Keep a note of any e-mail addresses which might be used by company representatives, when responding to threads on MN.
A week ago, someone posted about the way an online order for food, etc, was cancelled without notifying the customer, because a well-known supermarket had taken funds at 23:55 and then tried again 4 hours later, failing (because there were insufficient funds to pay for a further 80+ pounds of shopping in the a/c at the time).
Eventually (3-4 days later) things were sorted out, at least to a delivery being made (by security guard) and money returned (could have been faster if the supermarket had sent a fax but refused to do so).
This weekend we've had a worrying thread about how teens from 14 were encouraged to allow their Facebook pages to be made public, and provide username and password to allow some application to update their Facebook status with mildly embarrassing up to pornographic messages. After a few days of discussion, it seems the soft drinks company has closed this promotion early (been running since mid May, due to end in about 9 days) but when one sees a posting like
Cokespokesperson Sun 18-Jul-10 15:27:42
My name is Lauren Branston and I am Director for Corporate Affairs at Coca-Cola Great Britain, with Dr Pepper being one of our brands. ...
There is absolutely no proof it was from a company representative (at the time). That one was, legit, but almost anyone could have signed up and used that screen name from an anonymous free e-mail account, and written lies or promised sums of money as compensation, or whatever.
Perhaps someone 'reporting' the post to ask for its credibility to be checked (ie suitable e-mail address, not one on Hotmail or an ISP mail address, for example) might be enough.
Would also be handy for next time a marketing campaign "goes off the straight and narrow" for someone at MNHQ to have a suitable high-level contact at a business to alert them to possible problems.
In the latest thread, suggestions included reporting the company to the Police, due to the nature of the complaint.