It is always fascinating to look behind the corporate curtain to see how digital age capitalism actually works. I had this pleasure recently when I tried to review a recent encounter I had with Labyrinth Books online on the Danish owned review site Trustpilot.
I tried to post this review of Labyrinth Books on Trustpilot: "I ordered some books from Labyrinth Books. I had enough to get free shipping which was critical in my ordering the books. When I got the books two were missing. When I contacted Labyrinth and asked them for a revised bill which they never sent before I asked for it (bad form) I discovered I was charged for shipping because they did not have the two books I ordered and which, with the other books, gave me free shipping. CatchLabyrinth22. I contacted Labyrinth about this, about not informing me that they did not have two books I ordered and that this meant I had to pay almost $9 dollars in shipping now. They wrote back telling me sorry, boy, you are shite out of luck and that if I wanted to send the books back I had to pay shipping. Apparently, Labyrinth’s policy is screw the customer...twice if you can. My response was what it should be: cancel my account, delete my account, I will never order from you again, and I will be filing a complaint about you with the attorney general of the state of New York. Have a good day.”
I dutifully created an account (I had posted before but by invitation of Thriftbooks previously when no account was required), signed in, and posted this review. A day or two letter, however, I got a since disappeared missive from the digital courtiers of the dukes and barons at Trustpilot telling me they could not post my review. Whether this corporation has stupid bots doing this weeding out of reviews to try to discern fake ones from “real” ones is immaterial given that bots are written by humans and humans are known not only for their stupidity and moronicity but also their technology as utopia hubris. Nor does it relieve them of responsibility for washing their hands of such censorship though I am sure they hope and think it does.
So regardless of the reason for deep sixing my review it amounts to censorship, of one hand, the muddied of Trustpilot, washing away empirical criticism of another dirty hand, Labyrinth Books. And that is the world of Big Brother Corporation ladies and gentlemen, a world which snake oil salesmen and con men predominate everywhere including online.
Addendum: When I contacted Trustpilot via Facebook message—they have disabled any other option—I felt like I had wondered into Green Acres and The Twilight Zone. When the operative who I was communicating with could not, presumably, hopefully, after reading the above, could not discern the two paragraphs of my review in the body of the post which, presumably, a bot fuhrered and disallowed, I copied and pasted the review so they could read it. I then asked them why the post was disallowed. They couldn’t even give me a straight answer as to why it was placed in the brave new digital world rubbish bin. If this is Big Brother it is Big Brother as post-baby boom attention deficit disorder farce. Realising that I had gone down the rabbit hole where I had run into Lisa Douglas I departed as quickly as I could for saner shores.
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