

The other possibility is to act as though the people you're talking to aren't sheep, but actually are capable of making their own opinions, and are entitled to them. You can say exactly the same thing, but you'll need to establish, at least in the sous-texte of your post, that you are not actually all that different from them. In a sense, you're pushing to win them to your side.

It would be a perfect world if moderators actually moderated based on the insight of the post, how informative it is, etc, but as you've noticed, they don't; they usually just mod things up that they agree with. So you need to make it sound as though you basically agree with them, or at least think they are reasonably intelligent folks, but are just trying to show them a different way of framing the problem in question.

Because let's face it: if you meet someone rabidly anti-IP, your rabidly pro-IP stance isn't going to win them over. If you meet someone that hates Apple and thinks they're the next evil overlord, telling them "It ain't so and you're a retard" isn't going to win them over.

If you don't care about winning them over, then you're not having a discussion, you're just jacking off on Slashdot.

So you might want to rethink your angle, a bit

Re:Why Slashdot didn't make the cut -OT

[cgenman]

A lot of it has to do with tone. If you take a somewhat original but firm stance which sounds intelligent enough to get somebody agreeing with you, you will be modded up. Look at the page a few days ago on the Harvard acceptance letter scandal. Lots of people took the very un-Slashdot opinion that the students who followed an unpublished URL deserved to get canned. They were modded up, because they spoke calmly and sounded intelligent.

They also masked a moral argument as an intellectual one, which seems to help these days.

Also, respond to the first thread. If you're not near the top of the page you're less likely to be read by a moderator who shares your opinion. Don't respond to the middle of a thread... only to the first or last comment in a string. People don't read the alternate middle comments.

And I may get modded down for saying this, but saying you may get modded down for saying something just doesn't draw the mod points like it used to.

Your post won't be moderated as "Offtopic" if you add "-OT" to your subject line. Feel free to try this with "Flamebait."

These days, Simpsons quotes need to be longer than 6 lines to really draw the freebies.

CmdrTaco and friends are a lot less likely to use the beatdown stick for talking about Slashdot. For some reason, talking about Slashdot draws mod points too. But don't draw too many, or you'll be Offtopic.

The first rule of Slashdot is that you don't quote Fight Club.
The second rule of Slashdot is that you don't quote Fight Club.

Goatse and In Soviet Russia are so old that some people haven't even heard of them. Take advantage of this fact.

Recycle previous posts that have been moderated up.

Make humorous light of other poster's spellings, or use witty misspellings in your posts. I don't know why, but for the past few months the moderators seem to have B.S.'s in English.

Punctuate your remark with one unashamedly unmasked swearword. But use only one, otherwise it's just too much of this shit.

And, of course, if you can say something because you have actual information or insight to share, that's good too. But let's be real, this is Slashdot.

Did I mention that Slashdot bashing works too?

hmmmm

[Munch671]

My company isn't listed yet......wait I mean (cough couch big brother) WHEW, my company isn't listed yet.

forbes

[gotem]

how come there's not a 'forbes-sucks.com'?

Re:forbes

[Dun Malg]

how come there's not a 'forbes-sucks.com'?

That's the tenth one that myseriously went dark.....muahahahaha!

Re:forbes

[Jardine]

how come there's not a 'forbes-sucks.com'?

I expect it'll be registered pretty soon. Forbes actually does own "forbessucks.com"

Apparently they're aware of their suckiness.

If someone wanted to let the rest of the world know about Forbes' suckiness, forbesreallysucks.com and fuckforbes.com both seem to be available.

Re:forbes

[Chris Burke]

I wanted a domain name that expressed my distaste for suck.com. If I registered com-sucks.com, I could have the subdomain suck.com-sucks.com.

Actually, com-sucks.com would be a good one to register for all the hate-sites. There are so many companies that suck, why pay $15 for each one?

Re:forbes

[shutdown -p now]

I suggest we request the creation of a new TLD, ".suck", given the growing demand in this area (as outlined by TFA).

hmm...

[eobanb]

I didn't notice an SBCsucks or an SBCblows. That's weird, because SBC really really sucks. Well, at least they did until one of their technicians accidently cut power to my high school. I love you, SBC! *Goes to register ilovesbc.com*

Re:hmm...

