dunkindonuts.org
Available inEnglish
EditorDavid Felton
URL
Launched1997
Current statusDefunct as of 2000, the site has become a redirect to the official Dunkin' website

dunkindonuts.org was a "gripe" website operated for two years by David Felton, a 25-year-old school teacher from Hamden, Connecticut.[1] Felton founded the site in 1997 after he discovered that Dunkin' Donuts coffee stores in Hartford, Connecticut did not carry certain items, such as 1% milk.[2] The site was established as a hotbed for complaints, inviting Dunkin' Donuts customers and disgruntled employees to vent their opinions about the company and its service for the world to see.

Its comment form logged troves of messages from customers across the United States. Media coverage put dunkindonuts.org in the national spotlight as one early example of corporate criticism on the World Wide Web. The .org site was sometimes listed on search engines before the company's own website.[3]

Corporate response and demise of site

Dunkin' Donuts responded to some complaints in a constructive manner, adding missing items to its menu[2] and sending coupons via e-mail to customers who had complained on the .org site.[4][5]

In July 1998, Dunkin' Donuts sent a cease and desist letter to Felton, to which he responded by telling them to purchase the site from him.[1] Negotiations ensued, and in August 1999, the domain was finally transferred from Felton to the corporation, which promptly redirected it to its own .com page, quelling the drama.[6] The final price for the site was undisclosed, but it was made public that negotiations began at $1,070 and increased from there.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dee, Jane (26 August 1999). "For E-critic, Doughnuts To Dollars: Dunkin' Donuts Smells The Coffee, Buys Site Used By Its Wired Critics". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  2. 1 2 Segal, David; Mayer, Caroline (5 April 1999). "Angry Consumers Vent on the Net / Web sites cause concern for companies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Appelman, Hilary (4 March 2001). "PERSONAL BUSINESS; I Scream, You Scream: Consumers Vent Over the Net". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "A Site For Soreheads". Businessweek Archives. 11 April 1999. Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Hearn, Kelly (17 July 2000). "'Gripe sites': Consumers complain in chorus, online". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  6. ↑ "Guarding Corporate Reputations From Threats in Cyberspace". The Wall Street Journal. 30 March 2004. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
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