Positive Practices

⚠️ Article status notice: This Article's Relevance Is Under Review

This article has been flagged for questionable relevance. Its connection to the systemic consumer protection issues outlined in the Mission statement and Moderator Guidelines isn't clear.

Notice: This Article's Relevance Is Under Review

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This article has been flagged for questionable relevance. Its connection to the systemic consumer protection issues outlined in the Mission statement and Moderator Guidelines isn't clear. Articles that focus on isolated incidents, personal disputes, or local matters may not meet the inclusion criteria for the Consumer Action Taskforce Wiki.

Why This Article Is In Question

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Articles in this wiki have to meet the following criteria:

• Systemic Nature: Demonstrate a broader pattern of systemic abuse, negligence, or policies that align with modern consumer exploitation (e.g., ownership revocation, barriers to repair, privacy violations, changing the terms of the sale after the sale).
• Relevance: Relate to consumer protection issues that extend beyond individual grievances or localized problems.
• Evidence: Provide verifiable evidence or credible sources to support the author's claims and demonstrate systemic impact.

Examples of articles that do not meet these criteria:

• A single negative customer experience; with no evidence of systemic issues or company policies enabling such behavior.
• Localized disputes, such as a bad experience with a contractor or small business, better suited for platforms like Yelp or local consumer protection agencies.
• Complaints that focus on personal dissatisfaction (e.g., "I waited too long for a response") without tying the issue to broader consumer exploitation themes.

How You Can Improve This Article

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To justify the relevance of this article:

• Provide evidence demonstrating how the issue reflects broader consumer exploitation (e.g., systemic patterns, recurring incidents, or related company policies).
• Link the problem to modern forms of consumer protection concerns, such as privacy violations, barriers to repair, or ownership rights.
• Add credible sources or documentation that substantiate claims and connect them to systemic practices. i.e:
  • A company that takes 5 days too long to refund a deposit is a bad Yelp review. Not eligible for inclusion.
  • A company with 500,000 active repairs at any given time that purposely delays all deposit refunds for a period of five days, in order to invest/gamble with these deposits on their balance sheet, with verifiable hard proof from internal communications that this was an intentional & standard practice performed with malicious intent is eligible for inclusion.

If you believe this notice has been placed in error, or once you have made the required improvements, please visit the #appeals channel on our Discord server: Join Here.

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End of Stub Notice. The article content begins below this line.

This page aims to provide an outline of what types of products to invest in, in hopes of avoiding the pains potentially experienced by companies enacting poor consumer behaviors. While the main goal of this wiki is to articulate all instances where this doesn't happen, this page assists as an escape that may benefit you (the reader) and the over-arching goal. The companies making anti-consumer decisions are primarily driven by the goal of capital and financial gain, so by re-allocating investments away from them to better options the incentive to enact those negative policies lessens.

Things to watch out for

One-Time Purchase vs. Subscription Plan

Subscription Plans are usually cost efficient in short-term, benefiting consumers who are unsure on a product and want to try it out. Many services exist exclusively under a subscription model and operate sensibly. One-Time Purchases are typically designed to operate cleanly and effectively for an ample amount of time.

Subscription Plan Considerations

• Does this service update frequently or at least within the purchased time-frame?
• How long will I be needing this service and will it be compatible with me for that amount of time?

One-Time Purchase Considerations

• Will I need this for more than a single month?
• How soon will this product become redundant or out-dated? Is it an annual subscription in disguise?

Digital Goods - Available Offline vs. Online Service

Services that run exclusively online innately have more control over how their product operates and is received. This control can lead to changes in the product that can be improved but also introduce incompatibilities. Digital Goods that are completely operational offline in general allow the consumer to decide how long those goods can be used. As long as the downloaded product can be stored and correctly rendered, it has no expiration.

Online Service Considerations

• Is this product made for online connectivity and interaction?
  • Example: Online Social Games such as World of Warcraft
• Is this product more secure online?
• How likely am I to maintain an internet connection to this service?
• Can this service alter itself into an incompatible state? Can this service remove functionality that I need?

Available Offline

• Will I be able to effectively download and store this?
• Does it have any dependencies, and can those dependencies become redundant?
  • Example: Products designed for a limited set of Operating Systems that may become outdated