[Ark42]

SBC that bad, Really? SBC offered 6.0/608 ADSL for $44/month over a year ago. I've had it for over a year now, virtually no down time, free modem/router/wireless thing, free install. I've got people on the 1.5/384 plan when it was 26.95/month and its down to 19.95/month now, with no long distance required. Just a basic phone line (which sucks, but hey, cable requires basic TV around here, which is the $40/month package, not the $13/month locals-only cable packet).

Re:hmm...

[Suppafly]

26.95/month and its down to 19.95/month now, with no long distance required.

They changed it this year, you now how to have their all-distance plan or have them pic'd as your ld carrier.

Re:hmm...

[temojen]

I didn't see electrolux sucks either.

Re:hmm...

[painandgreed]

I didn't notice an SBCsucks or an SBCblows. That's weird, because SBC really really sucks.

What do you have against Seattle's Best Coffee. Sure, they were bought out by Starbuck's but their coffee is still a step above Starbuck's normal line of coffees. It's not a small independant coffee stand but it'll still get you going in the morning.

Where does one get a job like this ?

[jephthah]

To honor these quixotic champions, we spent hours trawling the Web looking for the very best corporate hate sites.

Re:Where does one get a job like this ?

[Valiss]

Obvoiusly, you've never have a gov't job.

Best Buy

[kidgenius]

I'm surprised Best Buy Sux [bestbuysux.org] didn't make the list

Re:Best Buy

[loraksus]

Agreed. I'm surprised that their "forced illegal door search" policy hasn't resulted in a shooting, or at least a firearm being drawn.

Someone could technically make a citizen's arrest for false imprisonment, assault, battery and possibly kidnapping against store employees.

I believe there was a case not too long ago where Best Buy employees used several vehicles to box in a suspected (and, of course, innocent) customer's vehicle who was attempting to leave the lot. Police were called, charges were filed against the employees.

Fucking moronic, if you ask me, to use your personal vehicle in such a manner, or even considering using force to stop someone stealing from your store if you're not in loss prevention, but hey, if you're working there, you're not the brightest bulb in the tree (or you're desperate for money and are stealing shit left and right)

Citizen's arrest laws violate from state to state (I believe in KY you are permitted to kill fleeing felons, while in some states you can't sue private parties for false arrest)
What I'm trying to say is, that if a shooting should happen, it shouldn't exactly been unexpected. Best Buy has had a history of illegal searches / false imprisonment, and the courts are aware of this. How they don't get bitchslapped by a judge with a nice juicy judgement, I have no idea.
At least the dead employee's family should get a couple bucks after a lawyer buys a new yacht with the legal fees.

Re:Best Buy

[Some_Llama]

"Agreed. I'm surprised that their "forced illegal door search" policy hasn't resulted in a shooting, or at least a firearm being drawn."

Fry's electronics has the same policy, in both cases I just hold up my hand and say "no thank you" as I walk out the door when they try to look in my bags.

If they want to stop me they can, but then i can sue for false imprisonment.

I refuse to be treated like a criminal for shopping at someone's store (even though they do just by trying to stop me at the door).

Re:Best Buy

[Pig Hogger]

There is a huge misunderstanding of the door check thing. It isn't to catch crooked customers. It is to catch crooked employees.

Though fucking noogies. If they don't trust their employees, they certainly should not make it their customer's problem.

Re:Best Buy

[CAIMLAS]

You better believe that if BB pulled that shit on me, they would have some combination of the following occur:

* I would ask for their manager, and failing that, I would go about the store looking for him/her and ask for a formal written apology.
* If they were to touch me, even gently, they would be sued and I would call the police alerting them to the fact that Best Buy was trying to hold me without cause.
* If they tried something drastic like blocking my car in or holding me physically (forcefully), they'

Re:Best Buy

[kidgenius]

What law against concealed weapons? I know many individuals who exercise their right to lawfully carry a concealed firearm.

