« Sesame Street Swine... | Main | Are You Prepared for... »
 

Entry bubble How to file a complaint

By: Jess | September 03, 2009 | Category: Money

customer service agentThis past month my Internet service provider has been the bane of my existence. My service has been fickle, at best. More often than not, it will work for a few hours and then stop. And then I'll spend another hour on the phone with customer service trying to troubleshoot.

They've sent a technician once to fix the problem, and our service worked for a week or two, but then last week it went out again. I wasted more time on hold and talking to very nice and very helpful customer service agents. (That's not sarcasm, the people I spoke with this time around tried to do the best they could.)

But alas, my service still goes out every couple hours and then stays out for several more.

I finally had to file a complaint against the company. I've never had to do that before so I turned to ConsumerAction.gov for advice on what to do.

My first instinct was to call up my Better Business Bureau, but ConsumerAction.gov advised that I try to contact someone higher up at the company first. So I hunted around on the company Web site until I found a contact name and email for the Vice President of customer relations.

Then I followed some of the suggestions from one of the sample complaint letters and read about next steps to take. I decided I'd wait a week before contacting the BBB to see if the company could resolve the problem. Earlier this week I got a phone call from the company telling me they were trying to get the problem fixed as soon as possible and I have another technician coming out this week.

I really hope this solves the whole problem. I hate paying so much for service and then not having it and I'd really rather not have to file a complaint with the BBB.

Have any of you ever had problems with a company that you had to file a complaint against? What was the process like? Was it easy or tough and did you get the results you wanted?

| View Comments [3] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: complaints   customer   internet   jess   service  

Comments (3):

blue comment bubble Posted by consumer advocate on September 03, 2009 at 11:38 AM EDT

Hi Jess. You might also consider asking for a refund for the time period when you had intermittent service. Once they have fixed the problem, it might be worth one more call to customer service to request a credit to your next bill. You shouldn't have to pay for services you didn't receive!

Comment Permalink

blue comment bubble Posted by should have to pay on September 03, 2009 at 01:09 PM EDT

yeah you should call back and make sure you get reinbursed you shouldn't have to pay for services you didn't recieve

Comment Permalink

blue comment bubble Posted by Thelma on September 05, 2009 at 02:34 AM EDT

Jess, The BBB is a "dues" company. If a company pays dues, they get good comments if you call about them, if you complain about them, its schredded. I thought everyone knew this. I own a company, the BBB solicit me. This is seriously TRUE!

Comment Permalink