Fight Back with the Consumerist

Recently, I came across a brilliant resource for strategies to fight back when you’re getting nowhere with that online store, chain store or business that just doesn’t seem to care

The fine folks at the Consumerist Blog have put together The Ultimate Consumerist Guide to Fighting Back.

The guide to fighting back covers all sorts of useful strategies and they start right at the beginning by giving tips on how to craft a good complaint letter right through to email bombing your complaint to all the executives in the company when customer service starts ignoring you. The really good thing about this guide is whilst still funny, it’s actually useful and doesn’t recommend doing anything illegal, and it’s all strategies that have been tried and tested with positive results.

The section regarding the Legal Route is probably not so relevant to us in Australia, however I recommend checking out the Australian Government’s Consumer Affairs site for advice on situations that require legal escalation, as well as a general overview of your rights and responsibilities as a consumer.

So rather than writing an in-depth post, I’m asking everyone to head over to the consumerist and read this guide. I really think a lot of situations such as warranty problems, poor customer service and so forth come about because, as consumers, we are either uninformed about our rights or the company just makes it so hard we decide its not worth it in chasing it up. It is worth it, we all work damn hard for our money and if we want to see an increase in the level of customer service, we need to start standing up for ourselves.

Also, my final point for the day – lets not forget the glass half full side of things – there are some fabulous stores out there providing outstanding service. Make it your policy to tell those stores what a great job they are doing. My philosophy is this: I may be someone who complains when things just aren’t good enough, but I am also the first to compliment when they are.

(I will be off my high horse by next week I promise!)