What's threaded commenting?

Threading is a way to make comments read more like conversations instead of a bunch of disconnected single replies. Now, when someone says something interesting enough to get replies from other readers, all those replies will appear directly below the original comment. Each of these blocks is called a "thread"—kind of like in Gmail.

The first comment in a thread will have a few distinguishing features, among them, the number of replies in the thread along with the time of the most recent reply.

Click the arrow on the lower right side to open a reply input box directly underneath the comment—there's no need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to reply.

Once your reply publishes, you'll notice that like in an IM conversation, your avatar will appear on the right.

Replies to replies—sometimes known as second or third (or fourth) level replies—will not be indented as is the custom in most forums. Instead, second and third level replies will be collapsed.

What happens when you reply to a reply? Why aren't threads indented like in most tech forums, like Digg?

Replies to replies—sometimes known as second or third (or fourth) level replies—will not be indented as is the custom in most forums. Instead, the avatar will switch sides again—like in an IM conversation. All even numbered nested replies (second, fourth, etc.) will appear on the left side, while odd numbered replies will be on the right. Second and third level replies will also be collapsed.

Are threads still displayed in chronological order?

Each conversation will be displayed in chronological order. But organization of the conversations overall will be displayed based on popularity. The most popular conversations will migrate to the top. The most recent comment that has no replies will appear on top for 15 minutes before being filtered down. If a more active conversation receives a reply within those 15 minutes, that conversation will overtake the stand-alone comment.

Where did the plus and minus go?

The plus and minus, which was used to friend or un-friend a fellow commenter, has been replaced by a heart. Your friends will show up with a red heart, and the rest are empty.

What's the deal with the star again?

Star commenters were readers who have 25 or more followers, or were designated as stars by a comments admin. With the introduction of threading, the number of followers required to attain star is increasing to 40. Commenter admins also hand out stars to commenters who may not have 40 followers, but illuminate our lives with flashes of brilliance.

Is there a way to view comments "old-school" style?

You can switch to the old style comments layout by clicking the "classic view" link in the comments bar at the top of the threads.

Don't forget that we also have a Consumerist Comments code which are the guidelines for what kinds of comments to make, and to make sure you don't get banned.

So, commenters—go ahead and kick the tires on threaded comments right here—and let us know what you think about the changes.

(Photo: Getty)

1. Executive Customer Service - How to get routed to a high-ranking exec's secretary who will pass you off to the secret elite customer service squadron. They need to be able solve any and all problems, lest you persist in escalating and interrupt someone's golf game or steak dinner. Get Started.

2. EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) - Sending a email blast to as many high-ranking execs as you can. The trick is figuring out the corporate email address format and combining it with publicly posted lists of company execs. Get Started.

3. Small Claims Court - For just a few hours work and under $50, you can get a judge to make a company give you what you're owed. Get Started.

4. Chargeback - Pay with a credit card and if you don't end up getting the goods or services you ordered, you can reverse the charge and not have to pay for it. Get Started.

(Photo: Getty)

An experiment by Martin Seligman and Steve Maier showed that if you shock puppies over and over and they can't stop it in any way, they will show signs of clinical depression afterward. What do you think happens if you take these same dogs and put them in a cage only one half of the floor is electrified? If you place them in the electrified part, they will just lay down and whimper, getting shocked over and over again. They have given up. They have stopped trying. Selignman and Maier termed this "learned helplessness." But it's not just for dogs.

After getting shocked from every angle for so long, with credit cards' shrinking due dates, flagrant violations of our privacy, rebate scams as acceptable business models, and "it's company policy" as the magic wand to excuse it any time a company screws us, that we just lie down and accept it.

