Hartford Courant (Sunday)

Complain effectivel­y — and get results

- By Emma Patch Emma Patch is a staff writer for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. For more on this and similar money topics, visit Kiplinger.com.

Dealing with a defective product or bad service can be frustratin­g. But by using time-tested strategies for complainin­g effectivel­y, you’ll have a good chance of getting satisfacti­on. Above all, remain calm and be polite — and be prepared to be persistent.

Before you pick up the phone or go online, take some time to prepare your case. And whenever you need to make a complaint, be nice, says customer service consultant Barbara Khozam. That’s because an angry customer may put a customer service rep on the defensive.

The more precisely you can describe the details of your situation, the more likely you are to get results, Khozam says. But while it is important to provide context and give the whole picture, be careful not to overwhelm the company with unnecessar­y informatio­n.

Keep to the facts. If you purchased a faulty product, take pictures and attach them to an email or social media post. If you’re complainin­g about a service, it may be worthwhile to review the service descriptio­n and point out what was left out or altered in your case, says Michaela McDonald, a certified financial planner in New York City. You could even copy and paste the service descriptio­n into your message to the company.

Also, if you have called a company repeatedly about inept service and been ignored, explain how many times you’ve called and when. If you are a loyal customer, you might also mention how long you have been patronizin­g the company and what you like about the business.

In any event, speaking with a human is often your best bet. So, if you don’t get results by submitting an online form or using an automated online chat system or an automated attendant via phone, see if you can reach a customer service representa­tive.

Sometimes, that’s not easy. If so, try visiting www.gethuman.com, which has phone numbers and shortcuts for how to reach a real person at a number of companies. You can also often find the names and contact informatio­n of company CEOs and C-suite employees via LinkedIn or at websites such as www.ceoemail.com.

The Better Business Bureau’s website has reviews and complaints about member businesses. You can also share your complaint about a company on its public Better Business Bureau complaints page; many companies will respond and engage with consumers there. Simply search for the company on the BBB website, select its page, scroll to the section labeled “Customer Complaints” and click “File a Complaint” to write a complaint of your own. You’ll also be able to see whether other consumers have had similar issues and how the company responded to those complaints.

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