The majority of states have no such law

[Sycraft-fu]

In many states, you can easily get a concealed carry permit. Here in Arizona you can carry a weapon openly (defined as any part of the weapon or holster being clearly visible) with no permit, or concealed with a permit. You take a class that covers CCW law, firearm safety, and a shooting test, then submit an application. Provided you pass a backgroud check, you get your permit. There are a lot of people that have them, and a lot of people that carry all the time.

Re:Best Buy

[CAIMLAS]

Maybe in your fascist police state, but not in some of ours'. There are states out here in the "fly over" zone which have a fairly low idiot population where things like the Bill of Rights is still regarded with reverence.

Before you spout off about guns being bad, take note that the crime rate in states without concealed carry permits have much much more crime per capita.

Re:Best Buy

[fm6]

To you, I'm a Fascist who wants to take away your sacred right of "self defense". To me, you're an Idiot who hides behind the illusory safety of a weapon that's more likely to hurt you or an innocent bystander than any criminal. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

One things for sure: if you're boycotting Best Buy, then that makes it a safer place for me!

Chrysler and Epinions

[BWJones]

A number of years ago I wrote an opinion in Epinions regarding a brand new Dodge truck I had purchased (the new ones in 1994 just after the redesign). The opinion was written after about four years of ownership. One week after writing the opinion I had a lawyer (presumably from Chrysler) call me and threaten libel. I replied all I wrote down were the facts. Nothing more and that I had all documentation to back up my claims. If he would like, I could create a website with all of the documentation. I never heard back, but it was that kind of treatment that unfortunately convinced me to never purchase another product from them again. it's too bad, because they do have some of the most exciting products out there, but they simply cannot build them reliably and their customer service (even at the supposed 5 star dealerships was atrocious).

Re:Chrysler and Epinions

[mrseigen]

I had roughly the same experience with their manufacturing quality as you did, except with a 1993 Dodge Caravan. Engine failure, broken switches, peeling paint. Every time it went into the shop, it was another three-hour dissertation with the idiot customer service.

Re:Chrysler and Epinions

[BWJones]

About the only thing that did not break on my truck was the engine. I was impressed with the engine, but the steering column (replaced X3), steering linkage, rear differential (replaced X3), interior switches and materials, brakes, suspension, electrical, body fit and integrity were all so bad as to not be believed. This thing was a street queen receiving meticulous care and service at all required times, so any claims of abuse were absurd. Every time I had to take it down to be serviced or repaired or t

Re:Chrysler and Epinions

[Sebby]

Count Ford out too. With exploding gas tanks and loose tie-rod ends, I would never, EVER buy their crap.

Epinions

[j1m+5n0w]

Epinions [epinions.com] is a very interesting site worth looking at for those of you who haven't. Essentially, they're a forum for people to write reviews of products (i.e. to complain loudly).

I first heard of the site from reading this paper [www2004.org] in www2004, which used epinions data as the basis for a reputation system. (I don't know if epinions uses that same system internally, but they at least do something similar.) The cool part is that you can rate individual reviewers as "trusted" or "untrusted". By examining the graph of trust and distrust relationships between users, they can come up with a reasonable guess for how much any user should trust any other user, and sort reviews accordingly.

I don't know what the motives are of the people who run the site. Perhaps they're just trying to grease the wheels of capitalism by giving people good information to make informed decisions about what products to buy (or, more formally, to avoid information asymmetry [wikipedia.org]). Perhaps they're secretly tweaking the ratings to support companies that send them money. Perhaps they're just trying to generate ad banner revenue. Who knows.

Re:Epinions

[joeljkp]

Epinions is great and all, but it doesn't cover everything. What if I want to know which brand of salsa is the best? Or if Budweiser sucks as much as I hear it does? Or if Crest is better than Colgate?

Rateitall.com [rateitall.com] does that stuff, to an extent, but their site isn't as polished as it could be.

I want a site that categorizes every product under the sun by UPC and lets people comment on and rate them.

Re:Chrysler and Epinions

[Chosen Reject]

Excting even though they are unreliable? Is that because you get all excited not knowing if the steering wheel will work while driving a 4000 lb. truck 75 mph on a freeway with a turn coming up?

