Hydrox cookies are officially back. I just got back from the tasting and unveiling. The cookies, I'm happy to report, are quite delicious and creamy tasting.

More than anything, the return of Hydrox represents the wish fulfillment of thousands of customers. Hydrox came up with the chocolate sandwich cookie idea in 1908 (predating Oreos by four years), but was made redundant by a series of corporate mergers. For a while they went by the name Droxies, but then Kellogg Company shut the brand down in 2003. Who needed another sandwich cookie, anyway -- especially one that people eternally mistake for a knock-off?

Well, thousands of people, it turns out. Kim Burton, a Wichita engineer, started a website dedicated to Hydrox in 2000, back in their "Droxie" phase. When the cookies disappeared, she said, the site morphed from whimsy to mourning. Hundreds of people posted messages yearning for the old cookies. For a while she feared Kellogg would make her take it down. "It's all fun and games until a cease and desist letter comes in the mail," she says. Instead, Kellogg ended up honoring her at the event. The lanky, freckle-faced 28-year-old deftly posed eating, dunking, displaying the product.

Amazon or many other online stores now routinely allow you not only to rate the products, but also the reviews of the products. "Was this review helpful to you?" Amazon asks. You give the review a thumbs up or down, then they tally the votes.

Have you looked at those tallies lately? The people who write the most concise, detailed and informative reviews--but are saying something negative--routinely get panned by the audience. How is that possible? Those are precisely the reviews I'm looking for, ones that warn me off a product that I'd been tempted to swoon for online. Positive reviews are nice, but they just reinforce my already positive view of a product I'm thinking of buying.

Here's an example. I'm considering buying a Freestyle MP3 player. One guy notes that the music subscription service doesn't work; another guy says you have to use your fingernail to control the volume. I'd say that's pretty helpful, right? Yet the sole reviewer of the first guy voted him unhelpful and half the people rating the second said he was not helpful. Now not all negative reviews are panned. But it sure seems like they get hit harder. Look at the reviews for this camera: Derek Tang's incredibly long-winded but positive review is endorsed by 120 of 122 readers. Only two readers out of 153 disfavor the next five glowing reviews. Then we get to the critical guys and the love disappears. C Field "roughedge" has the clever title "Video quality reminiscent of a 1980s VHS" and suddenly only 14 of 17 readers approve.

The only people I can think of that wouldn't find negative reviews helpful are the people trying to sell these products. I have no idea if Freestyle or any other company would bother dissing their negative reviewers. Maybe we really of are a nation of cheerleaders, unhappy when anyone criticizes a good effort.

My brother called me today to tell me about an unfortunate incident at a gas station. Short on money at the moment, he told the attendant that he wanted $20 worth of gas and the clerk promptly filled the tank and told him he owed $60. My brother protested and the clerk was reasonably apologetic but told him there was nothing he could do. Being a heck of a nice guy, my brother paid the money and went on his way -- short on cash for other expenses.

Of course there's an argument to be made that this isn't really a ripoff. He would have needed to fill the car up eventually and with gas prices rising daily, the clerk may have actually done him a favor. But consumers have a right to decide how much gas they want to buy, and if you want $20 worth of gas, you shouldn't have to buy $60.

My brother's a mensch so it's no big deal but what are some other options he might had? As I see it, he could have done one of two things in this situation:

• Tell the clerk you don't have the money and that your credit cards are all maxed out and your checking account is already overdrawn and that you're sorry but all you can do is give him $25 in cash. Tell him that if he wants the gas back, he's welcome to suck it out with a straw.
• Ask to speak with the manager and, if one isn't available and you are really aggravated and have a lot of time on your hands, tell the clerk that you're going to have to call the police to find out what to do. You can bet that his manager won't be too happy to find out the cops were called to resolve a dispute over his error. He may be motivated to find a way to make it right.
  

Still, I think that letting it go and paying the $60 is the best way to handle it, karmically at least. Has anyone else had this experience? How did you handle it?