An article at Forbes.com confirms that while the economy is still experiencing a downturn, with The National Retail Federation estimating a 2.5% drop in sales for the first half of the new year, the shopping public is exhibiting signs of being more content with the service it receives from certain retailers.

Among ‘America’s Favorite Stores’ are: Nordstrom and Kohl’s. [Search MeasuredUp for Customer Service Reviews of Nordstrom and Kohl's, or write your own review!]

To read the article, which provides an in-depth look at the statistics and shopping habits of America in relation to the economy, click here.

From Portland Business Journal an article extolling the virtues of keeping in touch with customers in order to keep them coming back, time and again.The author suggests that companies looking to cut costs without also looking for “ways to improve their business model and become more productive, with better sales and customer service practices” are doing their customers a great disservice and in turn are damaging customer loyalty, and ultimately, the bottom line. His solution: a simple phone call.MeasuredUp understands that it can be exceptionally time consuming for a small business to reach out by phone to each and every one of it’s customers – and that’s why we’ve created the MeasuredUp Direct Connect feature. Direct Connect is a free online service that gives your company the tools it needs to get in touch, and stay in touch, with customers. Direct Connect allows you and your company to communicate with your customers so that you can help solve their customer service problems and consumer complaints quickly and easily, without having to devote endless resources of time and money to the process. Create your company profile on MeasuredUp today and get started using Direct Connect – it’s free and easy!

From USA Today:

THE DETAILS OF DISPUTING

Consumers’ maximum liability for unauthorized credit card charges: $50 Number of days consumers have to report unauthorized credit card use: No limit1 Number of days consumers have to file a billing dispute: 602 Number of days the card issuer has to respond: 903 Maximum number of days a dispute drags on: 2701 = Consumers should notify issuer as soon as possible to avoid complications; 2 = Must be in writing; time starts when the bill with the improper charge is sent; 3 = Within two billing cycles or 90 days, whichever comes first Sources: USA TODAY research, MasterCard, Visa, National Consumer Law Center

With the slumping economy consumers are paying closer attention to just what it is they’re paying for - from groceries and personal items to electronics and furniture – shoppers are weighing the value of their purchases before making a decision. But what about after that purchase has been made? Consumers are turning to their credit card and banking companies for assistance in resolving fraudulent charges, overcharges, and viable charges made against unreceived goods and services.

So what can consumers do when they find a charge on their credit card statement for something they didn’t buy, didn’t intend to buy, or did buy and didn’t receive? More on this from USA Today:

While it’s not always possible to avoid credit card disputes, here are some tips for dealing with them:

•Get promises in writing. Save receipts. For big-ticket items, also ask for written confirmation of when the item will be delivered and what services are provided as part of the purchase.

•Know the rules. The Fair Credit Billing Act gives consumers the right to dispute a credit card purchase or withhold payment for a card purchase — but only under certain conditions.

Disputes must generally be filed in writing within 60 days after the bill is sent. In certain disputes, the goods or services must cost more than $50, and the transaction must have occurred in the purchaser’s home state or within 100 miles of his or her mailing address. Although state laws vary, items bought online or by phone are generally considered purchases made where you are, Feddis says.

While disputing a charge, the card holder will not have to pay the contested amount and won’t incur interest on it. If the dispute is lost, the card company is allowed to charge interest back to the date you filed the dispute, after a standard grace period.

•File the dispute carefully. Banks classify card holders’ disputes into nearly two dozen categories, such as “merchandise not received” or “canceled recurring transaction.” But generally, if filed as an “unauthorized transaction” — as long as it is unauthorized — you’ll have more protection.

By law, liability for unauthorized credit card use is limited to $50, but most banks don’t hold the card holder responsible for even that amount. Unlike billing-error disputes, which generally must be filed in writing, unauthorized transactions can be reported over the phone. And, there’s no requirement to do so within 60 days

Read the full article, including individual cases of consumers who fought back against unfair, fraudulent, or exhorbitant charges on their credit cards, and find out how their situations have played out, here.

Each state’s Attorney General has been releasing their ‘Top 10 Worst’ lists – noting the industries most notorious for fraud, consumer rip-offs and complaints.

In Florida: telemarketing calls top the list of reasons consumers are filing complaints.

In Nebraska: the credit and financial services industry tops the chart with most of the complaints centered on inaccurate billing.

In New Jersey: it’s used car scams inspiring the majority of complaints.

