Don't make me blog you!

'Please don't blog this, I'll do ANYTHING!'

Big companies are increasingly realizing that webloggers can make bad news about them travel like wildfire. Some are clued in enough to react.
Example #1: AOL fired a service rep who simply refused to cancel the account of a customer, after the customer put the phone recording online.
Example #2: Comcast canned a cable guy who fell asleep on the couch of a customer, after Sleeping Beauty was caught on film and broadcast on the Web.
Both guys would probably be working today if the bloggers hadn't exposed them; it was the level of exposure, not the low quality of the service (undeniable as it may be) that cost them their job. "Support" people can treat non-bloggers much worse, and get away with it. And more disturbingly, bloggers can probably get people fired for a lesser offence if it makes the company look bad enough. All in all, I don't think this kind of consumerist vigilantism is very effective, and it's potentially capable of severely damaging someone's life for no good reason (maybe the cable guy was sleeping because he worked two jobs because Comcast has crappy wages).