The business world still does not get it.

The days are over when a business could market a crappy product or treat their customers like marks and assume that the worst that would happen is that they get a few angry letters they could then just dump in the round file.

Thanks to blogging, the customers can now hit back -- big time!

The latest example comes from a blogger who had a bad experience with PriceRitePhoto.com, one of those ubiquitous online electronics retailers. As reported by Shankar Gupta of Media Post Publications reported:

48 hours after "Thomas Hawk"--a pseudonymous tech and photography blogger based in San Francisco--posted a nightmare tale of hard sells, threats of legal action, endless delays, and runarounds, PriceRitePhoto.com has found its Web site in shambles, and its listings removed from prominent shopping aggregators like PriceGrabber.com and Yahoo! Shopping.

I don't doubt "Thomas Hawk's" complaints are accurate, because I experienced the very same unscrupulous "up-sell" techniques followed by "I'm sorry we're out of stock" from six (count 'em, 6) online retailers when I recently tried to buy a new camcorder without all the extra batteries, lenses, etc.

Anyway, Hawk's story, which he posted on his Digital Connection blog, was seen by 125,000 readers, some of whom apparently took swift vigilante action. Reports Gupta:

Howard Baker, a manager with PriceRitePhoto.com, said the business had suffered "millions of dollars" worth of damages in the last two days, apparently at the hands of consumer vigilantes who had read the Digital Connection post.

"In the last couple of days there was one disgruntled customer that posted a blog that caused thousands of people to come out of the woodwork and jam our Web site," said Baker--citing viruses, denial-of-service attacks, and thousands of prank calls. "We're talking to our attorneys this afternoon, and will probably be taking legal action."

On second thought, maybe not. According to Gupta, PriceRitePhoto.com's owner, Ed Lopez, later posted this apologetic email on the site:

"On behalf of Priceritephoto I would like to sincerely apologize for the negative experience that you have experienced with our company," the e-mail read. "We are doing a comprehensive review of our company's procedures to ensure that something like this never occurs."

The Kryptonite fiasco. Dell Hell. And now PriceRitePhoto.com. Oh yes, and there's also the saga of Circuit City false advertising and customer abuse, also reported on the gadget blog Gizmodo.

More proof that blogging is "tough love" for companies that need to change their ways. How many more battered and bloody companies will have to litter the corporate landscape before business wakes up to the new, customer-empowered marketplace we're living in?