 Online forums for angry bank customers
Bank customers unhappy with poor service and interest rate hikes are venting their anger on line. Consumers are using the internet to express themselves, instead of their bank branch and posting angry comments.
Fresh data from Nielsen Online report shows that social networking sites including Twitter are jammed with people not afraid to say what they think in public.
Mark Higginson is Nielsen's Online director of analytics, and he says the finding indicate that people who are not getting satisfaction from traditional methods wanted to use online forums to get support and sympathy, as well their own revenge on the big banks.
The CBA rate rises have caused a big increase in the past week.
”It's not necessarily that people are going online specifically to talk about it, but it's people who are already online. When the topic comes up, it's like a match to tinder wood,” Mr Higginson said.
Major events sparking a big rise in online comments include the story of a New Zealand couple who made off with $10 million that Westpac mistakenly deposited into their account, and the surprise interest rate rise by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Fifty-three per cent of negative comments about Westpac in May 2009 related to the New Zealand couple and included comments such as: “I'd love to see them get away with it”.
Half of all comments about the CBA were negative after its rate hike.
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