Fight Back!

About four years ago, I had a really bad customer service experience with Sears. I was so enraged by their clueless lack of proper customer relationship management that I surfed the Internet for a website I could vent on and found one:(http://www.complaints.com/directory/2005/june/8/2.htm).
I wrote a scathing and detailed description of my experience, posted it on the website and walked away feeling like I had unloaded a burden. I did receive satisfaction from Sears, but I still felt the story needed to be told — I’m a writer, and writers can’t resist a good story.

The interesting thing is that about every six months, I get an email (still!) from someone who is in the midst of a horrifically awful Sears experience that has not yet been resolved and found my scathing missive. One woman and I exchanged several emails where she asked my advice on how to get them to pay attention to her and to solve her problem to her satisfaction.

Here’s what I told her, and these suggestions would apply to any company you could be having a problem with:

1. Write a letter to the CEO of Sear’s and FedEx it so it gets hand-delivered to his/her desk. Write under your signature that you have CC’d your lawyer, the FTC, the Better Business Bureau, the Direct Marketing Association, all your local newspapers and television stations, The New York Times and any of those TV programs where the investigative reporter goes out and fights for the consumer. Then, make sure you send out all those copies. Don’t pretend to do it. Do it.

Note: If you don’t have a lawyer, find one and ask their permission to include their name on the letter and to send them a letter. Tell them if you decide to hire a lawyer for your case, they’ll have first dibbs.

2. Call those TV programs where the investigative reporter goes out and fights for the consumer and try to get your situation resolved by them, on television.

3. The day after the letter arrives, pick up the phone and call the CEO’s office. When the admin asks who you are and why you’re calling, tell her your name and that you’re following up a letter you FedExed to him/her yesterday. If she wants more information, tell her it’s a personal matter. Always be pleasant, never rude or upset. Usually the CEO will not toss your letter. He or she will forward it on to the head of customer service or some other executive, who will be required to follow up because the directive came from the CEO.

4. If you don’t get any satisfaction, call the Better Business Bureau and/or the FTC and any other organization and file a written complaint. For instance, if you’re complaint is against a doctor or medical facility, you can call the American Medical Association in your state.

4. If you still don’t get any restitution or satisfaction, consider hiring a lawyer and taking them to court.

When the Westin Hotels chains started advertising that they were equipping all their rooms with feather pillows and comforters, I wrote a letter to the CEO of Starwood Hotels, the parent company, questioning their judgment. I told him that I was allergic to feathers, as were most asthmatics, and that they were losing a very large group of customers who could never sleep in a Westin, since about one out of every 10 persons has asthma (that’s not a real statistic, just a good guess). I got a personal phone call from the director of marketing of Starwood Hotels. Today, the Westin chain still uses feather pillows and comforters, but they stock enough cotton comforters and pillows to replace the entire suite of rooms if they have to. And the few times I have stayed in a Westin, housekeeping has arrived within five minutes to change out the bedding for me.

When you’re right, it pays to be the squeaky wheel. If you believe in your cause, don’t give up!

Please check out my novel, In Fashion's Web on Amazon.