India is a country that is not particularly known for ethical business practices, transparent customer services, fair prices and reliable product/service quality. And when one is short-changed, there is no recourse to legal solutions. What’s the use if you file a case, incur thousands of Rupees in legal fees and get justice 20 years later? So the only way is for consumers to be dead sure about the product or service before they buy.
That’s where MouthShut comes into the picture.It is indeed a great initiative. It’s an extremely useful service that forewarns you, and saves you from being duped. And no, it is not going to popular among unscrupulous retailers, crooked vendors and companies that are abysmal in their customer service. and all these vested interests are also going to register anonymously on this site and troll genuine reviews with their comments. But Truth shall out. MouthShut is the voice of the people and cannot be muzzled.
I can vouch for the number of times I have been saved from losing my hard-earned money because I was intelligent enough to come on to MouthShut and check the views and experiences of others. And yes, I can spot fake reviews and "planted" comments too - but they cannot overshadow the overall usefulness of the site.
Yes, there are some problems that MouthShut needs to sort out; it offers cash prizes for contest winners and then doesn’t pay(a common enough thing in India) - it needs to sort these matters out because one doesn’t expect such petty behaviour from a site like MouthShut. Then, there’s MouthPad - a rather useless tool, it would seem. You ask for a product/service to review, and you never hear from them again(although they say 3 to 4 working days). The’Add Product Details’ section is customized specifically for restaurants(!) Very poor functionality, and pretty surprising coming from a site like MouthShut.
But really, these are minor issues, small bugs in the system. The real benefits lie in the quantum of customer education being fostered, the power of sharing information being leveraged to help customers make rational purchase decisions, and the convenience in being forewarned - so very important in a country like India.
More power to MouthShut and all its writers and reviewers.