[mikeash]

What else have you tried? In my experience, a lot of people say that you have to get abusive to get results, but they only say that because that's all they ever do.

Kindness works much better. You can get stern if the agent is screwing something up themselves (like if they're failing to understand your actual problem, or are giving you irrelevant advice), but even then it comes down to being assertive, not yelling. By all means ask to be escalated to a manager when it's needed, but you can always do so in a calm and professional way.

Being mean motivates them to get rid of you as quickly as possible. Being nice motivates them to reciprocate. The former can work to get problems solved, but the latter works more reliably and produces better results.

[bitJericho]

When I did customer service, the only people that got compensated were the complainers. The nice people just got their problem resolved but did not get compensated for their troubles. Complainers definitely came out ahead.

[forgotpwtomain]

It's a loss minimization function right? You want to compensate those most likely to go write a negative review, or make angry social media tweets about you. That's why contrary to what GGGP says I actually think:

  @thelinmichael Guys wake up!!!!!! How can you implement an OAuth 2.0 without the ability to revoke access? I mean HOW DARE YOU?

  Fix this ASAP

Might actually impel some manager to make changes, if only to get rid of the attention from these unpleasant people in social media.

[mikeash]

I've had plenty of unnecessary statement credits and such just being nice. You might have done it that way, but I don't think it's the norm.

[bitJericho]

Wasn't personal, was company policy. I've been doing customer service for 10 years at various companies. Complainers always win.