'The Storm Drain'

While I tend to agree with you to a certain point, Its not like they require you to be a DS owner to see the forum.  Its not too hard to register for a forum. 

I don't think they really sensor other threads and I've seen candid criticism outside of that forum area. Most of the posters on here are honest about what's a good value and what's not.

I think you're being a little knit-picky here... do the other builders even have semi-public forum for the specific purpose of complaints?

edit:

Also, it would be a little naive to allow a completely open forum like that. As professional as we hope most companies are, I would not be surprised if some would stoop so low as to come onto these forums and post false complaints or propaganda. While DS does have a responsibility to its customers to be forthright, it also has a responsibility to itself to be as competitive as possible so they can grow. Providing an uncensored platform for possibly malicious attacks would likely not be in their best interest.

And... as was said, all you have to do is register.

Edited by rayfinkle - 27 Aug 2010 at 6:42pm

Well, my response was as diplomatic (and kinda BS'y) as I could be. What do you expect from a lawyer?

Accountant and lawyer, we could fight crime.

I'd also be interested to hear DS's own reasoning. The tech assistance forum requires registration too... I think there is a justification for it that I didn't hit on.

Edited by rayfinkle - 27 Aug 2010 at 7:02pm

you guys are funny, lol i gave a little thought to this too and i look at it two ways

Edited by !ender_ - 27 Aug 2010 at 7:11pm

I'm at the SEC currently... so if you're in the district, I'm just down the street.   

I was referring to the online yarn store: http://www.knitpicks.com/knitting.cfm



(Also, I meant the district as in D.C.)

Edited by rayfinkle - 27 Aug 2010 at 7:38pm

I would just like to say that I did not intend this message to be construed as any kind of attack upon Digital Storm or their customer or technical assistance. I am offering constructive criticism. I am also informing any lurkers out there to the existence of a complaints forum, something I had no idea about while I lurked here for about two to three weeks.

Both of those companies I listed are competitors to Digital Storm, period. They offer the similar goods and services, they operate under a similar business model, and they are in geographic proximity. Yes, there are others. Some have forums, some do not. I was merely pointing out that some competitors exist that allow unregistered potential customers to see complaints.

I understand that everything that gets posted there gets fixed, I just don't understand the concept of why leaving those posts where everything is resolved would not benefit the company and support their position of complete satisfaction. To me, it is odd that a company that differentiates from its competitors through customer service would not demonstrate that differentiation proudly. As in, 'look at those other forums, very few responses from the company and unhappy customers..  look at our forums, timely responses from the company and happy customers!'

And, as an aside, the BBB rankings are a bit of a joke if you research them. Rankings are fairly arbitrary. Digital Storm has an A+, with 27 complaints in the last 3 years, and all of them resolved. Falcon Northwest has an A, with 2 complaints in the last 3 years, and all of them resolved. IBuyPower and Cyberpower have B+ and B rankings, and they have hundreds of complaints, with many unresolved. If you research the BBB, they have no hard guidelines or statistical basis..  as an auditor this makes me shake my head and throw up my hands. Also, Digital Storm has to pay something like $50 or $60 a month to display their BBB seal, which is a bit ridiculous. I'm sure that there are plenty of parents who order from here for their children, so to them the BBB seal is very comforting. I understand the cost to benefit. What I don't understand is why Digital Storm doesn't advertise their 9.23 lifetime - Outside Link Removed - ranking, or their perfect 10 ranking over the last half year?

Edit: Even more bizarrely, I can't even mention the name of the 3rd party feedback website where Digital Storm is held in very high esteem. But I'm sure most of you know what I mean.


Edited by TaxMan - 28 Aug 2010 at 11:26am

exactly, similar to what i was trying to get across, but the coexisting point here is that the threads are always resolved, no rating site or this forum has an issue that i have ever personally seen not get fixed, thats the important fact, even if every single order that went out had problems, if all of them get fixed, its the same or better as nothing being wrong in the first place imo

can you mix the stormdrain with the customer review session, keeping the original stormdrain topic that is members only to help get issues recognized and resolved faster, and put in a selection system of the average rating of digital storm (positive, negative? positive corresponding to regular reviews, negative corresponding to the stormdrain ones that were filtered in). that would allow non-members to judge for themselves how good Digital Storm is, by comparing the sheer amount of positive reviews compared to negative reviews.

rephrasing it. keep the original stormdrain members-only to help resolve issues. clone stormdrain topics to customer reviews, grouping them under a tag of "concerns/issues". have the customer reviews sorted by "positive" and "concerns/issues", positive being the current reviews, "concerns/issues" being all stormdrain topics that are cloned in. when you delete a stormdrain topic eventually for simplicity in the members-only storm drain, it shouldn't delete the one in customer reviews with it.

Well, I appreciate the answer. I don't agree that it's the best course of action, but in the end this isn't my company to make decisions for, haha.

Here's to hoping none of us ever have to post there!