The recent failure of America Online for 19 hours is just one very noticeable instance of widespread customer abuse in the computer and on-line industries. Errors in technical information, engineering and infrastructure maintenance abound in these industries.
The reason is a well-known market failure problem called asymmetric information, which is a fancy name for the 19th Century problem of the snake-oil salesman. The customer and seller are not privy to the same information about the product. The salesman knows what the customer does not–that the product does not work as advertised and only appears to make you feel better because it contains a narcotic.
Many computer and on-line companies don’t provide adequate technical support for their customers, built-in safeguards or thoroughly tested equipment. The customer is sold the product by pushing the more obvious attributes of looks and fancy gizmos. If nothing goes wrong, the firm has made a tidy profit. If something does go wrong, the customer bears the burden. Heads I win; tails you lose.
The computer industry is becoming like the auto industry in the ’50s, selling poorly engineered products that break down easily but are put in a superficial package that looks sporty. My computer is set in a beautiful gray streamlined box, but when I have problems, I have to wait on the phone for more than half an hour and hear a pitch to call a 900 number. When I do get connected, I get sent to a hard-to-understand technician in Costa Rica.
Recently I had to wait for a part for two weeks that was promised in two days. When I complained to a computer-oriented cable TV program, they told me they would not say anything bad about a computer company on the air.
Our reliance on computers and on-line services makes us technologically vulnerable to companies who take advantage of our lack of information. The less-educated are being deterred from entering the Information Age; they are scared and rightly so. We are being unnecessarily stressed because a Ralph Nader for computers and on-line services has not yet come forth.
If the U.S. is to keep its lead in the Information Age, it must provide easily available product quality and customer-complaint information so ordinary citizens can be informed cyberconsumers. Strong government regulation is needed in the computer and on-line industries to curb customer abuse.
