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Where to Gripe

Choose your virtual soapbox carefully. The bigger the site where you post your complaint, the more likely it is to be monitored by mainstream media reporters--who are, after all, always looking for a good story. Write to entertain. If you can get your story on one of the big social news sites like Digg or Reddit, you'll stand a better chance of attracting the interest and comments of other consumers who have similar problems. There's strength in numbers: If lots of people join your chorus of complaints, you're more likely to get a company's attention.

And there's always the possibility that a fellow consumer might have a solution to your dilemma. Which brings up the other good reason to take your gripes to the Web: Even if they don't force a company to publicly eat humble pie, your complaints might lead to a good workaround for your problem.

The best place to get that kind of advice may be the vendor's own site. Not all vendors have user forums, but if you find one, it's the logical place to post. If a vendor is checking any forums, its own is sure to be one; and if you're lucky, you might run into a truly helpful technical or customer support rep. Be as specific as possible in documenting your problem.

Outside the vendor's site, look for busy forums that aren't overrun by flame wars or comment spam. The more focused the forum, the more likely it is to be helpful. For example, I've found solutions to every problem I've ever had with my ReplayTV digital video recorder by searching the Digital Video & Audio Devices section of either AVS Forum or Planet Replay.

And you might run into a helpful customer service type on a third-party forum. Hewlett-Packard's customer service department, for example, is experimenting with having some employees post on certain forums, visibly identified as HP reps. Addressing problems early on through forum posts has the potential of saving the company the expense of dealing with a lot of support calls down the road, says HP spokesperson Siobhan Flanagan. Flanagan admits that it's good public relations, too: "People are talking about their service experiences--and if you're not listening, you're missing the boat."

Dell, having experienced the fallout from Jeff Jarvis's blog posts, decided to fight fire with fire by starting its Direct2Dell.com blog last summer. Employees post news and commentary, and often respond to customer comments, which are encouraged. The blog "provides a human element to Dell, the corporation," says Dell digital media manager and frequent blogger Lionel Menchaca.

It's clear that Dell is getting the message: Even the largest firms must pay attention to their Web-savvy users, or suffer the consequences. You can put corporate America's consumer sensitivity to the test by airing your grievance online.

Yardena Arar is a senior editor for PC World. You can send her e-mail at consumerwatch@pcworld.com.