Re:Chrysler and Epinions

[Esion Modnar]

I could create a website with all of the documentation.

On a related thought, I was considering buying some $400 HP or Dell piece-of-shit, loading AdAware and SpyBot on it, then taking screen captures of all the crap these programs find on these boxes before they're even hooked to the Net. Then post these results to a web page for my customers to see. Unfortunately, if I mentioned that I got these results on an HP or Dell, or whatever, I'd be litigated into the dirt. My pockets are nowhere near as deep

They didn't get my favourite

[Anonymous Coward]

There's this great anti-Microsoft website [slashdot.org] that I visit, now and then.

Re:They didn't get my favourite

[jd]

Slashdot hates and supports everything with even measure, at the appropriate time. Sometimes repeatedly. As such, it is probably the only website in existance that suffers from multiple personality disorder.

Re:They didn't get my favourite

[piltdownman84]

My school use to give my entire department's email list to MS every year. So I use to get all this crap from Microsoft. I thought I'd be clever so for my third year I updated my school email to a fuckmicrosoft.com forwarding account. I thought this would stop M$ from sendin me an email every couple weeks. Sadly it didn't and for a year and a half, until a prof told me my email was inappropriate, i use to get Microsoft junkmail through that fuckmicrosoft account.

Still pisses me off that my school w

what about slashdot?

[pedantic bore]

aka the 'SCO haters web site'?

Re:what about slashdot?

[MoxCamel]

That would be www.thescogroup.net. [thescogroup.net] Mox

Re:what about slashdot?

[eobanb]

Why did you create this site?

CmdrTaco: If there was any way to make a lot of money by posting the same article several times in the same day, I was going to discover that way.

What would Microsoft/SCO/RIAA/whoever need to do for you to take down this site?

Taco: For one, if they all stopped advertising on here, I'd have no source of revenue now, would I...

Typical Post:

CleverHandle1337 writes, CNET is reporting on a clear case of abuse of patent law, which is not unlike a slashdot story from yesterday. Insert unnecessary flamebait comment from slashdot admin here at end of article.

Re:what about slashdot?

[pedantic bore]

Slashdot story topics:

• Some geopolitical entity is considering wifi.
• Windows has security flaws. Microsoft is evil.
• Google did something. Therefore, they'll be doing something tangentially related soon. They're a refreshingly different kind of evil.
• OMG, someone posted a release candidate for *BSD/*zilla/KDE/Gnome! God bless the OSS developers.
• I have a stupid question and I want to see how many identical answers I can get.
• Roland what's-his-name thinks this is news.
• News for nerds
• Stuff that matters

UPS positive attitude

[snerfu]

I like the way this was PR handled from UPS for the website UnitedPackageSmashers.com:

Company Says:
"We do know of the site. Because we live in a free society, people have the right to their opinion, and we recognize that people will use the Internet to voice their opinion. We believe that customers can get much more valuable and accurate information from our site."

Thats much better than a legal notice claiming a violation of some act, and gives them a leg up in my book. On a side note I wonder how forbes has/would handle something like forbessucks.com.

Re:UPS positive attitude

[kidgenius]

What I found rather shocking was verizon's very unprofessional reply. They resorted to calling the website "patheric" and "lame". Hmm...I wonder if VerizonPathetic struck a nerve of some kind.

Re:UPS positive attitude

[networkBoy]

Farmers reply to my site was a C&D letter threatening doom if I didn't run away. A few hours on findlaw and I'm fairly certain I'm in the clear. Too bad they (farmers) don't understand there is more to loose by being assholes. If they had let me be the site would have likely died when the 1 year registration ran out. Now I'm going to hold on to that domain like a bitter asshat forever. It's amazing how much you enjoy free speech and how much you under respected the first amendment until someone tri

Re:UPS positive attitude

[stinkyfingers]

I like the PR for Verizon's reaction to their hate site. Calling the site "pathetic" and "lame" gives the proper level of we-don't-care you want in your reaction. Maybe I have a future at the corporate level after all.

"What's really pathetic is not Verizon but this sort of lame Web site. In this day and age, anyone with a gripe can put up a Web site and make outrageous claims as the authors of this one did."

