Not one to be defeated easily, I called the main office in Minnesota, and when I almost got transferred again to the local office, asked to speak to the supervisor.  I was transferred to a very nice, and finally, competent woman.  She provided me the information I asked for, and then – asked me to let a General Manager call to see if they could resolve our issues...  I thanked her (about 3 times since she was the first person I had actually spoken to), but said, "no, we had given their local company every chance to respond, and were no longer interested in doing business with them."  But I did hang up feeling that at least in the end, someone had responded and acknowledged us....

So, how why does this matter to you?  Because everyone has a "customer" – the people who are the reason for their job... and in this economy, I believe we all need to raise the bar on the customer service we provide:

Live by the credo "A customer should only call you once."

Return all client inquiries within 24 hours, even if you don't have all of the information.  (A simple return call would have at least been an acknowledgment)

Recognize that complaints are in fact "Opportunities", and respond accordingly.  When you do this, clients that "complain" the most will become your most loyal customers.  (I know we would have stayed with that service if they had provided the information we requested...).

Again, a customer should only call you once, the rest of the time, you are calling them...