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Hellopeter.com: Scam or jam?

Johannesburg - South African consumer champion Peter Cheales - founder of consumer complaints website hellopeter.com - says that companies pay a fraction of what they normally would for the chance to clear up customer complaints on his website.

The clarification comes after a story on Johnnic Communications (Johncom) website Reporter.co.za, claimed that companies need to pay a registration fee of between R13 500 and R60 000 to respond to consumers' complaints.

The author - who goes by the name Creationist - said hellopeter.com posted a complaint against the company he/she works for and that it was "devoid of some crucial facts".

After receiving a link via e-mail to the complaint, and a chance to respond, the company found it had to register first as "a company that responds", and that it would have to subscribe for a minimum period of one year at a cost of R13 500.

"This is the lowest category of subscription, and if you are a regular responder you need to take an upgraded package, which can be as much as R60 000 per year."

Get the facts right

Cheales says that the article is "blatantly incorrect", pointing out that many of the 338 companies that are registered to respond are small businesses who would not be registered at those prices: "The cost of registration ranges from being free to an absolute maximum of R12 000 a year, or R1 000 a month, paid by the likes of MTN, Absa, Vodacom and Standard Bank who field around 3 000 consumer complaints or compliments a year," explains Cheales.

Cheales explains that the rates were derived by looking at what companies would ordinarily pay to service complaints and charging a fraction of that.

"Research we've done shows that it would cost around R350 to service a complaint, if you factor in the cost of having people manage the process and a host of other things. With hellopeter, it costs 0.01% of what it would cost to get that feedback in the real world," says Cheales.

Companies the size of MTN or Standard Bank typically get 3 000 complaints and compliments a year; multiplying that figure by R350, the total cost of servicing that comes to over R1m a year. With large corporates paying a maximum of R1 000 a month, the cost of servicing is, quite literally, 0.01% of the cost incurred via the conventional route.

Holes in argument

Creationist said he (or she) had received an e-mail from hellopeter, but Cheales says this service is only available to companies who have registered to respond.

"What could have happened is that someone Creationist knows e-mailed the comment to him or her, as that function is available on the website," says Cheales.

Cheales claims that hellopeter, is the most visited customer service site in South Africa and also on the globe, and ads that in March alone the site registered 9.5m* impressions.

Cheales says that as part of the package, companies are given space to place news flashes on the website. "If there are 9.5m hits as there were in March, you're going to be seen by helluva lot of people.

"We often get immense dissatisfaction from smaller businesses that don't have the right of reply without subscribing. Creationist would have had to pay a small amount, and someone in our office would have sent a quote based on the number of complaints received. For a small company, the cost would not have been more than R300 for the year - not R13 500 to R60 000.

"Creationist could have been referring to a marketing offer on the site, but that was definitely not the cost of subscription."

Says Cheales: "I fight on behalf of consumers... I won't charge them. I will charge the suppliers, but this cost is minimal compared with going the conventional route."

*Hellopeter is not a member of the Online Publishers' Association and as such these statistics have not been verified by Nielsens NetRatings.

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