Re:UPS positive attitude

[Facekhan]

Seriously UPS does play football with the packages. They are inferior to Fedex in almost every way except price where they are usually just a tiny bit cheaper. UPS package pick up locations are staffed by the most idiotic and rude people I have ever had to deal with especially when compared to Fedex staff. For very small non-fragile items and large non-fragile non-time-sensitive items you are safe with UPS but anything fragile and lighter than 50 pounds will be used for sport. I have been outright told thi

Re:UPS positive attitude

[RobertB-DC]

On a side note I wonder how forbes has/would handle something like forbessucks.com.

They have/would have bought it [whois.sc].

Registrant:
Forbes, Inc.
(DOM-1334284)
60 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011 US

Domain Name: forbessucks.com

Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

Administrative Contact:
Filipe Carreira
(NIC-14324246)
Forbes, Inc.
60 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011 US

Re:UPS positive attitude

[Adult film producer]

I've only had one experience with UPS and it went very badly. The crux of the problem is the fact that I live in Canada and purchased an item on Ebay from an American. Two fur coats (muskrat & beaver) for $475 (that was the final bidding price.)

When the seller shipped the package he wrote down the retail/market price on the package which was $1800. The UPS guy shows up at my door on a monday morning and tells me that I need to pay for the package, "How much ?" I asked.. $780.21.

$780 for what ? hu

They forgot...

[IgD]

Anti-slash.org!

The site is outrageous. Apparenly a bunch of -1 posters got together and set it up. I think it's meant to be funny more than an attempt at serious criticism.

Re:They forgot...

[XFilesFMDS1013]

We are in jihad against the editors of slashdot. We will not stop until our demands our met. Until that time, we will conduct civil disobedience on slashdot by constantly pointing out the editors' transgressions and discrediting slashdot as a news site.

Yes...news site, one that reports everyone else's news. Plus, "editors' transgressions"? WTF? Like posting dupes? I mean, come on, that's never happened. And if it did, I'm sure at least one person would post about it.

And under demands, The editors show journalistic integrity in the production of slashdot.

hehehe

Where's Dell?

[Hollins]

I'm surprised an anti-Dell site is not on the list.

The experiences I have had lately from Dell in getting hardware repairs made under service contract are some of the worst experiences I have ever had dealing with any company. And I've talked to a number of folks who have had similar experiences.

Ten years ago, Dell was one of my favorite companies.

Re:Where's Dell?

[hawk]

I'm surprised an anti-Dell site is not on the list.

What's sthe point?

The purpose of those sites is to get the word out. *Everyone* knows someone who owns a Dell . . .

"Dude, you've been Delled"

For crying out loud, on this laptop, the case squaks when I typeo on the right-hand side of the keyboard, while the drive bay cocvers fell off of the big one in gthe first week . . . (no, i didn't have a choice of brands)

hawk

Re:How so?

[stinkwinkerton]

Their TS has gone to the crapper in the last three years. Especially on systems that you don't pay for their "Gold" support on. However, if you have "thousands" of Dell PC's, then most likely you have on-site techs that are Dell certified and can get their replacement stuff without contacting dell. Most don't have that luxury. As many of my cohorts have said lately, "Dell Smells."

Capitulation Scheme:

[Beardo the Bearded]

That's where they come up with bizarre revenge plots that wouldn't make it into a B-movie because it's too far-fetched. You know, like setting up porno screensavers at Suck-Mart, changing the passwords, then announcing a special on computers over the PA.

Generally, it's what they'd love to do but don't have the guts (nor inclination to spend years in jail / debt) to actually follow through.

Re:Capitulation Scheme:

[jd]

A capitulation scheme is either a plan to surrender the moment the lawyers are called in, or a program written in Scheme to temporarily shut the site down if it gets Slashdotted.

Capitulation on Wikipedia

[asoap]

Capitulation according to wikipedia [wikipedia.org]

I guess this is the point where jokes about France start, or *cough* viet nam *cough*.

Re:Capitulation on Wikipedia

[RealAlaskan]

I guess this is the point where jokes about France start, or *cough* viet nam *cough*.

