3554 1 3 econsultancy_xml <p>The tale begins in October 2005, when Peter Calveley from New Zealand <a href="http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_igdmlgd_archive.html">ordered a book from Amazon, which never turned up</a> (it was actually ordered from Amazon's Marketplace, not even Amazon itself - but that's another issue!).</p> <p> <a href="http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_igdmlgd_archive.html">One month later</a>, Peter decided to let loose the wrath of <a href="http://www.waitangi.com/warfare/utu.html">Utu</a> upon the mightly Amazon - Utu is a traditional Maoiri 'obligation to undertake payment upon others for a wrongdoing'. And his chosen form of payment was to inform the US Patent Office that Amazon's famous patent for 1-click payment was in fact covering essentially the same idea as a patent filed 18 months earlier.</p> <p>As if to test Peter's resolve, the US Patent Office replied with a request for $2,520 - the cost of a full patent re-examination. Undeterred, he posted a request for donations, added a Paypal button to his blog site and two months later the fee was in the post.</p> <p>Fast forward to May 2006 and the <a href="http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_igdmlgd_archive.html">request for re-examination is granted by the Patent Office</a>. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_infringement">Wikipedia</a> a typical patent infringement case in the US costs $1-3M in legal fees - not sure if this counts as an 'infringement' case but one thing for sure, it's going to cost them a lot more than a replacement book and an apologetic phone call.</p> <FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"> <Paragraph>The tale begins in October 2005, when Peter Calveley from New Zealand <Link URL="http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_igdmlgd_archive.html" Window="New">ordered a book from Amazon, which never turned up</Link> (it was actually ordered from Amazon's Marketplace, not even Amazon itself - but that's another issue!).</Paragraph> <Paragraph> <Link URL="http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_igdmlgd_archive.html" Window="New">One month later</Link>, Peter decided to let loose the wrath of <Link URL="http://www.waitangi.com/warfare/utu.html" Window="New">Utu</Link> upon the mightly Amazon - Utu is a traditional Maoiri 'obligation to undertake payment upon others for a wrongdoing'. And his chosen form of payment was to inform the US Patent Office that Amazon's famous patent for 1-click payment was in fact covering essentially the same idea as a patent filed 18 months earlier.</Paragraph> <Paragraph>As if to test Peter's resolve, the US Patent Office replied with a request for $2,520 - the cost of a full patent re-examination. Undeterred, he posted a request for donations, added a Paypal button to his blog site and two months later the fee was in the post.</Paragraph> <Paragraph>Fast forward to May 2006 and the <Link URL="http://igdmlgd.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_igdmlgd_archive.html" Window="New">request for re-examination is granted by the Patent Office</Link>. According to <Link URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_infringement" Window="New">Wikipedia</Link> a typical patent infringement case in the US costs $1-3M in legal fees - not sure if this counts as an 'infringement' case but one thing for sure, it's going to cost them a lot more than a replacement book and an apologetic phone call.</Paragraph> </FormattedContent> 2006-06-06T14:22:00+01:00 0 1 econsultancy_xml <p>One lost book, one disgruntled customer and a potential million dollar legal fee for Amazon - it's the latest in a series of morality tales showing how e-commerce companies can be hit where it hurts most due to bad customer experience.</p> <FormattedContent xmlns="http://www.e-consultancy.com/schema/formattedContent/"> <Paragraph>One lost book, one disgruntled customer and a potential million dollar legal fee for Amazon - it's the latest in a series of morality tales showing how e-commerce companies can be hit where it hurts most due to bad customer experience.</Paragraph> </FormattedContent> false 7 <p>Refer also to Econsultancy's <strong><a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/user-experience-buyers-guide">User Experience Buyer's Guide</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/effective-web-design-best-practice-guide">Effective Web Design Guide</a></strong> for more information about best practice in these areas.</p> <p>Refer also to Econsultancy's <strong><a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/user-experience-buyers-guide">User Experience Buyer's Guide</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://econsultancy.com/reports/effective-web-design-best-practice-guide">Effective Web Design Guide</a></strong> for more information about best practice in these areas.</p> 361209 Counting the cost of bad customer experience false 2006-06-09T10:14:00+01:00 counting-the-cost-of-bad-customer-experience 2009-04-28T22:29:26+01:00 2009-10-13T08:28:56+01:00 584