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"Even the smartest consumers sometimes wind up with a toaster that won&amp;#039;t toast or a warranty that won&amp;#039;t cover a laptop&amp;#039;s hard-drive disaster. And even the most patient souls sometimes find themselves unable to get a customer service rep to set things right. While you know that screaming or threatening won&amp;#039;t help, what should you do when you&amp;#039;re at your wits&amp;#039; end? It&amp;#039;s simple: Take a deep breath, then follow these four proven steps that will help you resolve a frustrating situation ASAP. 1. Manage the Phone Tree Talking to customer service is step one in solving every kind of complaint \u2014 and, in many cases, it&amp;#039;s the only step needed. Still, that doesn&amp;#039;t mean you have to spend hours on the phone. To cut time navigating endless phone menus, visit gethuman.com for free tips on reaching a live person faster. (When you call United, for example, press zero at each prompt.) If the first rep you talk to isn&amp;#039;t inclined to help, hang up and try again, suggests Bill Withers, Ed.D., a communications professor at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA, who specializes in customer service issues; you may find that your matter is quickly resolved by another agent. No luck on tries two and three? Ask for a supervisor to step in. Whatever you do, don&amp;#039;t skip this first step. The people you&amp;#039;ll reach out to next typically ask about your experience with customer service and whom you spoke with. If you never gave them a chance, you&amp;#039;ll likely get pushed back to square one. 2. Contact the Honchos When customer service reps can&amp;#039;t or won&amp;#039;t help, send a letter or an e-mail to higher-ups at the corporate office. This lets you voice your problem to a fresh set of ears attuned to the company&amp;#039;s reputation. Even though you may not get a personal response from the CEO, it may well get your problem in front of someone with the power to resolve the dispute, says Diane Gottsman, owner of the Protocol School of Texas, an etiquette-training firm that consults with corporate clients. In fact, many companies keep executive service teams for just this purpose. Once you&amp;#039;ve drafted a letter or an e-mail (see &amp;quot;Write It Right,&amp;quot; below), hunt down top executives&amp;#039; names, usually listed on the company&amp;#039;s website under the &amp;quot;About Us&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Investor Information&amp;quot; section. To help get the correct e-mail format (e.g., firstname.lastname@name-of-company.com), visit the free site executivebomb.com (don&amp;#039;t worry, it doesn&amp;#039;t encourage violence), which posts that info for more than 3,000 companies. Kate Crane of Jersey City, NJ, reached out to managers at computer repair service Tekserve after the rep there wouldn&amp;#039;t explain why her laptop needed major work. &amp;quot;I usually have such positive experiences there,&amp;quot; says Crane. &amp;quot;I needed to reach out.&amp;quot; She located the manager&amp;#039;s e-mail address on the business&amp;#039;s website and sent a short e-mail citing her past positive experiences and the unfortunate one. &amp;quot;I had a response back within a half hour with an apology,&amp;quot; she says \u2014 not bad for e-mail sent Saturday night after closing. 3. Take it Public If your problem still hasn&amp;#039;t been resolved, ask for help again \u2014 this time on social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, where companies can quickly lose face with other customers if they don&amp;#039;t respond. Consider what happened to Pamela Dodd of Orlando, FL: She was more than a little peeved when the 1-800-Flowers.com Mother&amp;#039;s Day bouquet she&amp;#039;d sent her mom never arrived. When she contacted the company&amp;#039;s customer service line, a rep said it had been delivered. So Dodd logged on to Twitter and posted a complaint on her account: &amp;quot;Disappointed in 1800Flowers.com. My 88-y-o mom&amp;#039;s bouquet hasn&amp;#039;t arrived. Wonder how many other moms didn&amp;#039;t get their flowers?&amp;quot; (To try this tactic, visit twitter.com and sign up for a free account, then search for the offending company&amp;#039;s name. Draft a short complaint \u2014 140 characters max \u2014 and include the company&amp;#039;s name or Twitter handle.) &amp;quot;I heard back within five minutes from their customer service blogger [@1800 Flowers],&amp;quot; says Dodd, whose mother got her bouquet bright and early the next morning, plus a free arrangement from the company. 4. Call in the Advocates When everything else fails, call in the cavalry: professional advocates. It&amp;#039;s a long shot, but such organizations can sometimes spur a company to act when your own actions don&amp;#039;t, says Withers. Complaining to a consumer advisory group can also warn others away from an unscrupulous business or even contribute to litigation if lawmakers deem the recurring problem unethical and illegal.  It&amp;#039;s also worth reaching out to advocates earlier in the process if you think the problem you encountered is a common one. Last October, the Federal Communications Commission arrived at a $25 million settlement with Verizon Wireless after consumers complained of $1.99 &amp;quot;mystery fees&amp;quot; for data access on their bills. As part of the settlement, the carrier agreed to provide $52.8 million in refunds to the more than 15 million affected customers. Make the Better Business Bureau your first stop. Fill out the complaint form at bbb.org, and the local bureau will request a reply from the offending company. The organization can also help you set up mediation if you&amp;#039;re not satisfied with the response. In addition, you can file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (ftccomplaintassistant.gov) and with your state&amp;#039;s attorney general (find your state office&amp;#039;s contact information at naag.org). Depending on the state, staffers may try to resolve your complaint, but they will also log it into databases that contribute to ongoing investigations. It&amp;#039;s not a guarantee, but think of the satisfaction you&amp;#039;ll feel if your claim is resolved. Write it Right Six ways to maximize the effectiveness of a complaint: 1. Stash, Then Share, Details It&amp;#039;s hard for companies to respond appropriately if you aren&amp;#039;t sure whom you spoke with when trying to resolve a difficult situation. So keep receipts and take notes on the date, the rep&amp;#039;s name, and what transpired when talking to customer service. Save copies of e-mails, too. Reference specifics in your complaint. 2. Know What You Want Decide what&amp;#039;s an acceptable resolution: A refund? An apology? Spell it out so everyone is on the same page. 3. Keep It Civil &amp;quot;Things can go terribly wrong when you lose your cool,&amp;quot; warns professor Bill Withers of Wartburg College. Phone reps are often instructed to hang up and make a note in your file or the call log if you abuse them. And being nasty can backfire if your complaint is online, where it&amp;#039;s public and permanent.  4. Proofread Poor spelling and grammar will garble your message and cost you credibility.  5. Mention Positives Explain why you did business with the company or how long you&amp;#039;ve been a customer; that will encourage goodwill. 6. Set a Deadline Ask for a response within a week of the receipt of your letter, or a day if you e-mail, says Diane Gottsman of the Protocol School of Texas. Include the best phone number and e-mail address for them to use to reach you. Kelli B. Grant is the senior consumer reporter for smartmoney.com. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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