Ed Magedson – Voice of the Consumer.

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Ed Magedson Voice of the Consumer. Ed Magedson
(pronounced Maj-ed-sen) is the founder and
EDitor-in-Chief of the Ripoff
Report web site located at http//www.ripoffreport
.com/ which he began in 1997. Over the
past decade, Ed has been called everything from
consumer hero to internet terrorist.
However, Eds story began long before there was
such a thing as the Internet. A native New
Yorker, Ed was born in Brooklyn and raised in
Long Island, New York. His family lived across
the street from a carnation farm and when he was
10 years old, Ed occasionally worked around the
farm. This prepared him for his first business
venture, a nationwide flower business called The
Flower Children. When ED was 14, he wanted to be
a veterinarian. He bought several horses over
time and competed in many horse shows with many
trophies. He worked nights in a Long Island
bakery and spent his days helping a veterinarian
at the Roosevelt Raceway. He was fired after
turning in trainers for pumping injured horses
with drugs so they could race. ED also had a
natural ear for music. He taught piano and, at
the age of 15, he became the organ player in
several popular rock bands. The other band
members were in their 20s and 30s, and
although Ed himself wasnt old enough to drink,
they often played in bars and nightclubs around
Long Island and the New York City area. Eds
first step in the direction of being an
entrepreneur came when he had the idea of selling
flowers on street corners. Ed eventually
developed that idea into a business at the age of
18. By the mid-1970s, he was founder and
president of his first business. Eventually,
that business grew into a nationwide firm called
The Flower Children. The business hired young
hippies and senior citizens to sell small
bunches of fresh-cut carnations, daises, roses
and pom-poms on street corners across America
under red and yellow umbrellas. At its peak, the
business operated in 25 different states and at
the age of 21 Ed (known as Eddie back then) was
called The Flower Child Entrepreneur by the
local media in Florida.
Click here to read a 1973 Tampa Tribune article
about Eds flower business http//www.scribd.com/d
oc/80020514/edmagedson-com-tampa-tribune-article-f
ebruary-25-1973- the-flower-child-entrepreneur Fr
om the very beginning, the flower business
flourished. But the business also met with
serious adversity, which started Ed in the
direction of his current passion for consumer
advocacy. In many cities, the local floral
shops instigated authorities to harass Eds
flower vendors. The big flower companies were
using their power and connection to put the
little guy out of business. Ed always fought the
cities and never lost. This planted the fateful
seed that led Ed in the direction of exposing
corruption and bad business practices. Ed later
convinced several grocery store chains to let
him put his flowers into their stores. These
grocery store chains said, Flowers will never
sell in grocery stores.
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Eds next business venture also helped to prepare
him for the launch of Ripoff Report. In the 90's
Ed was working on developing housing in upstate
New York, Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake. He
purchased real estate and apartment complexes.
Ed was contacted by government agencies in
Albany, New York and asked if he would create
additional housing for the underprivileged,
disabled and other victims of housing
discrimation. Ed immediately agreed, but he was
considered by some to be an outsider in the small
rural town. Eventually, Ed became the target of
discrimination, anti-Semitism and harassment from
the same people he thought could be trusted
local agencies and law enforcement. Once again,
this experience drew Ed further down the path of
a life spent fighting and exposing
corruption. The final chapter in the story
leading to the creation of Ripoff Report was a
run-in Ed had with city officials in Arizona. In
1990, Ed moved to Arizona to take care of his
parents so they would never have to experience
assisted living facilities. At that time, there
were many large vacant buildings in Arizona and
many small businesses trying to make ends meet.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Ed came up with a
new way to put them back in business operating
indoor swap meets. The business venture was a
big success, but once again, Ed encountered bad
business practices and political corruption.
Frustrated with the lack of an effective way to
fight back, he created his first website where
he described his experience in Mesa. At the same
time he was experiencing political corruption in
Mesa, Arizona, Ed was also outraged at the
treatment of the hard workers from Mexico and
South America that came to the US in desperation
to help their families. Ed has always been a
firm believer in securing the border while
allowing people to come here legally for work. At
the same time, he also feels those who are here
working to support their families are vulnerable
to exploitation and abuse. He was shocked to
learn that many immigrant workers are never paid
for their labor. Even worse, some have been
treated as modern-day slaves, even being
threatened with deportation if they complain
about not being paid. Ed began raising
awarenesss and calling for a stop to these
practices back in 1997. You can read more about
Eds efforts to stop the abuse of immigrant
workers here and you can click here to see the
educational flyer that Ed has distributed to
immigrants for more than ten years. Eds
numerous business ventures and his fights with
City Hall eventually led him to create the
Ripoff Report. As Ed Magedson explained in his
book, Rip-off Revenge, he wants to give others
the power to fight back by giving them the tools
needed to do battle with business bullies. For
more information about Eds book, visit
http//www.ripoffrevenge.com/ One little-known
fact about Ripoff Report is that it was started
as a mission, not a business. Ed never expected
to earn a living from the Ripoff Report.
Instead, he put his own hard- earned money and
time into the website with the sole intention of
giving a voice to consumers who had previously
been powerless. He had no revenue plan or any
idea how or whether the site would ever generate
any money. The website was set up as a free
service and it was created long before Ed had
any understanding of how to monetize a website.
In the early days, it was funded entirely by
Eds personal savings. It was not until several
years later when the lawsuits
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started that Ed needed to create programs to earn
revenue or face losing the Ripoff Report website.
Now, 13 years later, the Ripoff Report has grown
into one of the most popular consumer complaint
resources on the Internet. Today, Ed Magedson is
living and working somewhere in Arizona. (If you
received constant harassment and death threats,
youd be quiet about where you lived, too.) In
addition to constantly fighting to protect free
speech and the First Amendment, Ed devotes his
life to his beloved pets and to raising money
for no-kill animal shelters. Over the past 30
years, Ed has traded his music, his freedom and
his privacy for a computer. He is well aware of
the many lessons hes learned in his life so
far-lessons that are relevant every single day
lessons that led him to commit his life to
changing the way that businesses deal with their
customers. At Ripoff Report.com, hundreds of
consumer complaints are reported every day.
Consumers come to Ripoff Report to warn other
people about deceptive business practices. Ed
and Ripoff Report are true pioneers who have
literally changed the way that business is done
and created an entire new industry. Thanks to Ed
Magedsons tireless work, day in and day out,
consumers today have a new and powerful voice
and have saved millions of dollars. Ed also
assists every government agency to help
prosecute those ripping off consumers. No matter
what his critics say or do in their efforts to
silence him, Ed will never stop fighting to
protect the rights of little guy.