Road Rage!! on the Information SuperHighway

by Rick Beneteau

I sat in the right lane at the busy intersection waiting for
the light to change. A scruffy looking male driver in the left
lane looked as impatient as I must have. Finally, on green, I
continued down the 6 lane road. About a half block up I saw a
sight that horrifies me to this day.

A child, no more than 3 years old, was starting to saunter
across this crazy road. Alone. Reacting instantly, I sped up
and got ahead of the driver to my left, then slowed
dramatically, turned and stopped my car across both lanes to
block traffic. Jumping out, I snatched up this tyke just as
she was about to cross the center line and into oncoming
traffic. The timing could not have been closer.

The story gets better.

As I was hurrying the toddler to the safety of the sidewalk I
just about stumbled over her younger brother, who was starting
to wheel his stroller between parked cars into the street,
following his sister. Of course, he was safe as traffic was
now blocked, and suddenly I felt blessed to have arrived at
this critical moment.

Where was mom during all this? You shouldn't have asked:-) She
had apparently told her kids to wait on the sidewalk while she
walked across this major thoroughfare to go into a store. The
siblings were simply trying to find her.

What I said to this poor-excuse-for-a-parent you don't want to
know and has nothing to do with this article, but what does is
that during the entire time I was making sure these children
were safe (which really wasn't that long) there was a car horn
blowing furiously in the background.

Guess who?

Yep, the disheveled looking driver in the next lane. When I
returned to my car, he made a point to open his door, stand up
and scream at me at the top of his lungs (in some frenzied
foreign tongue). After witnessing what had happened, he was
VERY upset WITH ME because I inconvenienced him! This my
friends, is referred to as road rage.

I would assume that most people (and the drivers behind him)
would have breathed a heavy sigh of relief that neither of
these kids were hurt, or worse, killed on that road that day.
But this article is not about "most people". It's about "some
people" and a phenomena on the Internet that is becoming all
too commonplace. And I don't like it one bit. It's what I call
Road Rage on the Information SuperHighway.

The majority of people I come into contact with as customers,
resellers (I own 2 affiliate programs), newsletter subscribers
and folks who email me with questions or advice, are simply
put, wonderful folks. But since I am communicating with sheer
volumes of 'netizens', I am receiving more and more blatantly
angry email. I mean the kind of ugly verbiage that most people
would never have the parts to say to my face. And, I'm not
alone. I'm in contact with many Internet marketers and
newsletter publishers who are experiencing the very same
thing.

Here are some recent examples, straight from my email files.
Bear with me as I attempt to set these up for you.

I've written, and sell through a popular affiliate program, a
best-selling marketing eBook called The Ezine Marketing
Machine. The ordering system is state-of-the-art (digital
delivery) and extremely dummie-proof. When a customer inputs
their final order information on our secure server, they
receive a 'Thank You' webpage with the simple instructions on
how to download their book and bonuses. It's virtually
impossible to miss the simple process and get instant access
to your books (I send an automated email with the same
download instructions as back-up), but a small minority of
customers do. I am only too pleased to quickly assist them and
am online to do so from 6:00 am til 9 or 10 pm seven days a
week.

However, one particular customer didn't quite "get it" and
fired off no less than five emails within an hour. They
arrived after 11:00 p.m. when I wasn't online. I've extracted
the content (verbatim) from the three I've kept:

#1. "I've paid the $$$ for your program, now what about the
goods? The info sounds wonderful as does your yada-yada! Why
not deliver the goods now so a mere morsel like myself may
possible take advantage of the material you allude to as
"Gospel" for success?"

#2. "Is it time to take all this stuff to the next level??
I'm prepared to do just that unless you can resolve this
TONIGHT."

#3. "Why is this such a hassle?? I sent my $$$ and followed
your directions. Where the hell is final product?? You
"Gurus" appear to be all the same. You promise the moon and
deliver nothing."

To top off his nastiness, he called at midnight and left a
totally vile message about what a "#&@*!! thief" I was. Now,
what makes this quite humorous is the fact that this
unfortunately computer-unsavvy person actually had his files
the entire time, but never knew he had to click to open
them:-)

Here's a great example of Road Rage from an actual affiliate
of mine - someone who took the time to read an agreement and
register to become a reseller, who upon receiving one of my
very sporadic email updates, writes (and I really had no idea
what his rant was about):

"take me off you list i dont want to be in any of your
programs wanna know why do you care well you my friend are a
SPAMMERRRR!!!!! this is twice you offered me your program so i
dont want it didnt want it the first time dont want it the
second time get the picture. delete me from your list. do it
now and dont ever send me anything again got it good"

You don't even want to know what he wrote back after his
removal notice was automatically sent:-)

Lately, I've encountered some very ugly "flames" from
subscribers to my opt-in newsletter. Some were long-term
readers who woke up one morning with amnesia, suddenly unaware
of the publication they subscribed to and had been receiving
for months and wrote me the spam riot act, complete with
expletives. A few thought it their Internet duty to report me
to the "spam police". Good thing I keep subscription
records:-)

Ok, before you begin thinking "this Beneteau guy has probably
let off some cyber-steam", well, I have. Occasionally, I've
reacted out of pure emotion when someone has attacked my
integrity. I am fully aware of this "trigger" in me and
usually know better than to fire back when I'm hot under the
collar. A few times, I've been embarrassed by my own words.
Nothing vile or vulgar mind you, but an unprofessional display
of anger. So yes, I've been guilty too:-)

A good rule of the road: if you encounter a "brave" and rude
emailee who upsets you, write your reply email right away but
don't click send. This will at least let you vent and when
your temperature reaches normal again remove the "emotion"
from your words. As in the case above, if there is no real
need to continue the dialogue, then don't even bother and
simply move on (I just deleted this misguided soul). Remember,
their anger is THEIR problem. When you don't react to them you
will continue acting in a totally professional manner.

Yes folks, it takes a thick skin to operate a business on the
Internet!

Here are a few questions to ponder:

Is the faceless Internet the new, global venting ground?

Will the whirring sound of a connecting modem actually boost
testosterone levels?

Does a dial-up account come with an unspoken license to spew
venom?

Is the Net getting nasty or what?

© 2001 Rick Beneteau