In Oregon: the telecommunications industry holds the top spot with complaints about everything from cable and internet services to cellular, long distance, and local telephone services.

The lists from 2008 from each state share a common theme: angry consumers turning to the Attorney General for assistance in resolving complaints that have otherwise gone ignored by the companies they’re complaining about.

From the NAAG website (National Association of Attorneys General) it’s clear that not much has changed since last year; bad-business is a repeat performance for certain sectors. Their top-ten worst list of consumer complaints, nationwide, from 2007:

Debt Collection
Auto Sales
Home Repair/Construction
Telecommunications/Slamming/Cramming
Automotive (General)
Telemarketing/Do-Not-Call
Financial/Investments
Retail Sales
Internet Goods and Services
Contests/Sweepstakes/Prize Promotion

Via Search Engine Journal comes the story of a large company, Belkin, getting caught with it’s hand in the proverbial cookie jar for paying for positive consumer reviews on sites such as NewEgg, Amazon.com, and others.

Apparently the sincere (and mostly negative) reviews for one of their internet routers wasn’t what the Belkin company had been hoping for – so they went looking for reviewers to flood the market with positive reviews, for $.65 a pop.

The backlash against Belkin’s misuse and abuse of the internet as a shopping hub has already begun – Search Engine Journal notes that Google searches for the company reflect a deservedly negative tone which we can only assume will continue to plummet.

It will be interesting to see what actions the major online retailers will take against Belkin, if any.

33 states reached a settlement with Texas-based computer manufacturing company, Dell after consumer complaints rose to a level that brought the attention of numerous State Attorneys General.

The complaints against Dell range from warranties and service guarantees not being honored to unpaid rebates as well as falsified financing offers.

The settlement carries with it a 3.3 million dollar price tag and the requirement that Dell be more responsive to customer service issues, repair requests, and issue rebates in a timely manner.

Dell is required to pay claims made until April 13th, 2009 by eligible consumers. Consumers who are interested in finding out if they qualify for inclusion in the settlement payout should contact their State Attorney General’s office. To find out more about getting in touch with your local Attorney General, visit MeasuredUp’s Consumer Resources page.

Now, in order to make the grade with the BBB companies must live up to a new ratings system that ranks their standing in the Bureau with letter grades.

 This move, close on the heels of the growing trend toward online consumer reviews and customer complaints, appears to be the BBB’s effort at bringing their system up to date with the type of feedback consumers are interested in. The old system (based on a simple ’satisfactory’ or ‘unsatisfactory’ rating) is slated to be replaced with letter ‘grades’ ranging from A+ to F. The formula used to determine a company’s overall grade is comprised of 16 weighted factors, including a business’s overall complaint history.

The new Better Business Bureau ratings system was tested in Los Angeles in 2008 and has already been implemented in some parts of the U.S.

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2008/may/may27a_08.html
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Court Rules that Dell Engaged in Fraud, False Advertising, and Deceptive Business Practices
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Companies to Pay Restitution and Forfeit Unlawfully Earned Profits

According to the decision, Dell deprived consumers of the technical support to which they were entitled under their warranty or service contract by:

• Repeatedly failing to provide timely onsite repair to consumers who purchased service contracts promising “onsite” and expedited service;

• Pressuring consumers, including those who purchased service contracts promising “onsite” repair, to remove the external cover of their computer and remove, reinstall, and manipulate hardware components;

• Discouraging consumers from seeking technical support; those who called Dell’s toll free number were subjected to long wait times, repeated transfers, and frequent disconnections; and

• Failing to provide rebates that were promised to consumers.

(FULL TEXT AT LINK ABOVE)

Read te entire article at http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3if57cb0c541e56ebf990efc9c9949c2af

April 24, 2008

-By Eric Newman, Brandweek

NEW YORK Forget focus groups. Consumers are giving it straight to brands, and each other, via online social media in big numbers, according to a recent study by the Society for New Communications Research, Palo Alto, Calif.

“Exploring the Link Between Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the Age of Social Media” surveyed more than 300 active Internet users during February and March.

The study found that 74 percent of respondents choose companies or brands based on customer service experiences shared by other Web users on the Internet. Eighty-one percent of those polled said they believe blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums give consumers “a greater voice” in customer service. However, only 33 percent of respondents felt that companies take customers’ opinions seriously.

