[ChuckMcM]

For your first question, step 1 is to escalate and when you escalate make sure they know you are creating a paper trail. If you can use the term "paper trail" it will help get your call escalated. Ideally you will get to someone senior enough that you can mention this enforcement action by the FTC and they will recognize it.

If that fails, you take your paper trail to small claims court. This can be challenging in different circumstances to serve the other party but courts can be pretty liberal here in California. I was watching cases one day and the person had served Microsoft by giving the summons to a Microsoft Store employee who worked in a kiosk at the mall. Microsoft hadn't shown up so they won their default judgement and went to the next step which was to put a judgement lien on the corporation's assets. (long before that actually happens their legal team will pay you your damages).

You could concurrently file a complaint with the FTC. It won't give you any money but it will add on to other complaints and that will eventually get action (like this article). Getting a registered mail letter from the FTC tends to get the attention of the right people.

As for your sarcastic question it is isn't that manufacturers have tried to get the laws changed, they have been unsuccessful. Support the 'right to repair' efforts when you run into them, talk to your representatives if you get a chance. That will keep the pressure to maintain the status quo.

[vkou]

> For your first question, step 1 is to escalate and when you escalate make sure they know you are creating a paper trail. If you can use the term "paper trail" it will help get your call escalated. Ideally you will get to someone senior enough that you can mention this enforcement action by the FTC and they will recognize it.

Do try to avoid the term "lawsuit", though. If you do, any customer service rep that didn't sleep through training will hang up, leaving you free to converse with their legal department... Through snail mail.

[ChuckMcM]

Very good point. I usually say "so how do I spell your name again for my notes?" that is often enough of a clue.

[michaelmrose]

Anyone dumb enough to hang up on customers is going to be fired when said snail mail arrives. The customer using the word lawsuit doesn't relieve you of your obligation to provide customer service and the appropriate action is escalation to a manager.

[vkou]

Anyone dumb enough to keep speaking, when everything they will say can, and will be used against their employer in a court of law will be fired when said snail mail arrives, not the other way around.

Terminating that call is the civil equivalent to: "I have nothing to say officer, I want my lawyer." The customer support reps aren't being paid for their profound understanding of what to say without opening up the firm to liability. They are being paid to shut up, and fob you off to the legal department, in response to threats of legal action.

[michaelmrose]

Most situations can be resolved without actual legal action. Your customer presumably wants you to do something if it's reasonable to do so you should resolve their issue or escalate to a manager.

I've been involved in several issues where legal action was a valid threat. I can think of 5 occasions off the top of my head. These involved corporations and none were handled as you described and I've dealt with local government and corporations. Most were handled without court. All were dealt with acceptably in my favor.

Your suggestion would have wasted everyone's time and their money. It is simultaneously fictional and terrible advice. I promise you that your manager wants the option to handle these situations before they blow up into disasters

[lotsofpulp]

I disagree, I wouldn't want any of my minimum wage employees to be talking outside of the approved script for the reasons vkou said. It's too expensive to train someone who is probably only temporary anyway, and of questionable capacity to properly converse about legal technicalities. If a customer wants to escalate, then can escalate by sending an email to a manager. If the customer doesn't understand that, then they're free to hang up and help the next person.

[michaelmrose]

Presumably maybe you should pay more than minimum wage or at least pay SOME of them more than minimum wage so you can find some people of higher caliber than the the average taco bell employee. Then perhaps your hypothetical customers wouldn't feel like the only outlet for their frustration was to sue you.

[maccard]

I’ve been on the other side, and whether legal action is a valid option or not it doesn’t really matter.

Once you escalate to that point, we took it seriously, and you don’t speak over the phone to a minimum wage representative. If someone threatened legal action over the phone I would tell them management will be in touch with legal details, and terminate the call immediately.

I’m not saying you won’t get a satisfactory resolution out of it, but it will almost certainly end the call immediately.

[maccard]

Not literally hang up the phone, but when I worked in CS in a PC repair store, if someone mentioned lawsuit, small claims, courts or legal issues, I’d stop them immediately, and tell them that our management would be in touch with our legal details, and terminate the call immediately.

At that point, the onus is on management/legal to decide whether the threat is credible or not, but you don’t have a slightly above minimum wage kid getting everyone in trouble then.

I would expect a similar response from almost any CS representative for most companies.