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Consumerist.com was an online platform that appeared for the first time in 2005. It described itself as the latest title from Gawker media and as a lover of shopping that was reconciled to utilities “but hates paying for shoddy products, inhuman customer support, and a half-assed service.”
Today, an attempt to access Consumerist.com comes back with a simple message, “We are sorry, but the page you are looking for cannot be found. The page has either been removed, renamed or is temporarily unavailable.”
What could have happened to the website that once promised to “guide you through the delinquencies of retail and service organizations?” We took some time to find out and revisit the 10 most important articles it ever published.
The History of Consumerist.com
Nick Denton @ SXSW 2017, created by nrkbeta
At the time when Consumerist.com was established, it made a promise to visitors, “Together we will storm the revolving doors of faceless corporations to call them naughty words for genitals, and they will begin to fear us.”
In a 2008 article by Stephanie Clifford for the New York Times, she reports that the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, the Consumers Union, had announced that it would purchase Consumerist.com. Clifford also reports that Nick Denton, the founder and president of Gawker Media, had decided to sell Consumerist.com because he predicted subdued online advertising. Consumerist.com was supported by advertising revenue.
For the Consumers Union, Consumerist.com had the promise of attracting younger readers, reports Clifford. The Consumers Union was hoping to sell subscriptions to these young readers.
The Most Important Articles Published by Consumerist.com
We took some time to identify some of the best articles ever published by Consumerist.com, but how do we identify these articles? We select those that got the highest number of inbound links. We believe that an article's value can be seen in the attention it attracts from other editors and webmasters.
We think that a warning is needed here. Some of the language used in the articles published on Consumerist.com tends to veer in the direction of being slightly explicit.
1. The Best Thing we have Ever Posted: Reader Tries to Cancel AOL
This article reports that when a Consumerist reader and exasperated AOL customer, Vincent Ferrari, tried to cancel his AOL subscription, he was met with resistance. The resistance, in the form of an AOL customer services representative named John, was disguised as a helping hand.
Rather than oblige Vincent's request to cancel his account, John persisted in his attempts to manipulate Vincent. He tried to get him to keep paying for an unwanted AOL account. This is the story that Consumerist.com calls “the best thing we have ever posted.”
2. Did Nvidia Hire Online Actors to Promote Their Products?
In this piece, Consumerist.com reports that it was coming across allegations of stooges being planted by Nvidia in online gaming forums to promote Nvidia’s products. The stooges were disguised as regular gaming enthusiasts, who would frequent these platforms long enough to gain the trust and respect of fellow community members.
When these stooges had gained sufficient street cred, they would go on to surreptitiously put up message board postings, gushing about the good qualities of Nvidia’s products. The article reports that questions sent to Nvidia to verify these allegations were sent from pillar to post.
3. Time Warner Dissolves AOL Retention Centers
This article reports on a decision by AOL to dissolve its retention centers. Why would anyone want to do that? “To make more money with less subscribers,” reports the piece. The same article refers to the Vincent Ferrari call and quips, “Maybe there's a certain point where there's simply too many people trying to cancel too eagerly, and it's more cost-effective to quickly process them than tourniquet the attrition.”
4. Transcript: Verizon Doesn’t Know how to Count
This article, viewed by over six and a half thousand people, presents a transcript of a conversation between a Verizon customer named George and a Verizon customer care representative named Mike. According to the article, Mike was having difficulty differentiating between dollars and cents.
In the conversation transcript, George was trying to explain to Mike that Verizon charged him a rate of 0.002 dollars per kilobyte instead of 0.002 cents per kilobyte. Mike was nonplussed and had to transfer to Andrea, the floor manager, who wasn't such a great help either, leaving George fuming at the end of the call.
5. Newark Airport Screeners Fail to Find Hidden Weapons in Federal Test
According to this article, screeners at Newark Airport (in the US state of New Jersey) failed a US Transportation and Security Agency test. Agents successfully got 20 out of 22 concealed weapons and explosives past security.
The article reports that such failings were not exclusive to Newark. A 2006 report by the US Government Accountability Office confirmed cases of security agents failing similar covert tests across the country.
6. HOW TO: Get Through Having Your Identity Stolen
This article started with a personal anecdote from a person who had their identity stolen, possibly due to neglect or employee abuse on the part of their health insurance company. The story was followed by an eighteen-step guide on what a person should do if they ever have their identity stolen, which you can see here.
7. Apple Sells “Refreshed” Laptop Filled With Porn to 11 Year Old Girl
Imagine buying a new (sort of) Apple Laptop for your 11-year old daughter to discover that “the desktop was full of pornographic JPGs.” This is precisely what happened in the story described by this piece. Fortunately, the article reports that the customer in question was able to “reformat the drive and reinstalled OS X from his Tiger CD.”
8. Scam Alert: Entertainment Rewards and Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster is an entertainment company that specializes in ticket sales and distribution. The article refers to an alleged scam run by the company under their 'Entertainment Rewards” program. The scam involved an additional $9 fee. Customers were being charged registration costs, even when they never opted to register for any additional services. The article also gave readers advice on how they could get their money refunded.
9. AOL Wants to Sell Internet to the Dead
This article reported a bizarre occurrence when AOL refused to cancel a dead client's subscription, instead suggesting ways to reduce the bill on the dead customer’s account. The piece reports that AOL still hadn't canceled the subscription months later, even though all the dead customer's credit cards had already been canceled.
10. Halliburton’s Worst Company in America is Ready
This piece reports that in a contest based on readers’ votes for the worst company in America, Halliburton (a provider of services and products to the energy sector) emerged as the winner (if you would call it that) out of 16 contestants.
What Then Happened to Consumerist.com?
In 2017, Consumerist was shut down by Consumer Union. The organization issued a statement: “We’re deeply proud of all the work we’ve done on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies, to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders.”
The organization doesn’t offer a reason why the website was shut down; however, a fuming deputy executive editor, Chris Morran, laid the blame on Consumers Union. “I’d like to thank @MLTellado for making @consumerist the scapegoat for her inability to run @ConsumerReports,” he is quoted saying by the New York Post.
