News site TheRegister.co.uk picked up the plight of Marie
Griffiths, bringing her cyber-griping web page to the attention of
many other customers or potential customers of the Dixons Group
plc, which also owns the Curry's chain.
A blog is an on-line personal journal that is frequently updated
and available to anyone who is interested. While so-called
"bloggers" have been around for years, free blogging software and
web space has made them increasingly popular. Blogger.com, where
Marie launched her crusade against Dixons, hosts around 400,000
bloggers.
Marie purchased a TV from Dixons in December last year, but the set
stopped working within a few days. Dixons did not collect the set
for repair for three months and since then Marie has been without
her television and, according to her blog, been subjected by Dixons
to “6 months of misinforming me, ignoring me, being rude to me,
wasting my time, wasting my money and reducing me to tears.”
Hence the blog. A sponsored ad even appeared on the Google
search engine so that any search for the words “Mastercare”
(Dixons' after sales service), or “Dixons” would list her blog at
the top of the results, with the line: “Why NOT to buy from the DSG
Group. Terrible 'service' from Mastercare."
Marie has asked visitors to her site to let her know if they
decide not to buy something at Dixon’s and purchase it somewhere
else. As at her posting of 8.56am this morning, Marie claims over
£150,000 in lost revenue for the company, based on what visitors to
her blog have told her.
As yet Dixons has made no comment.
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