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| Communal Petitions | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 2 2012, 10:47 PM (361 Views) | |
| Nivexonix | Jan 2 2012, 10:47 PM Post #1 |
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Love
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Recently, Verizon said it was going to charge its customers a $2 charge every time they paid their bill online, whether via computer or via phone. There was a big customer backlash (including a petition with 100,000+ signatures) within the day, and Verizon said it would not have that charge any longer. The whole process of Verizon's announcement and then repeal of that occurred within 1 day. This, however, isn't the first time this has happened this year. There were 2 other major examples cited (one of which dealt with Bank of America, I believe), though I can't recall the specifics of them. Do you think communal petitions are really effective tools in this day and age? Can it really have major change? |
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| Trapnest | Jan 3 2012, 07:23 AM Post #2 |
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can you feel it now?
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Verizon's $2 convenience fee inconveniences the FCC - http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/30/verizons-2-convenience-fee-inconveniences-the-fcc/ And then just one hour later Verizon backs down from convenience fee, values your two cents - http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/30/verizon-backs-down-from-convenience-fee-values-your-two-cents/ The verizon thing itself doesn't affect me but the voice of the people do speak. Though I don't think it does as much as it used to with how things are nowadays, more brands are out from themselves, companies don't want to surrender to administration and bankruptcy. |
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| Steve | Jan 4 2012, 09:42 AM Post #3 |
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patriot
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I think on the whole petitions do have an effect, particularly petitions relating to consumer products and services, such as the Verizon one. Whether they can cause significant change or not, or whether they simply serve to highlight stupid decisions remains to be seen. Verizon would have to have been pretty stupid as a company to ignore the petition, and risk loosing the business of the 100,000+ who signed it. They're a handy tool in finding out what the consumer thinks IMO. |
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| Nivexonix | Jan 4 2012, 03:04 PM Post #4 |
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I think its interesting that you point that out. The reason is that I would think surveys could be used like that, as in acting in foresight, rather than taking action and seeing a petition, or acting in hindsight. |
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| lightsilver | Jan 6 2012, 06:37 AM Post #5 |
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this || that
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Yes, absolutely. Take a look at GoDaddy and SOPA. They announced they supported SOPA, and just look at how badly the customers backlashed. They changed their stance quite quickly. It's not a petition, however it is an example of the opinions of the customers changing the actions of a company. Take a look down here at Canada, and OpenMedia. OpenMedia is just about awareness, and a petition. Because of the people, the internet companies aern't unjustly charging us per GB of internet bandwidth. It would have been hell. I think there was a pretty clever graphic going around, which accurately depicted it being cheaper to buy an SSD hard drive, get someone to download the data for you, and mail the hard drive with FedEx. And that's an SSD. And this was probably about a year ago, when SSDs were a lot more expensive than the currently expensive price. Although I'd argue that the vast majority of petitions are without meaning, and don't have much of a driving force, I don't think that's a reason not to sign. They can make a difference, but it needs a lot of support to be effective. |
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