Whenever we have a bad experience, we need to tell people about it. I had a terrible time getting high-speed DSL internet service from Verizon a week ago. Their outsourced Indian tech support call center couldn't help me with a wiring repair and the local Verizon center couldn't access my customer data, which seemed to be trapped in the outsourcer's domain. The result: no DSL for me. They didn't understand the impossibility of the equations (broken wires in my home + a phone company that refuses to send repair guys because of missing account info = imminent loss of customer). There. That felt better.

Sometimes that's all we need. To tell our story, to feel like someone listened. Had Verizon not made me feel so powerless, I would not have told our readers how bad I thought the company's service was.

Here's the solution: to diffuse an angry customer's wrath (which could find an outlet with thousands of readers on the Internet), listen to them before they hang up. If a customer wants to cancel service, ask them why. Just don't fall into the AOL trap by pestering them into staying. Hear them out and then learn from the experience.

But it isn't that easy, is it?