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Ask HN: What are your tips/tricks for escalating your issues with big corps?

16 points by tdfx ↗ HN
As question implies, big corporations (banks, telecos, etc.) often let customer troubles get lost in the shuffle. You're only able to call an 800 number and the system is designed to make it difficult to escalate an issue to anyone that can actually take action.

What are your tips for getting around this system? For things like Google, we often see people do a hail mary post on HN. Sometimes people email Tim Cook or Jeff Bezos. But especially for banks, it's difficult to find someone who cares. What has worked for you?

15 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 38.0 ms ] thread
tannedNerd
Most companies Twitter support is much better than any phone or email line because they hate super negative sentiment of their brand being so public.
slowwwclap
This doesn’t work as well as it should - companies that are understaffed can’t do much with more feedback.

Also, I don’t like sharing my dirty laundry with the whole world just to get a bug fixed.

slowwwclap
LIKE THIS: we use Upserve for our restaurant POS’s. We have had a new support lead every few months since the original team and CEO, Angus, left. Since then, the product has been sold several times and the product hasn’t changed, and more and more standard functions fail. Then you get on support and wait 90 min and the queue shuts down when everyone goes to line. It’s shameful. We’ll be leaving for another provider soon - just need to confirm credit card pre authorizations.
pasttense01
Switch to another company. For example why do you need a big bank? Unless you are a big company yourself small financial institutions will provide all the services you need.
toomuchtodo
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1201004375730114560.html

For banks specifically, depending on the error you pursuing relief for, you can also reach out to your state's financial regulator, the CFPB, and the OCC (in that order).

If your bank sucks, switch banks (either to a credit union or a brokerage, depending on your financial needs). Life is too short to deal with unnecessary levels of suck when alternatives are plentiful.

markus_zhang
Many industries have government watchdog institutions. Find out and call them.
Nextgrid
A lot of these are toothless - Comcast seems to be getting away with overcharging people for a decade now.
Trias11
Twitter. Find all major twitter handles for the given corp and make a charged twit.

They all monitor social media and will highly likely reply fast.

I just did that today.

Nextgrid
Refusing to pay.

Every scummy telco that makes it impossible to get in touch will suddenly try to call you and even work within your terms (in a normal situation, asking them to call back at a specific time tomorrow is a no-no, but suddenly when they're out of money they'll be more than happy to do so) once they need something from you. As a bonus you will typically speak to a competent person instead of a monkey.

Of course you need to make sure you're legally in the clear. In general, if they're not delivering the service promised and reasonable efforts to resolve the situation amicably were unsuccessful then it's fair game considering if they want to take it to the courts they'd need to first explain and justify why they weren't receptive to those efforts.

cddotdotslash
Sounds like a fantastic way to get your bill sent to collections and ruin your credit in the process.
Nextgrid
They'll reach out to get the problem solved way before it reaches collections - the concept of collections is that they sell the debt at a loss so it's against their interests to do so.

In addition, if you can prove that the debt is invalid (if you were not receiving the service you've paid for and made reasonable attempts to resolve it beforehand) then the collectors themselves will make a loss which should over time sour their relationship with the original company.

In my case, debt collections was the only way to actually get my problem resolved in the end. They've passed the info back to the company and they've finally cancelled the contract (and the "debt"), something I wasn't able to do with the company directly because I couldn't get through anyone competent enough to understand the situation and willing to fix it.

Credit history is a valid point however in my case I do not need credit anytime soon (the only potential reason I would need it is a mortgage in the far future) and in my country credit report entries expire after 6 years so it was not a problem.

chaircher
"You're only able to call an 800 number" sweetie no that's just what they want you to think. Find the address of their office and write into them recorded delivery (in the UK this means a signature from someone on receipt of the letter but you might have a different phrase for it). It shows them you're not going to jump through any hoops you don't have a legal obligation to jump through and also that you're collecting evidence to escalate it beyond them if they don't cooperate.
akadruid1
Concur, recorded delivery has worked like magic for me too in the UK. The UK is also good for consumer activist sites like MSE and regulators / ombudsmen. I bought an insurance policy once which failed to deliver the policy documents, and then wouldn't let me cancel. One email to the ombudsman and I got an apology and full refund within 24 hours.
toast0
Look, we're stuck with some big businesses; it's hard to have a cell phone without the big three carriers. But there's no reason to use a big bank that doesn't care about customer service. Credit unions have big ATM networks, and most of them have good customer service, and some of them actually have interest rates on deposits (as much as anyone does these days, but 0.5% is better than 0.001%). Even doing banking at a brokerage is a step up vs a big bank.

All that said, a registered letter often helps, and so does copying said letter to their regulator and/or a relevant member of congress. If I had a major issue and couldn't get anything done, I'd try protesting at their corporate HQ.

giantg2
Protection groups. Stuff like attorney general, BBB, CFPB, etc.