How do you contact a company with a complaint?

When a device sputters, fails, or just plain never goes on, it can lead to an unending cycle of misery that's worse than the thing failing in the first place. Many consumers regret buying things in the first place. This explains the popularity of overpriced extended warranties.

Personally, I try to avoid calling, as the calls can last for hours and still be fruitless. I don't even often complain. I make an attempt to get something fixed, then gauge whether it's worth the time and shipping charges to fix it. I have learned it's better to invest in reliable, long-lasting goods that won't just end up as toxic junk (which they can even when properly disposed of or recycled).

I have learned that stores often do not fix things they sell. Just in the past couple months I've had several devices gone awry. My first step with one, a phone, was to take it back to the store. I was told I had to mail it back to the company. I decided to not even bother, as if they could sell a phone with a defective battery, they can't be trusted to fix it. I am not bothering to make a complaint, as I wish to upgrade to a more trustworthy phone anyway. Same with one of the laptops–it works but has some issues. The store, which was online, says I have to ship it to the manufacturer. While this is not more work than shipping it back to the store, it's a large company with little customer service, and I have not yet attempted this. I would rather deal with a place I have already had contact with.

In the case of the second laptop, I first took it back to the store (not the Apple Store but a big box retailer), where they refused to fix it, insisting I caused the damage. I know I did not, and they were unreasonable in my opinion. After a long, pointless discussion during which I decided to not shop there ever again if possible, they told me to contact the manufacturer, which I did, first by phone. The conversation including wait time was well over an hour. then I made an appointment on the phone to take the computer to the local company store, and they are fixing it for free and did not insist that I caused the damage.

Sites like Yelp and Ripoff Report have become repositories of rage. They're even used to get back at business owners who have committed injustices unrelated to the person writing the reviews.

The problem with Ripoff Report and such sites is that the more customers a company has, the more complaints it has, and even decent companies have hundreds of angry complaints. If people were to read that site they would stop shopping. Yelp is no better. We're in a review-mad system where reviews are gamed. One sandwich shop offered me a free salad in exchange for a 5-star Yelp review.

I don't write Yelp reviews unless a place asks me to and I like the place enough to do it–then I am glad to write a good one. But the one time in recent years I felt I have been treated badly in a personal way, I took to writing an online review. This was one of the few times I both filled out a customer survey and took to writing an online review. I was just one of many disgruntled former customers of this place using the site to blow off steam. I found myself laughing at the other comically bad experiences. It's a place to commisserate and share a laugh over the difference between the company's marketing materials and the reality. And, of course, to warn others to be wary. I can't see feeling that annoyed about a gadget.

This company is very good at crunching customer feedback and puts more effort into that than their actual business. I got numerous messages by phone and email. It cemented my opinion that they are all about image. Still, I was glad that they listened. Most companies do not have any response mechanism whatsoever.

Some even have no way of contacting them. Others ask you to use Twitter or Facebook, which requires an account, and making yourself public. I find Web forms the least likely way to get a response.

The demand for answers and fixes is largely met by forums, bloggers, and paid answer sites. Yelp and other sites are places to vent. Phoning is a huge time commitment and while it's nice to get a human, these humans are often untrained and offshore. Emails sometimes work; perhaps Twitter is better as it is public and companies use it as PR.

All in all, I don't think complaining in itself is productive; instead, try to fix the problem or move on. My thoughts are: Complain only to warn others, or if you really need some group therapy. Realize every place has good and bad days. Remember they are people on the other side too and the people answering your complaints are not the ones who caused the problems. It's easy to get really upset, and companies do not train customer service well enough to handle angry customers. No gadget failure should result in raising your blood pressure. Above all, realize some things can't be fixed, in which case a glass of wine can do a world of good.