Updated: Positive Reinforcement of Negative Behavior

Last updated: Dec, 7, 2010 (see end of entry)

I strongly support both e-commerce and Google, and in fact I do most of my shopping online and just about all of my product research using Google. But this cautionary tale by the New York Time’s David Segal is a must read.

Titled, ‘A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web‘, it recounts how an unscrupulous e-retailer games both Google Search and the e-commerce system, including MasterCard and VISA, to where the more people complain about him online, the more successful he becomes.

Chilling.

Updated 12/1/2010 4:19 PM ET: Displaying its world-class customer service, Google has already implemented a promising solution — at least for the short-term:

Google Blog: Being bad to your customers is bad for business

Updated 12/7/2010 10:55 AM ET:

Online Retailer Charged With Fraud, Threats (CBS Moneywatch) by Kathy Kristof