Tips | Customer Service Hell

So you're stuck in a bind with iffy Customer Service and you don't know what to do...

Been there! It sucks. And it's actually one of the reasons that I started this site because I can't stand that other people have to go through the same thing.

Fortunately there are a few things that you can do to help expedite the process, and depending on the company that you're dealing with it could make or break your night (or vacation!). This isn't set in stone for every company but it's a good set of guidelines to follow in general:

Things to do in a bad Support Situation (in this order):

1. Send a direct message to the company's Twitter Support handle

More often than not, a large company will have a corporate Twitter handle (e.g. @Seamless) and a Support-specific one (e.g. @Seamless_Care) alongside it. I've noticed that a lot of people tend to just vent their frustrations at one or both of these handles in a public tweet - and rightfully so - but you should also send a private DM to the Support handle since they're checking those more frequently. When they do get around to reading your public tweet they'll just tell you to send them a DM anyway, so it can help speed things up a little bit.

Now - there are exceptions to this of course - and if you're dealing with one of the companies on my Worst 5 List then it probably won't help very much, but it's always worth a try. Give the company 30 minutes to an hour to respond to see if they're actively monitoring this and read on to the other steps if they're not.

And if you're not on Twitter yet, well...it's worth signing up for this very reason. More and more companies are using it for Customer Support and the trend is only growing.

2. Call the company's Customer Service line and demand to speak to a Supervisor if you have to

Most companies today will have some kind of Support phone number to call with only a few rare exceptions (cough cough...UBER) so it's worth giving that a shot if you're able to find it. Like Step 1, this will also prove to be fruitless with most of the Worst 5 List, and you'll even see Airbnb and Expedia routinely drive these wait times up to 2-3 hours just to deter people from trying it at all, but for a lot of companies this could be worth your time. You can usually find the number via a simple Google Search (e.g. "Tesla Customer Service number") and you'll usually get an expected wait time via an automated bot. Some companies will ever offer a callback service when they're free, which is kind of nice.

If the callback and/or hold times are simply too long, which does tend to happen more often these days sadly, then skip ahead to Step 3. Your time is valuable and you don't need to waste it waiting on the phone for 5 hours. If the wait time is 30-45 minutes or less though, then it might be worth sticking it out for.

If you do eventually get through to a rep, calmly explain the situation to them and wait for their response. If they're helpful, then great! Problem solved. If they're not being helpful though, then you should do the following:

1. Let them know that you're very frustrated. These people are human after all and will sometimes empathize with you more if they hear your pain vocalized.

2. Tell them that you're thinking of canceling and/or not using the service/product any more. Support people are told how important it is to retain current customers and the last thing their company wants is to lose your business entirely. This is a powerful tool that you can really use to your advantage sometimes.

3. If that doesn't help, demand to speak to a Supervisor. It's a common tactic for Support Reps to say that a Supervisor can't help or that they'll say the same exact thing that they just told you, but that is absolute bologna. They're told to do this to keep as much work off their Supervisor's plate as possible, but there's always a Supervisor, and they can almost always help you more than the Support Rep can. They simply have more authority to do so.

3. Try DM'ing or Emailing Company Executives

You may be inclined to think that executives ignore smaller complaints that are sent their way - and a lot of them certainly do - but I've actually seen a fair amount of success by reaching out to them and it's sometimes worth a shot. It's not always easy to find execs on Twitter if they are on there, but it is easy to look up a company's leadership team on a site like https://www.craft.co and just search for names in a subsequent Twitter People Search. If you're able to find any notable people on Twitter then you'll want to send them a private DM and explain the situation with as many details as you can. For example - Airbnb's Global Head of Hosting Catherine Powell is @capow14 and she's told people to DM her in the past, so she's definitely at least seeing these messages for better or worse. Give any execs a few hours to respond on Twitter and then move on to other steps if they don't.

You can also try emailing executives the old-fashioned way, and I've found some success in this area as well. A great site to find Executive Customer Service emails is https://www.elliott.org and from there you can just email the most likely person to respond to you (i.e. probably not the CEO, but maybe the VP of Customer Experience). Taking a look at Uber's Contacts in particular, I've been told by some people that Tomasz Krawczyk - Head of US & Canada Customer Support - has actually helped people resolve long-standing issues, so that's a great resource to have. Most larger companies will be featured in Elliott's database, and the best part is that you can find email addresses there for free.

Without any luck here though, it's time to move on to more drastic steps below.

