Blogging Dixons: an on-line campaign against bad service

News site TheRegister.co.uk picked up the plight of Marie Griffiths, bringing her cyber-griping web page to the attention of many other customers or potential customers of the Dixons Group plc, which also owns the Curry's chain.

A blog is an on-line personal journal that is frequently updated and available to anyone who is interested. While so-called "bloggers" have been around for years, free blogging software and web space has made them increasingly popular. Blogger.com, where Marie launched her crusade against Dixons, hosts around 400,000 bloggers.

Marie purchased a TV from Dixons in December last year, but the set stopped working within a few days. Dixons did not collect the set for repair for three months and since then Marie has been without her television and, according to her blog, been subjected by Dixons to “6 months of misinforming me, ignoring me, being rude to me, wasting my time, wasting my money and reducing me to tears.”

Hence the blog. A sponsored ad even appeared on the Google search engine so that any search for the words “Mastercare” (Dixons' after sales service), or “Dixons” would list her blog at the top of the results, with the line: “Why NOT to buy from the DSG Group. Terrible 'service' from Mastercare."

Marie has asked visitors to her site to let her know if they decide not to buy something at Dixon’s and purchase it somewhere else. As at her posting of 8.56am this morning, Marie claims over £150,000 in lost revenue for the company, based on what visitors to her blog have told her.

As yet Dixons has made no comment.