Normally one depends on advertiser's copy
or, if one is fortunate, on recommendations of friends for buying
a product or service. Now you have one more alternative in
ApnaGuide where word-of-mouth is spread on the Net. It is
essentially a consumer review site, which invites consumers to
send in their opinions on various categories of products and
services -- travel, electronics, auto, education, entertainment
and home appliances. When last seen there were about 1,000
products written about. An incentive to the consumer comes in the
form of ApnaRupees -- everytime a review is read by a member, the
reviewer stands to earn one rupee. And if the review writer
refers some friend (it could even be foe) he earns 10% of the
other's earnings. You can get an e-mail alert whenever you earn
some ApnaRupees. Epinions
One can see the model on which the above
site is based in the American site Epinions. This site offers
advice on over 100,000 products and services over a wide range of
categories like arts and entertainment, home and garden, autos
and motorcycles, computers and the Internet, education, pets,
electronics, sports, restaurants, and health and fitness. And
since a lot of foreign products are now available in India, the
site can certainly prove useful here. We found the site
remarkably fast with epinions springing out at you in a jiffy.
Yes, you too can earn cash awards by submitting an opinion. Planetcustomer
Planetcustomer lets you get your message
across to a company directly. So if you have a complaint or query
across any of the 36 product and service categories, encompassing
over 2,000 brands, just log in here and send. Then there is the
Product Discussions section where you can interact with other
consumers on products and services which concern you and thus
benefit from others' experiences. Like the above sites, here too
you can earn points by submitting your own reviews of products
and services. In addition, there are listings of rebates and
special offers organised by company, product and brand, with some
offers exclusive to Planetcustomer members. The site has
broadened its spectrum by tying up with another site,
Productorium.com which helps you find a shop or service centre
and also offers other product-related information. Compareindia
One of the effects of liberalisation is
that the consumer is now faced with a wide choice in any category
of products. Though that's certainly good, the sheer number of
similar products can be quite bewildering. So enter Compareindia.com
which lets you compare products by price, features, availability
and promotional offers. But don't look for ratings here, for the
site expects you to be the final judge. Although the promoters
take pride in having taken one year to set up the site, the
initial product listings are very sparse with the computers and
office sections being completely empty. Also, the buying and
maintenance tips sections were inactive. Only well-represented is
the TV section which has 78 brands. But we liked the way the
selection process in this section worked. If the site does not
fall by the wayside, it could certainly develop into a very
useful consumer site.Consumer Reports
The international Consumer Reports
magazine now has an online avatar. Consumer Reports Online has
everything that's in the current magazine plus a searchable
archive of over 40 months of past reports, including product and
service ratings and recommendations. The magazine's claim of
being unbiased is borne out by the fact that it is an ad-free
site. The folk behind it buy stuff from the market anonymously,
test the products and give reports. This gives them justification
for charging a fee ($3.95 monthly or $24 per year) for certain
services like ratings, test results, and recommendations But
there is a big free section where you get information and advice
about products and services and how to shop for them, about
safety issues and late-breaking consumer news, updated weekly.
The excellent site map lets you can access any area through just
one page.Complaintbook
Billed as 'The consumer action portal,'
This Online Complaint Book Service has the stated objective of
creating ''a repository of complaints and serve as a platform for
articulating the complaints of the people." The Web masters
then go beyond this and try to redirect these complaints via the
Net to the organisations concerned and also to those who can help
in solving the 'plaint. Of course, since the info is in the
public domain, everyone can see who is being complained against
and be more cautious in dealing with that individual or
organisation. You can follow up your complaint by entering your
complaint number which is provided to you as soon as you register
the complaint. According to the site statistics, 22% of
complaints have been resolved from May '99 till date.