“This study indicates that there is a growing group of highly desirable consumers using social media to research companies,” said Ganim Nora Barnes, a senior fellow at SNCR, in a statement. This demo includes adults 25-55 with a college education, making over $100,000 a year. “These most savvy and sought-after consumers will not support companies with poor customer care reputations, and they will talk about all of this openly with others via multiple online vehicles. This research should serve as a wake-up call to companies: listen, respond, and improve.”

The study also found what marketers might find somewhat counterintuitive. While search engines were deemed the most valuable online tools for researching customer experience with a given brand, 39 percent of respondents rated blogging services like Twitter and Pownce as being of “no value” to such research. Similarly, 27 percent found YouTube useless, and 22 percent said the same of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Of those industries judged to be doing the best job in using social media to respond to customer service issues, technology, retail and travel companies took top honors. Dell and Amazon were noted most often as those companies doing the best job handling customer care problems via social media.

Utilities, healthcare and insurance firms fared the worst.

Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak

This will be the first recession in which the Internet will play a central role for the American consumer–and for marketers.

Of course, the Internet was around during the shallow recession of 2001, and almost 50% of Americans were using it. But it was not yet embedded in our way of life, largely because broadband penetration was, at the time, only about 20%. Today, more than 70% of the population is online, with more than 80% of these Internet users having high-speed access.

The Internet has empowered consumers as never before, providing previously unknown and unimagined opportunities to make informed decisions with detailed information, product ratings, expert and user-generated reviews and price comparisons on anything from computers to coffee beans to cat food.

In good times, when consumers feel cash-rich and time-poor, they can afford to be less diligent about their spending. But as economic pressures mount, sentiment changes. People feel cash-poor and are more willing to invest time and effort in getting the best deal.

What sets the current recession apart is that, for the first time, consumers have a tool that empowers them to subject everyday buying decisions to the kind of scrutiny formerly reserved for big-ticket items and large business-to-business transactions.

Marketers should anticipate this shift. They will not be able to rely on ads to pull the wool over consumers’ eyes–or on imagery to wow them.

Maybe even more important, it won’t be as easy for companies to control the expense line to make up for the loss of top-line revenues. In past downturns, cutting corners on quality has been a virtually foolproof way to cut costs and boost margins, at least in the short-run.

Not this time. Not when consumers can set the bar higher and easily find what they want at the lowest possible price. Not when any degradation of product quality or crummy service experience is subject to being instantly “outed” by the bloggers and reviewers on the myriad user-generated consumer review sites.

“Caveat emptor” now has a companion: “seller beware.” Even the slightest marketing chicanery is liable to be instantly pilloried on a global network, especially when consumers are fearful and on edge.

A confluence of factors has increased the likelihood of more consumers turning to the Internet to manage their way through their personal household recessions.

Let’s start with the price of gas. Shopping online is just less expensive than driving to a store. Depending on how and where you shop, you can find tax savings and shipping deals online.

And the downturn is dovetailing with a plethora of new, category-specific consumer review sites. Joining broad-based veterans like Epinions, BizRate and CNET are narrowly-focused comparison shopping sites specializing in coffee, beauty products or pet supplies.

There’s also been an explosion of online retailers: from Amazon and its brethren, to the online divisions of bricks-and-mortar retailers, to the many niche stores that exist only online. And then there are the Internet’s versions of “mom and pops,” “stores” that do business within the cozy confines of eBay (nasdaq: EBAY – news – people ) or Craigslist. It all adds up to a bonanza of choices for cash-strapped consumers–and a new set of challenges for those who sell to them.

Virtually anyone selling anything should be online, with as much sophistication as they can afford or muster. And they should follow two cardinal rules:

–Maintain quality and don’t over-promise. When anyone who uses your product or service can readily find an audience to whom to complain, the road from credibility to ruin is very short.

–Keep a close eye on pricing. The online dynamic is totally different than having customers in your store, where they might be willing to pay a premium because they’re there. Facing a page of pricing options online, shoppers can go to another “store” in a matter of seconds.

Online shopping–and the use of price-comparison engines and consumer-generated reviews to make buying decisions–has been growing steadily throughout the decade. The recession is going to supercharge that growth as current users find new categories in which to shop online and as millions of others jump in to manage their shrinking budgets.

As shoppers become increasingly comfortable with the process during this downturn, it is likely that the combination of convenience and easy-access to comparative information could cause enduring changes in consumer behavior.

Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak are partners at Reason Inc., a marketing-strategy consulting firm that works with clients in a range of categories, including media and entertainment, financial and professional services, packaged goods and the public sector.