France or Viet Nam? Didn't France lead the way there, by capitulating in Viet Nam roughly 20 years before we did?

France and Viet Nam would make more sense.

Re:Capitulation on Wikipedia

[Sique]

The U.S. didn't actually surrender in Vietnam, they called it a Truce and withdrew their troups. Your mileage may vary, but this is the official version. :)

Capitulation scheme

[windowpain]

When I was writing this I was going to comment that the writer probably meant "capitalization scheme," meaning the way some people capitalize Random Words in their Posts.

But then I figured maybe he was referring to what the site makers want in return for tearing down their sites (i.e., how they expect the enemy corporation to capitulate).

nothing like a bit of rage

[loraksus]

Although, to be fair, a bunch of these companies have recurring issues.
Paypal, with its "we can suspend your account and you can't do fuckal about it, hooray, we get to keep your money". Allstate, with it's "musical chair claims adjusters".
Don't even get me started about UAL.
It isn't like people don't know about the shady shit these companies do, it happens pretty often, and if the company is a bunch of shits, contacting the BBB won't get you anywhere. State attorney generals haven't stepped in either in the cases of most of these companies.
I interviewed at UPS and we did a tour, a monitor fell off a conveyor belt. Everyone heard the tube pop, and the crash of glass, but one of the employees just tossed it back as if nothing had happened. As we were walking away, we heard another one drop and the sound of smashing glass.
Un-fucking-believable.

Re:nothing like a bit of rage

[Gregg Alan]

I interviewed at UPS and we did a tour, a monitor fell off a conveyor belt. Everyone heard the tube pop, and the crash of glass, but one of the employees just tossed it back as if nothing had happened.

That sucks, but the person that shipped these monitors should have put them in boxes.

Re:nothing like a bit of rage

[soupdevil]

UPS handles shipping for our (small) company. If they damage a package they call us immediately, so that we can reship. Damage claims are processed promptly.

Re:nothing like a bit of rage

[hawk]

Years ago, I had an ehman monitor--back when a 19" display was gargantuan.

I apparently had an early one, too. The developer discount was great ($600 instead of $900, including the controller car [yes, it was 1-bit]), but . . .

Eventaully, it had a problem. Flyback transformer, iirc.

So I called.

"No problem. Just send it back in the original shipper carton."
"There was not carton."
"pardon?"
"It came on a shipping pallete with a huge cardboard wrapped around and a cardboard boxtop."
"Oh. One of *those*. j

Re:nothing like a bit of rage

[Trespass]

UPS should be pronounced 'oops'.

UPS Anecdote

[ackthpt]

I interviewed at UPS and we did a tour, a monitor fell off a conveyor belt. Everyone heard the tube pop, and the crash of glass, but one of the employees just tossed it back as if nothing had happened. As we were walking away, we heard another one drop and the sound of smashing glass. Un-fucking-believable.

I once worked in the shipping/logistics business and while that may have shocked and disappointed you, it's standard practice. Even a broken CRT must first be delivered before a claim can be filed on i

Re:UPS Anecdote

[bluGill]

So why isn't there a little sticker they can put next to the address: "Note, this package was accidentally dropped in shipping, please inspect it carefully. Our apologies for any damages." And the driver can live a little instruction sheet on how to file a claim (in this computer age it could be printed in the truck, and have all the tracking numbers on it already). You know they will have to do it, anyway, so you can at least make it as painless as you can.

Perfect no drop shipping is ideal, but accidents happen.

Fighting the good fight...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't list Radio Shack Sucks [radioshacksucks.com]. RSS was instrumental in organizing a class action against RadioShack, and in response RadioShack tried to lawyer them to death.

Re:Fighting the good fight...

[RedWizzard]

RSS was instrumental in organizing a class action against RadioShack, and in response RadioShack tried to lawyer them to death.

Looks like they pretty much suceeded. RSS have agreed to be "restrained from soliciting clients on behalf of, or providing hyperlinks to, any law firm to persue legal claims against RadioShack", to not "defame RadioShack or its employees (this includes a prohibition against posting pictures of any RadioShack employees)", to "require all visitors to such website relating to Radi

propa gramer?

