Raise your hand if you've ever had trouble with the post office. The cable company? Your wireless carrier? Local phone? Internet? National chain store?
I'd place odds that you raised your hand to at least one of those, and if you didn't you instantly thought to yourself, "How about such and such, they're always a problem." Of course, the vast majority of us simply don't have the time and energy to put into making a company do the right thing. Some companies are of course wonderful and wonderfully efficient, doing anything and everything they can for their consumers. Other companies – and I'm not suggesting it's through malice – don't. A spotlight needs to be shone on these companies to help consumers who have been wronged… or to point out when the companies have done the exact right thing.
Quite obviously, there are other "watchdog" choices out there already, including the widely read Consumer Reports. I, however, being a TV person, want to see it on television, and not on a small cable channel either. No, I'm thinking big for this, I'm thinking national, and I'm thinking PBS. Think about it, a show that focuses on consumers having troubles could easily have trouble getting advertisers. PBS doesn't need advertisers in the traditional manner. PBS news shows have an investigative air about them which is not uniformly present elsewhere; they seem like the right choice.
A half-hour a week focusing on consumers who have been wronged by companies, companies who have been wronged by consumers, and experts helping us all figure out the exact right way to say, "Actually, I'd really like to talk to your supervisor's supervisor's supervisor." The program wouldn't go out to attack anyone, simply to investigate the truth of an issue and make sure an appropriate solution is implemented. It's the Better Business Bureau, but on television.
I'm thinking Internet petition — who's with me?
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