analytical Q May-Aug 2000 Sept-Dec 2000 Contact Discussion

The Diary
of
Anne Ku

24 December 2000 Sunday

 

 

 

 

 

COMPLAINT SITES

WHO will listen to our complaints and do something about them? Usually I ask to speak to the manager. This helped me in sorting out my electricity bills which persistently overcharged due to wrong reading.

If the manager is equally incompetetent, then do we go next level up? In the case of BT, I must have spoken to a dozen different people, each not willing to take the responsibility of the previous. It's as though their jobs were so well-defined and compartmentalised that they filter out what they are not responsible for. In this case, I would have to file with Oftel, the telecommunications regulator.

I could write a story and submit it to a national newspaper. Or I could complain to the Consumer Association. Whatever I do, it will take time, energy, and skill to write a good letter and even more so an effective one.

What should I do about bad lawyers? Complain to the Law Society or in the US, the state ombudsman.

In my frustration, I posed this question to the Freepint community: I'd like help on finding complaint sites, where I can voice my complaint about poor services: plumbing, lawyers, etc.

The effectiveness of this discussion forum is shown by the number and speed of good suggestions. Here goes:

complainTous.org - a college run web site. They call the companies and try to get your money back.

http://www.delayed.net is for frustrated rail passengers in the UK. And there's tubehell.com for Londoners, too.

In the US, the Better Business Bureaux run a formal complaints and arbitration service. http://www.vabbb.org

http://www.thesqueakywheel.com

http://www.planetfeedback.com

UK petrol tax complaints go to: http://www-boycott-the-pumps.com

http://www.ugetheard.com/

http://www.complaints.com/

http://www.reviewfinder.com/

http://www.why.com/index.cfm

But what I was really looking for was: "I read somewhere about a site in Germany in which they charge companies for the privilege of replying on their site to complaints that are lodged free of charge.

Yesterday
Tomorrow
 
Related diary entries:
BT: bloody terrible!
lawyers advice