Comments on: How To Torment People: 10 Steps To An ORM Crisis

By: Elliot Travers

Elliot Travers — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:49:14 +0000

Great post. I feel like some companies actually follow this model unforunately

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:23:03 +0000

Don’t try to cheat if you can’t take the heat. You’re sure to get busted on sites like Yelp, Rip Off Report, or Reddit (if you’re a politician). Yeah, it’s hard to make a living, especially as an entrepreneur, and the temptation to cut corners or employ sketchy business models is always there. People got away with all kinds of schemes and scams in the 70′s, 80′s or even 90′s – when the flow of information was asymmetrical – but they don’t work in the social media era!

By: YM Ousley

YM Ousley — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:00:02 +0000

Great post. I didn’t know there was a playbook for crappy customer relations, but I had a recent experience that make me think these really are rules some companies live by.

By: Richard Barratt

Richard Barratt — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:43:42 +0000

Some great pointers on ‘Business Prevention Strategies’ here Lisa, if only more ‘heretical’ companies would adopt this approach.

On the chance that this whole post was ‘Tongue-in-Cheek’….

LMAO!

Seriously, you’re President of Nailonhead Land here – why do some companies seem to think that it’s totally fine to embrace every measure possible to piss us off AND still expect to be a profitable business in time for 2020?

BTW, my personal favourites are: No phone number or address on website and telephone answering systems.

By: Jim Rudnick

Jim Rudnick — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:56:42 +0000

I wonder how many of those Scoble subscribes too….

Great post Lisa as always….I especially like the “make their life harder” with regards to Canadian telcos and their call service centres…sigh…!!!

:-)))

Jim

By: Nancy E. Wigal

Nancy E. Wigal — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:10:28 +0000

A great explanation and definition of driving people insane – thanks so much! I love it when I hear businesses say, “I’ll just have my admin person do some tweets and update our FB page, no big deal!”

Then they wonder why their parts get caught in the wringer when the waste hits the propeller blades, and that poor admin person is completely unprepared to deal with it…

By: Nick Gowdy

Nick Gowdy — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:10:18 +0000

If you haven’t seen it already, http://www.gethuman.com can be a good resource for finding somebody with a pulse to answer your call. I think they’ve got an iPhone app, too. And email addresses, if you’re really down to last resort.

Mostly covers banks, cell phone companies, cable companies, airlines — e.g. the soulless corporations that are prone to following this “torment list” to the letter.

By: Inside the Webb

Inside the Webb — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:41:48 +0000

Some pretty neat tips you’ve got here. I look forward to more posts from you

By: netmeg

netmeg — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:53:14 +0000

Yea, the really sad thing is all of the things I mentioned in my comment are *exactly* what I went through yesterday when trying to contact my bank about a problem with my account.

** The people who have my money **

By: Daniel Redman

Daniel Redman — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:15:28 +0000

It’s actually amazing how many domains are left wide open on both sides of the fence (B/C). And it’s not just bad companies that are at risk, but good companies with bad customers. Customers that are web savvy are learning how much damage a negative Yelp or Rip-off report can really be in the scheme of things (let alone a blog). I despise that someone can virtually hold an SMB hostage using those dangerous weapons. What’s the retribution? Years of expense and that pang in the back of your throat that makes you cock-your-fist every time you reread what they’ve written.