SYMPTOMS:

Symptoms of this dangerous affliction include:

• Sweating (when you see a fee on your bill you don't understand and you figure you'll never get it taken off)
• Nausea (at the thought of having to call customer service)
• Volume Control Problems when you call customer service (either speaking as quietly and meekly as a mouse, or finding yourself saying things like IM NOT YELLING WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT I AM YELLING)
• Sore arms (from carrying all the added-on accessories and upgrades the salesman talked you into buying)
• Vomiting (after swallowing too many hyped advertising claims)
• Stuttering (if anyone asks you what your credit score is)
• Malaise: (when you think about reporting corporate malfeasance)
• Lightheadedness (because when you go to pay your bills you're looking for them all over the floor and under the couch)
• Cramps (of your bank account because you never pay your credit card off in full and just keep amassing finance charges)
• Dizziness (when you try to think about budgeting past two months from now...or two days from now)
• Blurry Vision (when you try to read a contract's terms, so you just stop)

CLH is a disease, but it is curable. Anything that can be learned can be unlearned.

Stage 1: Immediately read our Success Stories section. It's filled with stories of readers who have fought back and won.

Stage 2: Read our post on rocking executive customer service. With this information, you'll be able to treat customer service dysfunctions that don't respond to normal customer service channels.

Stage 3: Read The Ultimate Consumerist Guide to fighting back. The tips, tactics and techniques it reveals should cure you of CLH for life.

If treatment falters at any step of the way, email your story to tips@consumerist.com. Our trained team of professionals are on call every day.

The door to the cage is open, you just need to walk through it.

A lot of our posts about writing complaint letters has focused on sticking to the facts, and getting your story to the right people. I like that Bruce takes this one step further and shows how throwing in a little creative writing can increase your chances at success. It's really just an artful way of demonstrating the basic principle of "it will cost more to ignore me than to take care of my problem." You demonstrate that you're a committed customer with long-term value who has spent money before and will continue to spend money, as long as your grievance can be addressed. I wonder, however, how well the tactics will work against industries that like to play hardball with customer service, like banks, cellphones, and insurance.

You can get a digital PDF version of Bruce's book for $19.99 here.

Another free chapter, "Living in a Sitcom," involving a complaint letter written after sitting next to a really big guy on an airplane that spilled into Bruce's site, is available here.

Complain For Fun And Profit [Official Site]

Are you trying to escalate a complaint within a company and want to see if we've posted any inside email addresses or phone numbers? Try replacing "companynamegoeshere" in the following URLs with the company you're looking for. If the company name has multiple words, remember to separate them with hyphens, i.e. washington-mutual

consumerist.com/tag/email-addresses/companynamegoeshere
consumerist.com/tag/executive-customer-service/companynamegoeshere
consumerist.com/tag/phone-numbers/companynamegoeshere

If you can't find what you want, we may not have any contact info for the company, but that's ok! Here's a few way to find a company executive's phone number, and how to figure out someone's email address.

(Photo: Getty)

Companies have clauses in their contracts which say they're allowed to change their policies at any time. You can imagine what would happen, however, if you instead arbitrarily decided that you felt like paying your cable company $20 less per month because of a change to your "personal consumer policy." That's right, they would harass you with notices and phone calls and then eventually sell your bill to a debt collector who would phone you all the time and call you nasty names that you normally have to pay $2.99 a minute to hear. Yet, somehow they have the right to degrade the level of service or quality or quantity, THE VALUE, at any time. Well guess what, the promise was X dollars for Y service. Effectively, by say, making Y service ½ Y service, they are stealing your money.

If you bought what you thought was a new microwave and came home to find it full of wet paper towels, you can easily say that this is a scam. But the practices of some of the most trusted companies come with bubbly corners, and everything looks so pleasing and professional, and everyone wears a tie, and all the "policies" are clearly explained in nanoscopic print ...but that doesn't change what lies there once you cut away all the fat and gristle. We call it a scam. They call it a business plan.

Most people seem not to care. They accept these minor inconveniences as part of the absurdity of modern life. Or maybe it's just "learned helplessness." Of feeling that effort is futile, or would be seen as "whiny." Well you can get what you deserve without raising your voice or making threats. Our readers do it every day. They use tactics like those described in The Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back to get what is due. Sometimes it's as simple as just asking, politely, and firmly.

