How to complain and get results

If you feel you have more to complain about these days, you may be right.

The products we use are increasingly complex, which often means they have more ways to malfunction. Companies are still struggling to hire and retain workers, so the customer service representatives who are supposed to help you may not know how. And that’s if you can even get through to a human being after navigating websites, automated chatbots and phone systems that seem designed to thwart you at every turn.

“You’re searching for where to call. Once you get through, you’re going to yell ‘agent!’ in the phone 12 times, and then they send you to the wrong place,” says Scott M. Broetzmann, chief executive of research firm Customer Care Measurement & Consulting in Alexandria, Virginia.

On average, customers made 2.9 contacts with a company while attempting to resolve problems, according to the firm’s 2020 National Customer Rage Study, which polled 1,026 consumers about problems with products or services in the past 12 months. A whopping 58% of respondents who complained got nothing — zero, zilch — as a result of their efforts. So perhaps it’s not surprising that 65% of those who had a problem experienced consumer rage. In my latest for the Associated Press, learn how to complain and get results.

Friday’s need-to-know money news

Today’s top story: How to keep investing when the stock market trembles. Also in the news: What to buy (and skip) on Black Friday, financial companies are hiding complaints, and how age affects your credit score.

When the Stock Market Trembles, Fight Your Fear and Keep Investing
Keep calm and invest on.

What to Buy (and Skip) on Black Friday 2018
Putting your Black Friday gameplan together.

Financial Companies Rack Up Complaints, but Good Luck Finding Them
Companies are hiding their complaints.

What does age have to do with credit scores? Plenty
A lot more than you’d think.

Friday’s need-to-know money news

iStock_000014977164Medium

140814_juris_usps-jpg-crop-promo-mediumlargeToday’s top story: What to do with the extra money from the rise in median income. Also in the news: Post office banking could be the next big thing, household debt is creeping back up to recession levels, and the pros and cons of posting your consumer complaint on social media.

Median Income Is Up: Here’s What to Do With That Extra Money
Using it wisely.

Post Office Banking: An Old Idea Getting New Life
Making banking super convenient.

Household Debt Slowly Creeping Back Up to Recession Levels
What that increase means.

Should You Post Your Consumer Complaint on Twitter or Facebook?
The pros and cons of public shaming.