dpd1 - 9:32 pm on Jul 15, 2008 (gmt 0)

I agree that the anonymous nature of the internet is probably the root of the problem when it comes to people being a little on the annoying side, or sometimes a lot annoying. There's performance issues involved in the items I manufacture and sell... My favorite one that I've gotten from people in the past is where they email and say they'd be happy to test one of my products for "evaluation" or to "do a review". I guess maybe I'd do that if it was Wireless magazine or something, but these are people that just have some little website, or not even that. I kind of feel like asking them what the heck they think we're doing here everyday... As if we're just sitting here waiting for some guy with a website to give us our big break.

I too have lost my cool a few times. I actually did it on a very popular forum that revolves around the subject of our products once. Somebody was whining for the umpteenth time about prices, and I blew my stack. I went into a 7 paragraph rant listing every single part that's included in the item, plus every single part of manual labor and how long each one takes to do. And no, we don't have a 100,000 dollar robotic machine that makes everything for us while we sit and play video games all day. I also explained in detail what it takes to run a business in America now, and that you're basically not going to survive on the same prices some guy selling overstock and liquidation stuff on eBay charges. The next morning I really wished I hadn't done it. But low and behold, I went on the forum and received numerous positive comments, and the sales actually doubled for a couple weeks.

So apparently it does pay to make sure people understand you're a real person... Not just some faceless corporation.