Consumer reporters often need to get a quick read on a product or service. Consumer protection agencies are often hard to reach and their information less than current.
The “My Three Cents” Web site can help.
The site seems to be aggressively dedicated to stirring up the consumer revolution, and it specializes in archiving consumer feedback about various products and services. You can search by broad subject descriptions, and then zoom in to specific products and companies.
The site calls the user feedback postings “reviews.” Most, though, are complaints and tales of woe, sometimes filled with excessive emotion and vitriol, at other times masters of carefully-documented disappointment. You’ll even find some compliments and pleasant product experiences posted here.
A word of caution: These “reviews” are not to be quoted. Because the site does not provide e-mail links to the poster, it’s impossible to verify their legitimacy. But still, by scanning the complaints, journalists should be able to determine whether there is a pattern there and then follow it up with official sources and official complaints.
The site is free, although like most Web sites, it would like you to register.
Probably the the most popular feature for regular users is a fill-in-the-blanks consumer complaint form letter.
Users personalize it with their own details. If that’s not specific enough, they can click on another area and generate a complaint to a particular company. It’s even made out to the company’s correct address. And the site will send it for them by e-mail or snail-mail or fax.
If a complaint is really serious, the site will walk the user through the process of sending an official fraud complaint to the proper government agency.
This is a great resource for journalists to share with callers who want you to do their work for them. Just send them to this site and they can do it all, without tying you up in endless explanation.
