Consumer Activist to Speak at Watchung Booksellers Tuesday

If he is not kidnapped by a corporate hit team before he arrives, Charles J. Selden will conduct a book discussion at the Watchung Booksellers in Montclair on Tuesday, Oct. 9 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Selden is the author of The Consumerist Manifesto Handbook, a book about how to get compensation when dissatisfied with consumer products and services. 

His approach is “creative battling” and his standards are high! That’s why, when he buys a product or service that does not live up to his expectations, he seeks “comp.” He expects products and services to be as perfect as the dollars paid for them.

In 40 years of battling for compensation, he has received over $120,000 (inflation adjusted) in cash, credits and good stuff. This year’s highlights—so far—are credits from Comcast and AT&T for poor service, cash from supermarkets for “fresh” and “local” products that were neither, and good stuff like a fed-exed papaya and a box of pasta sauces.

Why would a corporation kidnap him? Because was a CEO with an MBA, he is now considered disloyal to the corporate tribe. Corporations may dislike consumerists like Selden, but most pay up. Understanding his tactics comes just in time for the product and service problems bound to follow the Christmas shopping just ahead.