Dear [Company Who Recently Changed Their Product]

Products change. Some companies tinker with their products almost as much as Facebook tinkers with their layout. It used to be, when a product changed radically, those who loved it would start letter writing campaigns. The company would feel the backlash and, sometimes, revert back to the much-loved version. Think, New Coke.

Now we have eBay. If a product changes, we can go to eBay and buy years worth of the old version. The company has lost a customer - for years. They'll think that customer has moved to another product. They'll try to win them back, but they can't. It's still their customer, just outside of their reach.

For example, a few years ago Nexxus changed the formula of their Humectress product. I've used it since forever. The new formula has a too sweet smell, but worse, it doesn't work. I went to eBay. I now have enough to last about 10 years. That's ten years that Nexxus will not have me as a customer. I will be using their product, but they will have no sales from me for ten years. They can run all the sales they can think up. They could even reformulate Humectress. They still have to wait out the ten years before I'll even consider one of their products again.

Consumers win in this. We get the product we want. We get it, usually, less expensively and for extended periods. The companies lose. I hope it teaches them a lesson.