So I’ve been reading Consumerist pretty much since they’ve started and even advocated people to read them a long time back. Anyway, slowly and slowly, the quality of the articles have gone downstream and like mainstream media, they’re much more about trying to get more readers, often times posting stories that diverge from their helping consumerist theme. And for quite some time, I’ve been commenting on how the quality of Consumerist has gone down hill and I can’t believe some of the crap they’re posting these days.
One such story was: Buy Super-Cheap Costco Gas Without Costco Membership. This was a story advocating readers to defraud Costco, where there was a trick to allow any American Express card user to purchase Costco gas without having a membership. This trick has been around for quite some time, but it does NOT belong on Consumerist, nor should they be advocating readers to defraud a company.
I posted the following comment:
Consumerist has long forgotten the difference between a “deal” and “illegitimate loophole”. I’m waiting for the day they start posting price mistakes. Whatever gets readers, right?
I’m not saying I’m all high and mighty and won’t try my hand at ordering what is obviously a price mistake once in awhile. I’m saying crap like that does NOT belong in Consumerist.
It’s like those security hole researchers. When they find a security hole in a software, they don’t go and tell everyone how to do it and then ask if it’s ethical. They try to contact the software company first and hope the issue a fix fast.
I guess we can never really expect Consumerist to be of that quality. And yet I had high hopes when they just started. Sigh…
I guess it finally struck a nerve because when I went to post a comment yesterday, I saw this:
Comments are not enabled for this account but you can still clip articles and follow friends. If you have any questions about your status, please send us an email from your profile page.
Then I went to my profile and saw this:
I guess Consumerist has no problem criticizing other companies, but when people start criticizing them, they ban users from commenting. I’m actually surprise that comment hasn’t been deleted yet.
I’m not really that avid of a commenter, but I do have 125+ comments) under my belt and they’re not junk comments like half of what gets posted on Consumerist these days.
I’ve sent an email to them asking why comments were not enabled for my account anymore and am awaiting their reply.
Interestingly, they posted a story I had submitted to them earlier this week: Wal-Mart Fails To Change Your Oil And Lies About It
Tipster Toland pointed us toward the Stonecipher Report which contains an entry about a weary traveler who, against his better judgment, decided to get his oil changed at Wal-Mart […]
Anyway, I’m much more of a fan of this new anti-consumerist site: Not Always Right | Funny & Stupid Customer Quotes
Update: Just got a reply back from them:
You’re a go for comments!
Guess I got a nice moderator this time, though I didn’t really get a reason why I was banned in the 1st place.
sounds like you did the right thing 🙂