This past year, I've been taken advantage of by businesses too many times. I've also heard too many stories of businesses treating people badly. The lack of good customer service is so amazing to me. Isn't this a bad economy? Shouldn't we be getting even better customer service than before?

Let me give you some examples of the poor service I've encountered and heard about. First, the waiter at a restaurant that we frequented got our order wrong 3 times. Each time, he never apologized and didn't even offer to switch the order when I told him it was wrong. Second, the woman at the nail salon talked about me right in front of my face. She assumed I couldn't understand her since she was speaking a different language, but I understood her perfectly. So, half way through, I told her and she wasn't apologetic at all. Instead she said I deserved it! Finally, the airline cancelled our reservation, rerouted us on a different flight, and caused us to sit in the airport for the entire day while trying to get to our vacation destination. They claimed all sorts of reasons why they had to do this, but the primary reason was because they had overbooked their customers.

So, how to fight back against this? Well, after encountering too many of these incidents, I decided that I wasn't going to be a customer that just let it go. I would retaliate. So, I polled all of my friends and here is the most effective way that I found to write a complaint letter and get noticed. In the beginning, I would write a ton of letters to the customer service department or I would go online and give the business a negative review. Oftentimes, nothing ever happened. I am still waiting for the airline to get back to me. But, after talking to a friend of mine, and trying her method, I think I have no found a much better way of getting attention and lodging a complaint. If you've ever been cheated, insulted or mistreated by a business, try these steps to making yourself heard and getting an apology you deserve.

Steps to getting good customer service

1. Don't call in the complain, always write it down. I say this because of the countless hours I've spent on the phone with customer service talking to supervisors and agents and getting nowhere. If you want to get heard, write a letter, simple as that. Don't talk on the phone because there is no record of this. Always make sure you have everything in writing.

2. Address the letter to the supervisor, but also copy the head of the department, the Cheif Operating Officer, the CEO of the company, and anyone else that is a senior manager in that area. Find the names of each of these people and make sure you list them and carbon copy them in the letter. List out all of their names. You can easily find their names online by doing a quick Google search, going to the company's Annual Report, or going to the company website. Oftentimes, the names of the executives are listed there.

3. Also find the name of the person at the local Better Business Bureau who would be in charge of the area of the business that you are complaining about and copy that person as well.

4. In the letter, detail out the entire incident. Make sure you state the date and time, the person you dealt with, and a summary of the conversation. Be explicit about what happened.

5. Tell the business what type of business you've already done with them. Include how much business your family, friends, and co-workers have all given as well.

6. Be polite, but firm.

7. Tell them that you did not want to resort to this letter, but you had to since your complaints were not heard and your issues were never taken care of.

8. Leave your name and contact information so they can contact you to follow up.

9. Finally, if you are really annoyed and angry, also carbon copy your local paper and send a letter to them. If nothing happens with your complaint, at the very least, they will know about it and can probably share your story with other people.

This is by far the most effective way of getting your complaint to the right people. If you are going to take the time to complain, make sure it gets to the people that can do something about it. Phone calls to customer service departments are often fruitless since there is no documentation about what happened. Many of my friends have tried this tactic and have been much more successful. I myself went through this process after 3 months of going back and forth with a particular restaurant. 2 days after sending the letter, I received a call from the General Manager. For 3 months, nothing had happened and it took only 2 days for this letter to be effective.

Stand up for yourself. You have rights as a customer. Don't let a business take advantage of you.