[mtlynch]

I've sometimes been able to escalate to the right people and effect change, even when I have to go through a seemingly uncaring customer support team.

I was inspired by patio11's "Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You."[0] It changed the way I raise disputes with companies as a consumer, and it's gotten me good results.

The tl; dr is that large organizations have things they're afraid of, and they typically have processes in place to prevent them from happening. If you figure out what the company is afraid of, tie your grievance to that fear, and it will pressure the company to resolve your issue.

With credit reporting agencies, they're afraid of regulatory incidents. If you give signals that you're gathering evidence for a complaint to regulators, they'll work hard to resolve your issue. Other companies are afraid of a complaint to a distributor or the potential for a lawsuit. They're usually afraid of something, and if you can figure out what it is, you can get the attention of people with the power to resolve the issue.

[0] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-r...

[jasonjayr]

So; in this specific case, if they have a USB-IF trademarked logo or icon on their device or packaging, then maybe the USB-IF could come along to put some pressure to get a better outcome?

I've seen cheap devices with USB ports --- but no logo. Probably for this very reason.

[overnight5349]

The USB logo is pretty well pointless. All you're paying for is a license for the logo.

Despite USB-IF's efforts to associate that logo with "good" or "safe" or even "compliant" USB devices, I doubt that many consumers know or care.

Part of the reason is that their licensing is pretty pricey unless you're already at the mass manufacturing stage. You have to pay an annual fee for the logo, an annual fee for the VID, and you have to pay to get your widget certified. All so you can use a logo that consumers don't know or care about.

On the other hand, you can implement a USB device without paying a dime to USB-IF. It's super annoying without your own VID, but that's often not even necessary.

So we get cheap Chinese devices with no certification because why would they even bother?