The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) released a report, on the usefulness and limitations of popular free consumer complaint websites. The report concludes that, while these websites do not help consumers resolve their grievances, they can give complainants the satisfaction of communicating their unsatisfactory experiences to many other consumers, to the companies themselves, and to various third parties including consumer protection agencies and the press.

Moreover, these websites provide useful information to shoppers about potential problems they might experience purchasing products, especially services provided by nationwide companies. “The complaint websites provide a unique opportunity for consumers both to make their complaints heard and to learn about frequent problems experienced by other consumers,” said CFA Executive Director Stephen Brobeck, the report’s author. “We commend those who have created and maintain these websites.”

As posted in our forums in early March, HostJury has been working to create tools that will possibly help consumers do more than just air their frustrations about their experiences.

“The changes will allow web hosting providers & users alike to 'flag' or 'dispute' reviews. The dispute / flagging process will allow 'web hosting providers' to open a three-way communication window with users who have left reviews in another thread. For users of HostJury, we will be adding a 'flag' function to reviews. By 'flagging' a review it will open the review for discussion here in the forums and everyone will be able to contribute their thoughts on a particular entry.”

Potential clients researching a new webhost will be able to view the reactions of the web host to various review and or criticism, and also know how issues are handled and hopefully resolved, prior to making a final choice of a new home their website.