[bairy]

Note that we substantially cleaned up some of the posts, editing out odd capitulation schemes, iffy grammar and plain incoherence

Perhaps one day Slashdot will steal some of those editors and do that with submissions - well, it's a dream anyway

we actually have one for the company I work for...

[rogabean]

And it's actually company policy that anyone accessing it from work is to be terminated.

But it's over 5 years going strong on the (mycompany)sucks.com site...

Re:we actually have one for the company I work for

[Vellmont]

Wow. With a policy like that I can see why there's a sucks.com site for it. Not a bad thing to check out if there's a sucks site for a prospective employer before starting employment.

Re:we actually have one for the company I work for

[jd]

Terminated, not just dismissed... Ulp! Glad I don't work for THAT company! (* Pictures management doing Terminator 2 impressions *)

Crappy Tire

[Anonymous Coward]

In Canada, Canadian Tire actually bought out a corporate hate site that was really gathering steam - www.crappytire.com.

It was a real dilemma for them; buy it out and implicitly acknowledge that the site was pissing them off, or try to ignore the dreadful press that this guy was generating. They went with the former, though it must have hurt to have to register a nasty play on your corporation's name.

BTW, Canadian Tire is just awful - ask any Canadian.

Verizon's response is... odd.

[loggia]

"What's really pathetic is not Verizon but this sort of lame Web site..."

This is as almost as good as T-Mobile saying last week that "The silver lining of this Paris Hilton thing is it is an opportunity for customers to take further steps to protect their data."

www.ticketbastard.com

[Control-G]

Someone had that name a few years ago, looks like it's down now. They're still bastards.

Caputization

[Doc Ruby]

An "odd capitulation scheme" might go:

1: Set up corporate hate website
2: Demand payoff to comply with corporate "Cease and Desist" order
3: PROFIT!
4: Go unexpectedly dark during editing of Forbes article about you

This is not to be confused with an "odd capitalization scheme", except by your shady accountant.

A good way to deal with such sites

[techno-vampire]

I used to work for an ISP. (Won't name it for reasons that will be obvious.) We had a hate-site set up by a former employee with a grudge. When we learned about it, it got lots of hits because we all had to take a look at it. I never heard anybody at work agree with the site, but nobody thought we should do anything about it. Then, the owner changed the site to look almost exactly like our own home page. In short order, he'd gotten a letter from our lawyers, telling him to change his site's appearance to one that didn't mimic ours so exactly. He did, and posted a big complaint about it. From then on, he kept his site looking at least a little differnt from ours and we ignored him. It's been years since I've visited it, but I'll bet it's still there, and my former employers still don't care.

Not that...

[xstonedogx]

...we were expected to be suprised, but it's not suprising.

Just an example from the Paypal part of the report:

Company Says: "We believe that people have a right to express their opinion. PayPal welcomes constructive criticism from members to help us continue to improve our service through our community discussion boards, chat rooms and Voices program. The problem with complaint sites is that the issues reported are sometimes out-of-date and have long since been resolved. Other times, customers may write complaints on the sites without trying to get their issues resolved through our customer service channels first. As a result, we can't confirm the accuracy of the information on these third-party sites. And we've found that they are not interested in providing a balanced view." (emphasis added)

Why can't they confirm the accuracy of the information?

Sure, they might not know if Customer Service Person A really hung up on a customer, but certainly they can look into some of these issues. Unless they're the one company in the world that doesn't monitor customer service calls. They have access to this information.

Why do they expect the site to be fair and balanced? When I complain to a company, I'm not being fair and balanced. I'm advocating for myself against the company. Yes, I want to reach an equitable solution, but these sites have a lot of people who weren't able to reach that equitable solution.

That's a problem for any company and you'd think they'd actually listen. (Yeah, I know.)

I realize there's a lot of bull on those websites. But at the same time, there are also patterns of problems. No company is perfect, and here is a chance for those problems to get past the customer service filter (who are the problem a certain percentage of the time).

