If you can’t do your own complaining, there is now a service that will do it for you.

Complaint City recently launched and the premise is simple. It will go after business that mistreated you/ripped you off/grossed you out — and extract restitution for your crappy experience.

Some people are excellent complainers. Long, eloquently written restaurant reviews pepper the likes of Yelp! and bring amusement to us all. But this griping is rarely effective beyond being personally cathartic. For those that want an actual apology, or some sort of refund, then ComplaintCity.com may be a viable option (especially for those that who are shy, don’t have time, or who want to remain anonymous).

When Kimberly W. got ripped off by an online company, she thought she was screwed. They vanished before she was able to file a complaint, and there was simply no avenue to warn other people from falling into the same trap.

Then it dawned on her: develop a startup that would do your complaining for you. She wanted a site that would publicize the complaint and get compensation from the offending business — even if only an apology.

The service is free to users (the complainers). They fill in the form indicating the nature of the complaint, time, location, whether it was a product or service to blame, witnesses, and any other pertinent details. Complaint City then informs the offending company that they have 72 hours to answer to the complainant, either by providing an apology, issuing a refund, or take the complainant to task. Failing to respond means that Complaint City republishes the complaint on their site, spreading the negative publicity via search engine optimization and social networks. The aim is that the offending business will be shamed into rectifying the situation.

Internet shaming reached its nadir this year. The right amount of bad publicity can tarnish reputations, get you fired, or at the very least, get other people to think they are better than you. It follows then that bringing well-constructed complaints against a business via the internet would be an effective tactic. In particular, when the service or product causes an actual infection (puke).

I went to my doctor and he said I had caught an infection in my toe from the tools used during my pedicure. I will never go back to Nice One Nails. Further more, I’ll be doing my manicures and pedicures at home from now on. (Complaint #10393, ComplaintCity.com)

People often don’t take action in filing a complaint because they think that nothing will come of it, or they are too embarrassed to draw attention to themselves. The relative anonymity of Complaint City sidesteps some of those concerns. They pursue the complaint in a deliberate and calm manner; sometimes difficult to manage if you are upset by a horrible customer service experience. The adage of the squeaky wheel getting the grease is true, and Kimberly claims she has an 84% success rate in terms of getting the companies to take notice and apologize.

Who are the big offenders? “A lot of it is telecommunications,” notes Kimberly. “A lot of people are really aggravated with the main telecommunications providers. Usually billing issues like, ‘They said I wasn’t going to be charged with this, and they charged me’ and, ‘I want my money back, but they’re offering me a credit.’ But you also get the complaints where somebody goes somewhere and profanity was used, or they’ve been kicked out of the establishment for asking for a refund. Going along reading them, it’s quite shocking what some businesses will try to get away with.”

Often upper management isn’t aware of situations going on because they’re not working on the floor level with employees. Sometimes, “it takes a lot more time to prove to them that the event actually occurred and that there are witnesses. Typically at that point once they realize it’s more serious they think, ‘Well, let’s try and resolve this and get it off the Internet.”

Businesses can buy a membership to the site, offering them first dibs to resolve a complaint before it goes public. A complaint filed on complaint city will typically get a response in 1 – 2 weeks. “It’s usually a refund — although a lot of people aren’t requesting refunds, more times they are requesting an apology.”

“A couple of times I’ve had to approach the business’s competition, to offer them the chance to provide relief to the customer. And in that way they gain a loyal customer.” The competing business can offer a perk or coupon, and have the opportunity to look good in comparison to their competition. “They didn’t receive the complaint, but by providing that customer with whatever service they’re asking for, they’ve now gained a new customer. I tell the customer, ‘We’re still going to get you retribution – but its not going to come from that business. The complaint will remain live on the Internet, however we are still working on getting compensation.”

Ideally, the best time to make the complaint is when you are physically at the establishment, but sometimes that just isn’t possible, either because you get worked into an angry rage or because you are dealing with a ‘faceless’ internet company. “I think the best part is when I get compensation for somebody and they believed it to be impossible. So often people will go out on a limb and just hope — they really didn’t think anything would come of it.. and I’ll call them and say hey! We got you your thirty bucks back and we’ve settled the complaint — that’s a good feeling to have.”

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