What would you do if an anonymous person called your entire business model a scam? What if this person says they are a former employee? What if this was all posted to the internet for all the world to see?
It happened to Cash4Gold.
On November 11, 2008 there was a post to complaintsboard.com from a self proclaimed former employee of Cash4Gold that did not shed much of a positive light on his former employer. Cash4Gold has posted a response to these accusations point by point.
Now, I will let you read the complaint and the response and come to your own conclusions of what kind of company Cash4Gold is. However, I do think that Cash4Golds response deserves some credit. In the past, companies with less than stellar reputations would just remain quite and repeat the mantras, “any publicity is good publicity” or “if we ignore it, it will go away!”.
The internet has changed to feasibility of these mentalities drastically. They just don’t (and can’t) work any longer. There are too many people talking about you to just ignore them. Cash4Gold stepped up to the plate and addressed the issue point blank. They invited conversation! While the response was fairly “Canned Corporate”, at lest they understood the situation enough to engage the public and provide their side of the story.
The rules of the internet do not allow you to just remove news/stories/information that may not be ideal for your companies objectives. So what do you do? You get your message out there and let the people judge for themselves if they will utilize your services/products. Ideally, you wont just spew “Corporate Speak”, but actually invite conversation from potential customers and let them ask questions of you and your business and then respond by TELLING THEM THE TRUTH!