Tired of harassing calls and emails? As readers know, I often find myself on the pointed stick of frustration and aggravation, and that’s when I begin my search for new strategies that yell (among other things) “HALT!” While I tend to go further than most folks to address the problem, I urge each of you to adopt the following bits of advice:
Don’t be afraid to post your concerns. In this day and age, social media is a giant source of both good and bad critiques.
With multi-quabillions of noses pressed to a screen daily, it behooves consumers to make use of social media’s oomph. While I urge everyone to compliment positive customer service, take it a step further and post directly to companies’ social media pages, their online user communities and/or the Better Business Bureau for prompt attention to your consumer issues. It’s one thing to complain to the manager about that proverbial fly in your soup but quite another to post on Yelp, for example, how revolted you felt to observe the little sucker swimming around and probably swallowing your soup d’jour.
Reach an actual human. How utterly exasperating it is to scroll through several clicks on the keyboard each with its own automated message, stay on hold for fifteen or more minutes, only to be discontinued. The very best way to quickly locate customer service phone numbers, live chat links, email addresses and help desk contact info for thousands of companies is with the highly-rated GetHuman app for iOS and Android. (Too, check gethuman.com.) Enter your phone number and GetHuman will call you back when you’re first in the customer service queue, as well as let you skip the long wait on hold, know exactly what to say, get reminders when it’s time to follow up, and many more benefits. No more endless waits or robotic messages!
Spot (and stop) phishing emails. Don’t just check the sender’s name but, rather, the originating email address. Even if it appears on the up-and-up, check thoroughly or risk being scammed.