By Michael Cohn
Plenty of people had complaints about their shopping experiences this past holiday season, and one entrepreneur decided to do something about it, launching a social-networking site called MeasuredUp.com where upset shoppers can dish about the bad service they’ve received.
The New York City-based site, which formally debuted Monday, offers a forum where customers can trade stories about the horrendous shopping experiences they’ve had, whether their kids got dissed by the department store Santa, or if the CD they ordered in mid-December still hasn’t arrived.
While many startups over the past year have launched social networks in hopes of rivaling the success of Facebook and News Corp.’s MySpace, few have been founded on a negative idea: the human propensity to complain.
But shopping has become a ubiquitous activity on the web, and while there are many venues online where web users can post a bad review, relatively few sites are dedicated to the joys of kvetching.
MeasuredUp includes a variety of categories such as advertising; entertainment, repairs, and services; delis, coffee, and snacks; cable TV, Internet, and phone; restaurants, bars, and clubs; shopping and beauty; commute, hotels, and travel; dry cleaning, laundry, and grocery; professional, real estate, and auto; and miscellaneous.
Of course, the site also allows for positive comments, with the help of a five-point rating scale.
“It’s basically an idea born from the concept that consumers can vent their complaints and [talk] about the great customer service they’ve come across,” said MeasuredUp.com CEO Marc Karasu.
In a New YorkState of Mind
Dealing with obnoxious waiters and haughty store clerks is part of life in New York and unfortunately in many other parts of the United States and the rest of the world. Mr. Karasu, a New Yorker himself, knows whereof he speaks, and he founded the site after running into his share of unpleasant experiences.
United States“The idea comes from the situation in New York City, the idea that there was a general decrease in courtesy and more rudeness,” he said. “For bigger companies, you can call an 800 number, but you have to wait for three hours on hold and then you just get brushed off. If it’s a small mom and pop place, you might not get even that.”
New York CityHe was inspired to create the site after one messy interaction with a local dry cleaner.
The site is privately funded right now, but Mr. Karasu said he would consider opportunities for investment. However, he added that a priority is to keep the site private in order to control its “destiny,” which for right now seems to be making itself into a general complaint department. Mr. Karasu calls it a “labor of love.”
However, MeasuredUp faces a lot of competition from sites like Epinions.com, My3cents.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, ShopWiki, as well as a wealth of blogs, review sites, and industry-specific complaint sites, not to mention the Better Business Bureau and the local consumer affairs agency.
But that doesn’t faze Mr. Karasu. “There are a lot of blogs and there are some competitive-type sites, but with any good idea there are fertile opportunities that should be welcomed,” he acknowledged.
Centralizing Complaints
But he wants to bring together the kind of content that might otherwise be found on scattered blogs and make it more centralized.
“If we’re able to do that, we might be able to effect some change in corporate America,” said Mr. Karasu. “As our prestige increases, MeasuredUp will become more of a force to be reckoned with.”
AmericaHe thinks it’s a better alternative than the feedback forums that many corporate sites operate, where the content can be edited and complaints can be pruned.
“Because they can control it editorially, a lot of it can’t be seen by the public,” he said.
’He can see a way that his site might be able to work with some businesses in the future to help them solicit feedback more or less independently.
Mr. Karasu isn’t much worried about libel suits if users of his site get a little carried away.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Obviously we won’t be the precedent setter in the Internet space.
Lots of sites deal with straightforward commentary. We want to be an amplification of customers’ feelings.”