What I don't get is why in the world any company wouldn't say something like "Yes, we're aware of those websites and in fact take their concerns into consideration", even if they don't really mean it. They just write those people off as "Never gonna be customers so skrew it: those people are stupid", but apparently don't realize that those people used to be customers, and other current customers will eventually leave them as well.

Funny Forbes

[Afrosheen]

They bag on the sites for using poor grammar and yet, first paragraph in, we get this little gem:

"But while your average disgruntled consumer simply vents their bile by bellowing at a bewildered service rep, a few go farther. Much farther."

Farther? Much farther? In my native language, we'd use further. Oh, and I speak English. You do have to appreciate the writer's use of syncopation though, bile bellowing and bewildered are nearly poetic in that sequence.

Who sucks?

[Kadmos]

The other side of the story (which isn't to say companies don't suck):
http://www.customerssuck.com/ [customerssuck.com]

kmfms

[BinLadenMyHero]

My favourite hate site: KMFMS.com [kmfms.com].
Author of a very good article "What's so bad about Microsoft", that is referenced in the Microsuck site.

Hate can lead to better service

[TheBracket]

A while ago, my employer had some real problems with CenturyTel, the only phone company in town. They messed up some (presumably virtual) paperwork and our DSL line went dead. Our first call resulted in a promise that as a business customer, we were a high priority - and it would be fixed soon. Our second call was greeted with "sorry, our engineers have gone home for the day, try tomorrow". Our third call resulted in "sorry, our engineers have all gone away to enjoy the holiday weekend, try again in 4 days!". Not acceptable!

So, frustrated (and tired after switching everything over to our other DSL line), I posted a blog entry with the title "I hate CenturyTel" and a big explanation as to what went wrong. Monday morning, our DSL line was fixed. The engineers on the other end were VERY apologetic, but I just assumed that they were trying to make amends - when the next day we got a call in the office from an executive at CenturyTel who had Googled for "I hate CenturyTel", found my blog, and yelled at some people to get things fixed. He then called us to personally apologize, gave us a bunch of freebies to make amends, and chatted with my boss for over half an hour about how to avoid this problem ever recurring. I came in from a client, my boss said "we just got a call about your blog" - and I assumed I'd libelled someone, was in trouble, etc. He then said "make sure you politely insult everyone who screws us over, it did wonders this time!"

My fave didn't make it

[xrayspx]

fuh2 [fuh2.com].

It's not mysteriously dark, so that couldn't have been the other site.

The pleasures of class war, Forbes-style

[Zhe Mappel]

Thanks for sneering at us little people again, Forbesy-Worbesy! Your contempt is always so gratifying. Next time one of our communities is wrecked by a Wal-Mart or we see our jobs outsourced to a sweatshop, we'll remember you and your flat-taxing ilk kindly!

Now, if we can do anything more for-- What? You say we can? And all it will cost is our social security system?

Re:How do they decide?

[ArsenneLupin]

Whether to go with 'sucks' or 'blows.'

Depends on the product, I guess. Saying that a vacuum sucks would be a compliment. So it blows. For a similar reason, a badly broken hairdryer sucks...

If Microsoft ever made a product that wouldn't suck, it would be a vacuum cleaner!

Re:How do they decide?

[lucabrasi999]

Are there corporate entities so bad they simultaneously suck and blow?

Reminds me of the old joke:

"--INSERT CORPORATE NAME HERE-- is like a fan. On one hand, they suck. On the other, they blow."

Well, it's sort of a joke....

Re:Walmart-blows Stats

[SimplePaul]

Yeah, to 42,003 after a few Slashdot readers actually read TFA ;)

Re:Walmart-blows Stats

[jd]

Depends. Visitors are reptilian aliens, and there might not be more than 42,000 unique Visitors left on the planet.

Re:Its the same for anti-gov websites too

[el_chicano]

They tried to discipline me, sabotage my computer access, intimdate me with lawyers, and harass me with school police.

Sounds very familar to me: Houston Community College managed to get a bogus trespass injunction slapped on me and used their campus police force to harass me after I filed a Whistleblower lawsuit against them.

The state District Court judge handling my Whistleblower case agreed with me that my anti-HCC website was protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution so that website is