If You're Thinking Of Paying People To Talk Nice About Your Company Online, It Probably Won't End Well
from the ethics? dept
A company called Cash4Gold, which pays people for unwanted gold items, gained some notoriety this week on the back of its Super Bowl ad, which featured Ed McMahon with a golden toilet and MC Hammer with a gold medallion of himself wearing a gold medallion. But it's also getting some more press online after somebody doing online "marketing" for it apparently emailed a guy that had written an unflattering story about the company and offered to pay him to take it down or rewrite it (via Boing Boing). The search results for the company feature some pretty unfavorable stories about it, but evidently instead of cleaning up its act, Cash4Gold would rather just splash out some Cash4Silence. This comes a few weeks after a Belkin employee got busted trying to pay people to write positive reviews about its products on Amazon. It's hardly surprising that companies do this sort of thing, but the potential downside of getting caught (not to mention the ethical concerns) should give them pause.
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But that probably costs more than just paying people to lie for you.
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Only if you get caught. If this guy at Belkin gets fired it won't be for hiring people to lie, it will be for getting caught.
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go back to canada hippie. this is america, we don't need your socialist propaganda here.
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Write unfavorable blog post about Cash4Gold.
Wait for offer to come.
Sell soul, accept offer, and change blog post.
Cash check.
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C0pyR1ghT Infr1ng0rZ!!!
Oh, and I also own the rights to the story about people being prevented from writing about the story about people being paid to write more flattering stories about the company, because of somebody owning the rights. So you can’t write about that either.
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Re: C0pyR1ghT Infr1ng0rZ!!!
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Re: Re: C0pyR1ghT Infr1ng0rZ!!!
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Ethical Concerns?
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It must be a movement!
One gentleman was very assertive and wrote several emails. I just told them both to improve their service and if that failed to live with their feedback.
I wonder what Amazon does to these poor companies if their feedback is poor? The companies sure seem motivated to eliminate negative comments.
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I could possibly understand (but not approve of) a company paying random bloggers and sites to write positive reviews. But, an attempt to silence critics will *always* blow up in your face.
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Reputation Matters - Or, Schill Schill Schill
KRUSTY: I guess you Wall Street weasels didn't get the word -- Krusty's not for sale!
EXEC1: But you endorse everything! In fact, this endorsement contract comes from your line of legal forms!
KRUSTY: [takes a look] That's a quality form.. but those days are behind me! I don't shill for nobody no more!
EXEC1: Are you sure? We're prepared to offer you a free fully loaded Canyonero!
Shills are among us. It's why reputation counts. I find Amazon reviews to be very useful. But every now in then it just smells like the reviews are inflated. LOTS of positive reviews that say basically nothing. Click on the reviewers and sure enuf, this is their one and only review. Shills usually smell and are transparent.
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How about this...
Employee: Uh, how?
Boss: Do whatever it takes, pay them if you have to!
Employee: But that seems kind of unscrupe...
Boss: Do it or you're fired!
Once caught:
Boss: Look at this mess you got us into! You're fired!
Employee: I quit my job at Circuit City for this?
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Could someone explain Cash4Gold...
Um, shouldn't you be physically be there when they "appraise" your items? How do you know they're even appraising everything they sent you? What if they're claiming your package is worth $2.00, when it has $30 worth of gold in it? And if you dispute this number, how do you get your stuff back? It's not like you can leave the store: you're now counting on them sending it back to you, hoping it doesn't get "lost" on the way.
The bottom line: Cash4Gold might be an honest company, but how in the world do you know they're not ripping you off?
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Re: Could someone explain Cash4Gold...
Basically you send them your gold in a pre-paid shipping box that is only insured for $100. So don't ship anything you think is worth more than $100, because they sometimes lose stuff, and you can't add more insurance to it. When they get it, they appraise it for about 1/3 the actual value, cut you a check, wait a few days to mail the check. You receive the check sometime after the 7th day since the check was cut, and you only have 10 days from the date on the check to dispute it if you feel it was too low. If you are able to get through and dispute it in time, they will cut you a bonus check for more if you raise a big enough stink.
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Using a service like this makes about as much sense as selling something to a pawn shop - though at least at a pawn shop you can always walk away with the item if you don't like the price. Using an online service (not just Cash4Gold), you don't have that option.
Seriously, if you don't do your research when you buy something and then find out later you got screwed in the deal, why should selling something be different?
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http://news.prnewswire.com/ViewContent.aspx?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/09-03-2009/000508 8259&EDATE=
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/cash4gold-provides-cash-for-the,948814.shtml
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