Complaints about goods and services for the home are on the rise, but if your grievance isn't balanced with evidence, diplomacy and precision redress could be elusive.

Six home-related issues were among the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators' (NACAA) and the Consumer Federation of America's (CFA) nine-year old Annual Consumer Complaints List this year.

At the top of the list were complaints about home improvements followed by No. 3, household goods; No. 5, credit and lending (including equity loans); No. 6, utilities, No. 7 mail order issues; and at No. 8 and No. 9, landlord-tenant issues.

With so many related issues raising the ire of consumers, it's difficult to get your beef heard through the din.

People who know how to get there way, attorneys, mediators, negotiators, salespeople and others say consumers often fail miserably at the art of complaining because they too often become ineffectual whiners or demanding bullies, railing at the wrong person, overlooking the facts and failing to enlist the aid of others when their unskilled efforts fail.

Lose the attitude

Complaints generally come in two categories: those demanding immediate attention (the roof of your newly built home is leaking like a sieve), and those that take time to solve (the lender should have removed private mortgage insurance months ago).

In either case, it's crucial to begin with the right demeanor -- don't whine and don't rant.

Emotional outbursts, criticism and demands are turn-offs. Before you begin any protest, simmer down. Take a deep breath, gather your wits and watch your tone of voice.

Don't be antagonistic, accusatory, threatening or patronizing. Be polite, don't impose or project your morals and don't interrupt someone's response.

Choose your words carefully avoiding the accusatory "you". Professionals say even "complain" is counterproductive and opt instead for "appeal," "negotiate," and "clarify."

Avoid jeremiad. When speaking or penning your whinge, use a concise, courteous approach. State the facts, explain the problem, provide the solution you seek and give the goods or service provider a reasonable time frame for action.

When possible, don't lock yourself into a single solution. The art of complaining includes negotiating room.

Do the write thing

Talk can be cheap and verbal promises empty.

When it comes to complaining, writing a letter is often inevitable, but it can be emotionally cathartic and it is often the best way to seek redress.

Putting it down on paper forces you to focus and organize your thoughts and it has a calming effect. Penning your gripe also provides written proof of your complaint and your attempt to resolve it. It also gives you time to research consumer law, regulations and business ethics applicable to your case.

Finally, once in the hands of the object of your grumbling, a letter creates a captive audience putting you in control of the "conversation".

When you write, just as when you discuss a complaint, keep your tone business like and write in the inverted-pyramid journalistic writing style -- most important facts first, followed by successively less important facts.

Send letters by certified, return-receipt mail to avoid the common alibi "I never received your letter." Likewise include in the letter copies from what should be a file of documents you've compiled to help substantiate your case -- receipts, invoices, billing notices, statements, tax returns, correspondence and any other documents.

Work your way up

Complain first at the point of the offense and follow the formal customer service or complaint channels up the ladder to document your effort. Later you can present the front office with evidence that you aren't looking for special treatment, merely a solution, and that you've duly followed the chain of command.

Because you will likely pursue your complaint through a corporate system, it's not a bad idea, before you move up the complaint feeding chain, to get permission from the person who last attempted to help.

Get good help

If you reach the top without resolution, before you sue, consider obtaining assistance from government regulatory agencies, consumer advocacy offices and media-based "Consumer Hotline," and "Action Line" type services.

They are specifically designed to assist consumers troubled by complaints and they come with the clout of "bad press".

Companies don't want to be branded as not consumer-friendly.

Here are some agencies that can assist you.

Published: December 1, 2000

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.