4. Dispute any applicable charges with your Credit Card company

One of the most effective and productive routes you can take if a negligent company owes you money (whether it's for damages, non-rendered services or something else) is to get your credit card company involved. There are many levels of protection that these companies provide in fine print for situations like this, and more often than not, if you can provide sufficient evidence that a company wronged you and it's within 120 days of the charge, you have a great chance of getting your money back this way. The four major card providers all have different rules, but generally you have 120 days to file a chargeback for issues related to:

Fraud
Late presentment
An incorrect transaction code, currency, account number, or amount
Duplicate transaction processing
Merchandise/Service that's not received
Damaged or defective merchandise, or
A canceled recurring transaction

Certain banks may have slightly different timeframes for this, so if you're disputing a charge on a Debit Card make sure you are within that span. The process only takes a few minutes to do and it has a very high success rate, so don't be afraid to initiate this if you have to.

If you've tried this and it hasn't worked for whatever reason, then move on to steps 5 and 6.

5. Report the Company to the Better Business Bureau

If a company has clearly wronged you and you're getting absolutely nowhere with the previous steps listed here, then it's time to get the Better Business Bureau involved. The BBB was created for this very purpose and submitting a case to them is both free and easy, so there's no reason to not do this if your valid complaint is being dismissed or ignored altogether. Most companies will finally respond at some point there and some of them - though not all - will even do their best to resolve issues when they see them listed there. Note that Airbnb is notorious for ignoring BBB complaints, so skip ahead to Step 6 if you're in a sticky situation with them.

The process for filing with the BBB:

1. Go to https://www.bbb.org/

2. Enter the name of the company and the city where they are headquartered (Google the latter if you have to, it's important).

3. Hit Search.

4. Select "All Businesses (Accredited and Non-Accredited)"

5. Click on the appropriate company in the list of results.

6. On the ensuing page, click on the link that says "File a Complaint".

The process for this is very simple and should only take you 10-15 minutes to complete. On the Complaint Form, make sure to be as specific as possible when describing the situation so that the offending company is aware of all the details. Most companies will do their best to respond in a timely manner, but as I mentioned above, some like Airbnb will simply copy and paste a canned response and/or do nothing, so it's not a bulletproof solution.

I should also mention that the BBB is a service for North American companies. However, if they're international and they have an office in North America (likely), then you can still file a complaint there.

6. Look into suing the Company via Small Claims Court or other means

A lot of people hear the word "sue" and get immediately intimidated by it, but there's really no reason to be. If a company clearly owes you compensation for a bad experience and they are unwilling to pay it even after the rest of the steps are taken here, then there's no shame in letting a court decide what is fair. This is precisely what Small Claims was designed for, and even though it's more time-consuming than using the BBB it's a great and effective avenue to take if a company is being totally unresponsive. These courts typically hear cases for dispute values of up to $5,000-$10,000 (which covers most of them really) and they can be found all over the world, notably in Australia, Brazil, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa and the United States. I can personally vouch for the Small Claims in New York since I've won a few cases there, and that's why I recommend this option to people on Twitter if they're really getting nowhere with their dispute.

Small Claims does require filling out some paperwork and then going to an actual court (or virtual Zoom court if you're lucky), but it's relatively cheap to do so and as I mentioned before, pretty effective. In New York City the application fee will run you between $15 and $35, so if you're looking to get back a few hundred or even more than a grand I'd say that's worth it!

Once you do file the paperwork and get a court date, these tips will help you the rest of the way:

1. Show up! This sounds obvious but it's critically important, because if you show and the company (a.k.a. the Defendant) does not, then you automatically win. Believe it or not, a lot of these big companies want nothing to do with these petty cases so there's a decent chance of that happening.

2. Gather as many details and pieces of evidence as you possibly can so that you can show them to a judge. The more that you can prove negligence on the company's part, the better your odds of winning are.

3. Representing yourself is totally fine, so you don't have to bring someone unless they are a valuable witness in some capacity. You can bring a lawyer if you think it'll help (and worth it), but just keep in mind...while the courtroom may look similar to those that you see on TV, that's about where the similarities end. Your case isn't going to have a million-dollar attorney standing across from you trying to save a $1B company a few thousand dollars, I can promise you that.

4. Be persistent! These cases can take a few months to get resolved, but if you've waited this long already then chances are it'll be worth it. It's important to get compensation that you deserve for all the hell you've been through, so never give up and make sure that these companies are held accountable for their negligence!

If you are looking to sue Airbnb in particular, this is a really handy resource to get you started.

And if you're still unable to resolve your case after all of this, then I want to hear your story! Please reach out to me and let me know what's going on.