Fighting Corporate America

Have you ever tried to contact a customer service agent either online or by phone? Often it's nearly impossible to get a real person who can actually help you solve your problem. But today, after several weeks of rather impassioned calls and letters, I actually got some results from two different customer service agents.

The stories are rather long. One involved AT&T Wireless charges to an account that had been set up years ago when we moved and had to change a Cingular SIM card to an AT&T one in order to get good reception. Saying that it was impossible to cancel the line without exorbitant charges was the usual routine, (the letter seemed to get lost) but finally today I was told by a manager that all charges had been dropped, fees waived and that my final bill would be reduced by 78%.

The second involved an electronic payment by my bank to Discover that cleared my bank account, but didn't end up in my account. That resulted in a huge jump in my interest rate of more than 18 percent, a late fee, harassing phone calls and letters. Finally after several calls, investigations by the bank and credit card company, Discover admitted it had been their fault and hoped that "it had not caused me any inconvenience." Yet they only seemed to indicate that they would rescind the late fee, and interest, but said nothing until I called to inquire about getting my old interest rate back. "Yes, your rate has been returned to its January level, all fees and interest credited," said the customer service rep. So I prevailed on that one too, but only after calling to find out why.

So I would say be persistent. Hopefully with enough patience, persistence and perseverance, you'll reach someone with the authority to actually follow up on your complaint.