7 ways to win the customer-service game

Up the pyramid

Aim higher. If you can't get help by phone or e-mail, it's time to go old school. Write a letter, and aim it at the people who get paid to care.

You can find the name and address of most company CEOs on their Web sites. That's how I found Craig R. Koch, head of Hertz. He didn't respond personally to my letter, of course, but one of his underlings did. Eventually, I got my coupon.

Writing a letter also allowed me to send McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner a photo of the grinning skeleton creature that was given to my 2-year-old as a "toddler toy" in her Happy Meal. I got two apologies for that one: one included the coupons for free meals, while the other came with a charming Little People toy that elicited giggles instead of shrieks.

Sending letters by certified mail, return receipt requested, also creates that paper trail that can be so important in larger disputes.

Play the loyalty card the right way. Threatening to take your business elsewhere often doesn't work well with front-line reps. Remember, they're typically being judged by how fast they can get you off the phone, not the ultimate fallout from their interaction with you.

Get higher up in the corporate food chain, though, and it's definitely something to mention, particularly if you've spent a good amount of money with the company in the past or had planned to do so in the future.

Former contractor and author Terry Meany used that approach after he had problems getting an electric sander repaired.

"The first repair lasted about a week, and when I retrieved it the second time, it wouldn't run at all. I boxed it up (and) sent it to the president of the company with a note stating, in part, the poor service was only one of the reasons they were losing so much business to their Japanese competitors," wrote Meany, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Remodeling Your Home," among other titles. "The vice president of technical development promptly sent me a new sander and a report of their findings after contacting the Seattle repair shop."

Get help. Stacy Blanton of Indianapolis had a terrible experience in New York when she discovered the bathroom of her rather pricey boutique hotel had no cold water, so the toilet wouldn't flush and the shower was scalding hot. Incredibly, the hotel's management turned down her request for a break on the room. A relative who knew someone in the hotel's management tried to intervene, to no avail. All it took was a call from a journalist (ahem), and Watson got the free night she should have had months earlier.

Now, I'm not going to solve your problem for you, but there are plenty of other places you can look. Knowing who regulates the company can help.

David Keller's local electric company was ignoring his complaints, so he called its regulator, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. After explaining his problem, the commission agreed he had a legitimate beef.

"They gave me some hard-to-find phone numbers of a few top executives that they work with when dealing with complaints," Keller said. "Amazingly, my situation was addressed pretty quickly. They were nice about it, and it never got threatening or nasty on either side. But they were able to fix the things their unthinking employees couldn't."

Sometimes just having an authority figure in the same room can help.

Loan officer Brian Foster of Little Rock, Ark., had a client who had tried on her own to get an erroneous collections account removed from her credit report. The collection agency not only insisted to the credit bureaus that the account was legitimate; it stuck her on hold for more than an hour when she tried to make her case that it wasn't.

Foster had the client call from his office speakerphone the next day.

"She told the collection manager … that she was in her banker's office and wanted me to witness what was said," Foster said. "After a minute of stuttering and stammering, the collection manager confirmed that it was not my borrower's debt and faxed a note on their bank letterhead within 15 minutes."

Judgment day

Go to court. Filing a small-claims case takes some effort, and victory isn't assured. But it may grab the company's attention if nothing else has.

Frances Gillespie's insurance company decided a body shop had taken too long to fix her car, which was extensively damaged in an accident caused by another driver. The insurer refused to pay the full rental car cost, leaving Gillespie with a bill of around $250.

After weeks of fruitless discussions with countless insurance phone reps, Gillespie finally filed a case in small-claims court.

"Within three hours of my filing, I received a call from (the insurer) stating 'we have your money for you.'" Gillespie wrote. "(The) check arrived within a few days."

Coincidence? Maybe. But as Gillespie said, "Sometimes it pays to be the squeaky wheel."

Liz Pulliam Weston is the Web's most-read personal-finance writer. She is the author of several books, most recently "Your Credit Score: Your Money & What's at Stake." Weston's award-winning columns appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board and helps middle-class families cope at Building a Brighter Future.

Updated Nov. 17, 2009

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