In today's New York Times, an editor, Eleanor Randolph, has an "Editorial Notebook" piece on consumer complaints: A Time and Place for Grousing .

American consumers are so angry that companies are assessing the new level of customer rage. A study by Arizona State University found that 70 per cent of customers who had problems were either extremely or very teed-off as a result of their complaints.

Companies don't care. Why should they? They don't have to care. For example, banks know that it is a lot of work to get a new account-- so an account relationship is said to be "sticky." Cell phone companies can just leave you hanging on hold-- if you try and cancel your account when you're mad at them, they'll impose an early termination penalty of up to $200 or more. You're locked in a cell. The companies also count on the fact that you will not want to pay the less-measurable but very significant switching costs of obtaining a new account-- ordering new checks, changing automatic payment numbers, returning cable boxes, telling friends your new phone number, etc. -- it allows them to both charge more than the market would otherwise allow and treat you worse to boot. And with banks and many other firms, you also often can't sue them when they do you wrong, so they don't need to worry. Further, the level of federal government enforcement is at such an all-time low level that consumers cannot rely on agencies to police unfair business practices.

The Internet may eventually provide greater balance and power to consumers. Despite the growing number of complaint sites and forums and boards on the web, I don't think that it has yet achieved its full potential for growing the information power of buyers in the marketplace. The angry consumers with the mycompanysucks.com websites are just the tip of the iceberg, and merely the first wave of consumer organizing for redress on the web. There will certainly be more and more effective responses to the "just don't care" attitude of too many sellers.