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The Guardian: Banker who quit to champion the moaners -
15th January 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian_jobs_and_money/story/0,,1390452,00.html
Patrick Collinson
Saturday January 15, 2005
The Guardian
Adrian Harris is an unlikely consumer champion. In the 1990s he was an investment banker in the City, working on takeovers, privatisations and asset stripping. Only when he was asked to help pull apart British Rail did his conscience intervene and say "no more", writes Patrick Collinson.
"I quit investment banking because I bloody well hated it. On the BR privatisation we were working out how much value we could extract by changing the pension scheme for thousands of rail workers. I decided it was not the sort of thing I wanted to work in."
He set up Grumbletext.co.uk, a consumer complaints and action site which in recent months has begun to enjoy critical mass, with 50,000 regular users a month. It has played a leading role in fighting premium rate scams, but other campaigns to have emerged from its users include holiday club Cybertravel, window company Safestyle UK and warranty firm Powerplan.
Its current opening pages features Currys, T-Mobile and Comet, plus a lively discussion about the Ringtone Club and Wallpaper Club.
But every day thousands - if not millions - of consumers experience shoddy service or are lumbered with defective goods. What's to gain from going online and posting a complaint?
Harris says the prime reason is the satisfaction of having a go at an unreachable or faceless company in public.
But more importantly, consumer revenge works. Harris says that by warning others you can dent that company's sales. "A good example is Safestyle UK - our visitors have cost them thousands by influencing buying decisions," he says.
A check on Google shows that if you tap in the words "Safestyle UK" the window company's own site appears first - but then Grumbletext comes up three times in the search engine's next nine web listings.
A Safestyle spokesman says he was aware of Grumbletext, adding: "We're sorry if people feel they have to share their experience that way. Anyone with a grievance should really come to us first and we promise it will be dealt with properly."
Grumbletext is a classic internet operation; it's run out of the corner of Harris' flat in west London and the idea is that consumers, through online forums, make the site self-sustaining. Harris admits, though, that it takes up a vast amount of his time and earns him hardly a penny. He supports himself largely by doing IT contract work.
Postings go up on the site completely unmonitored. Is he worried about legal action from companies named and shamed? "The courts tend to go to and fro on this issue. I haven't had any serious action. There's been one or two legal threats, and I've been happy to edit or take down stuff that's obviously libellous."
More recently Harris has added services that he hopes consumers will be able to use to fight back against corporates. He promotes a service which allows consumers to record their phone calls with difficult companies - and which may earn him some cash to keep the site going.
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