If you think you've been ripped off or unfairly treated in some way, you can post a note to Complain.com, and -- for $19.95 -- the service will find the "customer care executive" and the CEO of the company that failed to serve you well and pen a finger-wagging letter on your behalf. Complain.com sends you the letters, so you can include any supporting evidence for your claim. If the letters don't work, Complain.com will send faxes. And if that doesn't work? You're out 20 bucks.

It sounds a little pricey for hunting down the CEO and tapping out your troubles on the keyboard. But Complain.com expects to build a reputation with retailers, credit bureaus and the like, so that its letters will carry extra clout. And, when it gets an executive's ear, Complain.com will suggest that the company that caused your pain reimburse you for using the service. Eventually, the site hopes to offer legal assistance -- or at least a bevy of loud complainers who will call and harass those CEOs on your behalf. Still, it doesn't sound too different from that old standard, the Better Business Bureau and its dispute resolution service.

But wait -- there's more! Consumer advocate David Horowitz (who is not the same person as neoconservative Salon columnist David Horowitz) is also getting into the picture with his FightBack Web site, promising to "facilitate the resolution of consumer problems!" And Complain To Us offers a similar service, with a very hands-on approach: writing, faxing, e-mailing, calling -- whatever it takes to get your problem solved -- at a cost of $50 an hour.

With everyone and their brother trying to emulate Ebay and Amazon.com by setting up auction and e-commerce sites all over the Web, maybe it's only natural that another group would rush behind them to set up consumer complaint shacks. At least the next time there's an outage at Ebay -- or, God forbid, the paging service fails to alert you and you miss out on that Lennon doll -- you'll know where to write.
salon.com | June 1, 1999

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