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Any normal person would have run out of patience long before Tim Sorg did. Virtually from the moment Sorg received his Dell Dimension L800r in December 2000, the electrical engineer from Fort Wayne, Indiana, had problems installing software. Programs got corrupted, and the PC grew increasingly crash-prone.

So Sorg called Dell tech support--and that's when his troubles really began. A representative told him to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows. Three reformats later, the system still misbehaved. So Dell sent a technician to replace the RAM. This didn't help. The tech returned three times to replace other parts. Still no luck.

After four on-site visits, 11 reformats, and more than 40 phone calls, Dell replaced the machine. Sorg turned the new PC on--and it crashed. Worse, Dell claimed that he'd never returned his old PC, even though shipping records showed that someone at Dell had signed for it.

So Sorg took his troubles to the Web. In December 2001 his wife, Shirley, filed a complaint at the Better Business Bureau Online. Ten days later Dell called to offer a newer, faster PC. It arrived a week after that.

The new machine works adequately. But it's refurbished (the Sorgs had requested a new computer), the fan is noisy, and, Sorg adds, "it doesn't begin to erase the poor way Dell has handled this." (Dell spokesperson Bryant Hilton apologized for Sorg's woes and says the vendor is pleased that the problems were resolved.)

It used to be that when a merchant's customers felt they'd gotten a raw deal, they wrote letters to the company president or to the local paper. If they were really steamed, they'd tell their friends. Now they go on the Web and tell the world. According to TARP, an Arlington, Virginia, group that has studied consumers for three decades, customers who've sought online assistance from a vendor and failed to get it are four times more likely to vent their frustrations on the Web--a phenomenon TARP calls "word of mouse."

Using the Net to seek advice and share horror stories isn't new: Twenty years ago, newsgroup posts debated the merits of Sony TVs and warned of leaky Volkswagen Rabbits. But the Web has made the process far easier, thanks to dozens of gripe sites where customers can post reports, seek remedies, or exact revenge. Some sites, such as the Better Business Bureau and PlanetFeedback, forward consumer grievances to companies. Others, like The Complaint Station and homegrown "companyXYZsucks.com" sites, publicize gripes in an effort to shame vendors into doing the right thing.

These sites promise to make your voice heard. But do they work? To find out, we tested a dozen mediation sites by posting a bogus complaint about a fictional company. We said that we'd paid $49 for a software package called WealthEnhancer 2000 but that the product had never arrived and the company had ignored all contact attempts--the earmarks of a classic Internet scam. To monitor the gripe sites' correspondence with both the "angry customer" and the fictitious company, we directed responses to post office boxes, e-mail accounts, phone numbers, and fax numbers we'd set up.

The results? These sites provide no panacea for apoplectic consumers. While most of the sites posted our complaints for viewing by other visitors, a couple never forwarded them to the company. (See the results table.)

Two sites contacted our phony company by postal mail; the rest sent an automated e-mail. And e-mail is the least-effective method of getting a company's attention, says Cindy Grimm, TARP's director of benchmarking.

Our test was designed to test whether gripe sites really forward complaints to vendors. But that's only half the battle--however you make contact with a vendor, you have to find someone who's willing to make things right. Otherwise, your problem may remain unresolved. See "7 Ways to Win at Whining" for tips on nudging the odds in your favor.

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