• Recommend:
• 0 Comments

Satisfaction Promises Consumers Just That

Web-based complaint resolution service guarantees satisfaction within 60 days.

By Alexandra Barrett, PCWorld   

Don't know where to look for a complaint professional? Try the Web, where more and more professional complaint resolution companies are springing up.

Satisfaction is the latest such service to find its way online. Its new site allows disgruntled consumers to go online to submit their list of woes, what a reasonable resolution might be, and how much they'd be willing to pay for it. Satisfaction then reviews the complaint to determine the likelihood that the problem can be resolved within a reasonable amount of time at that price, after which it accepts or rejects your offer.

If Satisfaction accepts your offer, you can expect resolution to your problem within 60 days, the company says. In the event that Satisfaction is not successful within that period of time, Satisfaction agrees to drop the case, charging you only a minimal $5 materials fee.

Satisfaction has experience in all sorts of consumer disputes, from gripes with airlines and insurance companies, to warranty and repair issues on consumer goods. Connections help speed up the complaint resolution process.

But most of all, says Satisfaction, the company has patience and persistence on their side. Most busy adults have neither the time nor the inclination to bother with the hassle of getting a complaint resolved.

Satisfaction on the other hand, claims "We enjoy waiting on hold endlessly, punching our way through exhausting automated phone menus, repeating the situation to different service people countless times, and most importantly, getting you that which you should have gotten the first time around."

Fighting To Be Heard

Satisfaction is not the first consumer advocacy group to take their services online. Other members of this increasingly crowded club include Complain.com; Fight Back!, from consumer-advocacy journalist David Horowitz; Complain to Us, a problem-resolution service; and Cemptor.com, a free consumer advocacy service.

Each of these sites, however, differs in style and approach. Satisfaction and Complain To Us offer personalized service, for what can amount to a substantial cost. Complain to Us charges $50/hour, resolving most problems in that amount of time.

Complain.com and Fight Back!, on the other hand, only charge approximately $20 per complaint, but they make no promises that your problem will be resolved. Instead, these services bank on the presumption that errant companies will settle under the threat of public scrutiny and media attention.

Cemptor, finally, does not charge for investigating consumer complaints, but sells statistical information such as the number of complaints logged against a company.