(WHAS11) - If you've found yourself on hold with customer service just a little longer lately, you're not alone.
With the economy down, complaints to the Better Business Bureau have been up, so how do you make your gripe heard above the rest of the noise?
WHAS11's Andy Treinen has some advice.
With consumers being more money-conscious, complaints about billing, contracts, and customer service are keeping companies busy.
To make your complaint stand out, don't just dial angry. Arm yourself with the information, and make the most of the first phone call. You're going to need to have basic details, explain what you thought the situation should be, and how it actually turned out.
Creative complainers are also using social media to air gripes. And companies are slowly learning to make "friends" with consumers. Many fed-up customers are taking their gripes online. So they might tweet about it, they might post it on their Facebook, they might even create a whole website or a YouTube video about their complaint, and companies are learning to respond to customers that way.
Bear in mind that it's in a company's best interest to resolve complaints quickly. They want to keep your business, and bring in new customers, especially if you've taken the next step of filing with the better business bureau. If you file a complaint with the bbb and the company ignores you, that's going to go down on that company's reliability report, and other people who research that company in the future with the better business bureau will see that red flag.
Just responding to those complaints has a huge impact on a company’s grade. Not responding almost guarantees that business an ‘F’.
If you have a consumer watch you'd like Andy to look into, send an e-mail to consumerwatch@whas11.com
