I have a good example with The Source.

Last summer I subscribed to a contest with The Source. I wasn’t expecting a problem with them since it’s a well known brick & mortar store. Since, I receive their wonderful newsletter about every two days, which is horrible I think. For example, I received one on october 15, 17, 19, 20, 22 and got a break, but I just received another one today the 27! It’s a first waste of time in my opinion, who really want to read ads every 2 days about the same company advertising items at retail price?

So I guess everyone say “Stop complaining and unsubscribe!”, but that’s another problem. Every time I try to click on Unsubscribe at the bottom of the Newsletter, I get the message “Error unsubscribing to subscription.” It’s been like this for weeks and months. I wrote an email to let them know that I want to unsubscribe and their system isn’t working. Their reply was that they can’t resolve this problem online and I have to call them. For me, it sounds ridiculous that you can’t resolve an online problem online when it has nothing to do with privacy. Anyway, I was curious and I called them to see… and the CSR wasn’t able to help me, she transferred me to an english voice mail, when I called in french. I just gave up. What a waste of time! I know, i just have to block their email address, but it just makes more spam in my folder when I look if there is anything good and I didn’t think it would be so complicated… I guess they downgraded their customer service to match Bell’s standards!

@Martin, thanks for your helpful insights, I think many can benefits of them. The solutions you are proposing seem interesting ways for users/consumers to escape the problems I highlighted rather than educating companies to act right. I agree that in the long-run companies will have to adapt to consumers unless these companies are in low competition area. Here are my answers to the four points you highlighted:
1) You propose an interesting nice way to save time on API stores, thanks for sharing
2) Thanks for introducing http://www.abebooks.com which is a really nice alternative to Amazon
3) For call-back facilities, like you mention sometimes we can’t escape from these companies still living in the past century
4) For Best Buy and Future Shop, I think there is still a question of trust there and sometimes tariffs and shipping fees are not that advantageous. However, I understand that there is nothing more rational than buying Monster cables at these places when you can easily find them elsewhere for less money for sure.

You have a very valid point and the examples are something most of us can relate to. To get respect you typically just have to give the money to those who make your online friction free. Here is an answer to your four examples:

1) Before downloading any application always visit the “Systems requirement” page since the company tracks traffic of all their web site visitors. If there is a spike in the number of visits to this section they will realize that consumers don’t download unless it is compatible i.e. your minimum requirements become theirs!

2) If a company does not ship to Canada you find a company that will and leave feedback to the first one that your business went elsewhere. For books you can visit http://www.abebooks.com – faster and cheaper than Amazon!

3) Call back facility – you will quickly learn which industries who are still running their customer services like in the 19th century and telecom is one of them. When you read that they open a 1,200 staff call centre in Joliette there is a big chance that you will need to call them to get service. Unfortunately Bell and Rogers force you to do the same. Leave feedback in their Customer Services section. It’s the Obama approach we have to apply: each $5 counts and Yes We Can (change your poor service)!

4) Best Buy and Futureshop…forget buying ANY electronics or computer accessory in a retail store unless it’s a 42 inch TV. You can buy any DVD from the US using eBay and pay 40% of the cost! Make sure you let Best Buy know that some eBay seller in Miami was willing to ship you the DVD for half the price within a week and on top of that you contributed to a better environment since Post Canada has to do the daily mail run anyway!

Conclusion: just like the banking industry in the 80’s – remember those days where it was impossible to cash in a cheque or withdraw cash in any other bank than yours – all online business is going through a major revolution where the customers needs dictates where their money is spent. It’s reversed “push” i.e. you have to attract the customer to come to your site and make a purchase in the first minute. Otherwise you missed the opportunity, because there are 100 other options within a mouse click!

Good Luck

Martin