Consumer Terrorism: How to Get Satisfaction When You're Being Ripped Off

by Frank Bruni, Elinor Burkett

"Never be ripped-off again!" That's the rallying cry sounded by authors Elinor Burkett and Frank Bruni in their war against shoddy products and bad service. Unlike other books that offer only buying advice, Consumer Terrorism is for those consumers who've already been burned. So when a vacation is ruined by a hotel's negligence, or that expensive suit comes apart at the seams, or the new car spends more time in the repair shop than on the road, it's time to take the offensive and get results. Intelligent, aggressive and realistic, yet humorously written, Consumer Terrorism leads readers through the most effective ways to present their cases. It explains who to contact, the right, and wrong way to complain and what to expect in return. The no-holds-barred approach is unique, cleverly blending the use of formal avenues of consumer complaint resolution with guerrilla tactics sure to get results. So get mad -- then get action!

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 26, 1996

About the author

Frank Bruni was named restaurant critic for The New York Times in April 2004.

Before that, Mr. Bruni had been the Rome bureau chief from July 2002 until March 2004, a post he took after working as a reporter in the Washington D.C. bureau from December 1998 until May 2002. While in Washington, he was among the journalists assigned to Capitol Hill and Congress until August 1999, when he was assigned full-time to cover the presidential campaign of Gov. George W. Bush. He then covered the White House for the first eight months of the Bush administration, and subsequently spent seven months as the Washington-based staff writer for The New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Mr. Bruni is the author of The New York Times bestseller about George W. Bush called Ambling into History (HarperCollins: hardcover, 2002; paperback, 2003). He is also the co-author of A Gospel of Shame: Children, Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church.