We need to eliminate fees that are just costs of doing business tacked on the backend. We need contracts that are living and negotiable, without grossly lopsided clauses. We deserve straightforward shopping with upfront pricing, without asterisks, for safe products. But we can't wait for Congress, or the next President, to feel like reviving the emaciated agencies of the FCC, FTC, and CPSC. It's up to you to protect your consumer rights. Do your research. Ask questions. Knowing who to and how to complain when things go wrong. Get informed. Vote with your dollar. Your new policy? "It's company policy," is not a valid explanation for ripping you off.

Section 1: "I've been wronged! What do I do next?"
Section 2: The Consumerist Corporate Executive Directory
Section 3: Success Stories

 
SECTION 1: "I'VE BEEN WRONGED! WHAT DO I DO NEXT?"
It's broken. It's been disconnected. It was charged eight times to your credit card. It never arrived. Whatever the problem is, here's the Consumerist plan of attack.

Step 1: Get things ready

Step 2: Educate yourself

Once you've got the basic details written down, you're ready to launch your attack. The best place to start is with the original Ultimate Consumerist Guide To Fighting Back (aka "that post with the shirtless guy"), which not only offers lots of links to useful tutorials, but organizes them into increasing levels of aggressiveness:

Escalating the issue without giving the company a chance to make it right through normal channels just makes you look like a tool, so start with the official customer service number first.

Then clearly and quickly explain your problem, and keep on topic and unemotional. (This is where your notes can really help you if you have trouble either being too meek or too confrontational.)

Think of the call this way: you are testing the CSR, and if he or she fails you, this round has ended and you don't need to waste any more time with him or her. In other words, if the CSR tries to upsell you even after your introduction, FAIL, move to the next round. If the CSR gets uppity with you, FAIL, next round. Don't waste any time trying to calm or reason with the CSR or get him or her to see your point of view.

If you have to take your issue past rounds 1 & 2 and start hitting the executive level, then the section below will help you find the necessary contact info.

 
SECTION 2: THE CONSUMERIST CORPORATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORY
So you've tried the CSR route, you've made your complaint clear, and the problem wasn't resolved. It's time to adjust your strategy. When you try to contact the executive level of a company, you'll almost certainly be intercepted by an assistant of some sort. But that's actually a good thing, because these are usually people with the power to actually fix problems that normal CSRs and their managers aren't authorized to touch.

Check out one reader's story in the "Be a Customer Service Ninja" post for details—he advises, "Remember that you are dealing with busy people, so don't bother rambling on about your problem, but rather try to give a succinct summary, including any identifying details that may be helpful (order numbers, confirmation numbers, etc.)."

Wily corporations change phone numbers all the time, so while we do our best to make sure this is accurate, it's possible the number we have here won't work. If you have a newer or better number for any of the companies listed below—or for companies that we don't have listed yet—please contact us at thetipline@gmail.com.

If you don't see the company you're searching for above, try the following link:
"Search The Consumerist Directory Of Company Email Addresses And Phone Numbers"

And if it's just not on our website, then here's "How To Find An Executive's Phone Number Or Email Address"

If all else fails, one reader suggests trying Jigsaw.com, which costs $25 per month for access to a member-submitted and updated pool of corporate names, numbers, and addresses.

"Find Your State Public Utilities Comission" Check out this link if you have complaints with any of the following: electricity, gas, telephone, cellphone, cable/dsl, towing, railroads, or movers.

If you enjoy playing detective, try searching the SEC's EDGAR database for company contact information: EDGAR

Bonus:
"How To Write Congress"
"Find Your Attorney General Or Better Business Bureau"

If you see an error or out-of-date listing, let us know at thetipline@gmail.com.

[last updated: July 11, 2008]
(Photo: Getty)

Below is a fine example of how to draft an effective complaint letter (click to popup a slightly nicer looking version).

See, not so hard. It's just like Mad Libs!