How to Complain When You Get Bad Service

Be quick. Whenever possible, speak up about your concerns in person. By addressing the issue in real time while you’re still on vacation or on the car lot, you give the business more options for fixing it. If your complaint involves calling or emailing a company after you’ve noticed a problem, give the other party no more than a week to 10 days to resolve it before escalating the issue, advises Teresa Murray, Consumer Watchdog director for the Public Interest Research Group. “As time drags on, you lose some of your rights,” she says. “Do it while the details are fresh.”

Climb the company ladder. Christopher Elliott, a journalist and consumer advocate, maintains a list of customer service emails and phone numbers for scores of national companies. If those don’t get you satisfaction, he also has contact info for key executives at many of those companies. Keep emails brief, polite and factual, he advises.

Navigating complaints with different types of merchants

“I just bought a new cellphone, and now I’m being charged for insurance I didn’t ask for.”

If you’re finding unexpected or confusing charges on your bill, start by reviewing your cellphone contract to check whether introductory offers have expired, Murray suggests. If you feel you have a valid complaint, contact the cellphone provider directly to ask for relief. If that doesn’t work, file a report with the Federal Communications Commission.

“My plane has an engine problem, and I’m stranded at the airport.”

You’re entitled to a cash refund on domestic flights if, for any reason, your flight is canceled or delayed for more than three hours for your departure or arrival. If the problem is your carrier’s fault — say, its computer went down — you could be due a free meal for the delay. If you have to fly out the next day, you should get a free hotel stay. (If the delay is weather-related or otherwise outside the airline’s control, you’ll probably have to foot your own food and lodging.)

Visit the U.S. Department of Transportation’s website to find different airlines’ customer service commitments. With that information, approach your airline’s counter at the airport and politely ask about meal vouchers, hotel accommodations and ground transportation, as appropriate.

“We prepaid for a luxury suite, but the smell was unbearable.”

As soon as you spot a problem, reach out to someone at the hotel’s front desk or contact a vacation property’s host, calmly describing the problem and your hoped-for resolution. If that doesn’t work and there’s no higher-up to appeal to, start working from the bottom up the next day: the local hotel management, then the chain’s corporate headquarters — or, if it’s a vacation rental, the vacation rental platform’s help center. You’ll typically need to complain about a vacation rental within 72 hours of discovering a problem, and you’ll be expected to document the problem as well.

In especially egregious cases, you can use what Elliott describes as the “nuclear option”: filing a dispute with your credit card company to get the charge for your stay reversed.

“A contractor upgraded my bathroom, but now the plumbing leaks.”

Complaints about contractors are so common that it’s always wise to hire contractors who are licensed, bonded and insured, Murray says. If speaking with the contractor doesn’t yield results, you can file a complaint with the city where you’ve (ideally) gotten a permit and, if your contractor has a state license, with your state.

Many states have funds with names like Homeowners’ Construction Recovery Fund or Residential Recovery Fund from which you might get financial relief, says Erin Witte, senior counsel on consumer protection for the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. “That’s a situation where you should definitely file a complaint and have your documents in order,” she says.

“My new car keeps breaking down, and the dealer isn’t fixing it.”

Familiarize yourself with your state’s lemon law, covering problematic cars, advises Ronald Montoya, manager of consumer advice for the automotive site Edmunds.com. “As a general rule, the car needs to go into the shop for the same issue three times or it must be out of service more than 30 days to be considered a lemon,” he says. For persistent car problems, ask the following people for help in this order: the service adviser in the dealership’s service department, the service manager, the general manager of the dealership and — in extreme cases — the car brand’s corporate office.

You might also consult another dealer within the same brand to get a fresh set of eyes on the problem, Montoya says. If all this doesn’t help, you can file complaints with the state attorney general’s office; a city or county consumer affairs department; and a Motor Vehicle Dealer Board, an Auto Dealers Association or organization with a similar name that oversees dealerships in your state.