We bring you another part of the Consumerist’s series on tips on exercising your rights as a consumer, with our comments
- Use a speaker phone – recording helps too
- Set aside at least 30 minutes – On hold time alone can take that away
- Get a human – Gethuman is very useful. And you can’t argue with an interactive voice response system
- Gather your evidence – keep all written correspondence, recordings of conversations, financial statements, etc.
- Act like a human – Acting like a rampaging animal won’t make someone want to help you.
- Don’t think the world revolves around you – any corporation has a lot of customers…things shouldn’t be slow…but don’t expect instant results
- Know your enemy – Become intimately familiar with the people you are fighting
- Take notes – Writing down important information is a great way of organizing your thoughts and plan of attack
- Don’t be afraid to hang up and try another operator – not everyone is as helpful or competent as you’d like
- Run out the clock – Be patient…triumph takes time
- Be firm – Don’t give up
- Keep calmly repeating your story
- Say exactly what you want – Have an idea of your desired course of action and/or compensation
- Don’t ask for yes from someone who can only say no – don’t just ask for a supervisor…ask for someone who has the authority to act
- Make a business case for your wants – don’t just say what you want…say why it is a good idea to give it to you
- Honesty begets honesty – If they catch you in a lie, they won’t help you at all.
- There’s sometimes more freebies to give out early in the day, or early in the quarter
- Email a company executive, then print it out and mail it
The next ten tips are from the customer service representative side, courtesy who run CustomersSuck.com…with our notes, of course.
- Be civil – they are human beings(hopefully)
- Let the rep talk – nothing gets down when two people are talking at once
- Don’t ramble – it undermines your position
- Don’t blame reps for corporate policies – they aren’t management, and cannot change them
- Remember the other person is a person – they don’t deserve your abuse
- Demanding a supervisor will not always work – they often don’t have any authority either
- Be reasonable and keep perspective
- Consider seeing a therapist if you’re screaming at a powerless rep
- Sometimes you just can’t be helped
- Don’t tell them how long you’ve been on hold – It may have made you angrier…but the clock starts when they start talking to you