Fighting the big orgs

Lessons I learnt battling with organisations too big to care.

8 min readDec 10, 2023

Unless you were born yesterday or are privileged enough to never face the world directly, you would have had some bad experience(s) with a product or service you bought/ received. It could be something as common as receiving a damaged product where customer care wouldn’t accept it as their mistake to not getting a hotel room at time of check-in which you booked fairly in advance. The spectrum of these experiences can range from making us feel unhappy to completely cheated. Often, we are expected to gulp down the frustration and move on.

However, there are times when there’s simply too much at stake. Either the subject in concern is of high value or your morals do not let you back down. I have encountered such instances, quite too many times, where bowing down was not option. I had to hit back. While doing so, I learnt a thing or two. Here I’ll talk about everything I picked up fighting those battles head on. You might not be able to avoid such conflicts completely, but I hope it helps you prepare for your next round.

Beginnings

I reached home, sweating and panting in my school uniform during a brightly lit afternoon. As I jumped off my bicycle, from the main gate I saw 2 men sitting inside. I did not recognize them. Taken aback, I nervously went inside only to find a few more inside, talking to my dad. Phone calls were being made, some discussions were happening, and countless cups of tea were spread on the table. From within that crowd, my mom emerged and hushed me inside my room. I was instructed to serve my lunch on my own and stay inside. Soon I learnt that was a raid. We were accused of stealing electricity.

This was the time I barely understood what raid even meant. Unlike what I learnt from movies, there was no physical action involved but one could easily sense the tension around. Arguments were made, only to be cancelled by counter arguments. That night my parents didn’t sleep well, understandably, for no fault of their own.

What followed was a full-blown effort by my parent’s team of 2 to erase the tag of thief that was given to us by some strangers. For next 6 months or so, I would regularly see them going to different offices to plead their case, talking to other people who were in same boat as us only to come back home, disappointed. There were times of self-doubt, blame shifting but there was a shared mission holding them together. A lot of well-wishers advised them to forget it like a nightmare and move on. They didn’t.

After a lot of efforts, tension, setbacks and tears, they were able to make their case. The electricity department acknowledged its mistake and returned the penalty it took, to the last penny. This was a big win not just for my parents but for everyone else who were in situation similar to ours. For my family it was the restored pride. Pride that we were right. That we were honest citizens throughout. No one could take that from us. For me, it was a lesson in disguise —

If you are right, don’t bow down, no matter how big your opponent is.

Over course of coming years, I saw this fight getting played over and over, with different opponents. Once a medical insurance company refused to pay up for my dad’s hospitalisation expenses. We played by same rules. 10-months, relentless follow-ups, countless mails, letters and phone-calls till we got what we wanted. The company, which was initially too big to pick our phone calls gave in. With every such battle, this learning was getting ingrained in me.

Taking the baton forward

While as a kid I was shielded from such conflicts, I wasn’t long that I had face such fights on my own. My first big fight that I can remember was with a hardware company from which I bought my first laptop from my own earnings. Just 2 months after the purchase, the device just started crashing, way too frequently to get anything done. I went through the process of getting it resolved by sending it to service centre but to no resolve. In following 6 months, my laptop stayed under repair more than it was with me. It was also the time I was writing the final thesis of my bachelor’s course, so it hit me extra hard. Neither I had the financial luxury of forgetting it and getting a new device, nor I wanted to let go as it was first big thing I bought on my own.

I fought. I did everything from reaching out to their officials on almost daily basis to get it fixed to threating to knock the doors of consumer court. Did it take time? yes. Was it tiring? way too much. Was it worth it? also YES. After 7 months, numerous mails and a legal notice, they accepted their fault, and I got the entire bill amount back. Looking back, if nothing then at least this entire episode built my confidence.

In the years to follow, I met with situations where I found myself colliding heads on with govt. institutions, large organisations and MNCs. I picked the battles I fought and won, every single one of them. While this is certainly not something I’d ever want to do again, but if need arises, I will be ready with my armour and ammos. If you find yourself in similar situation, here’s my playbook.

The art of war

Pick the battles you wish to fight. Not everything deserves your time, energy and attention. Ask yourself if you really want to get into a fight over the subject. Also, if you are someone who gives up easily, ask yourself the same question, again.

Once you are in thick of the war, there will be times when you feel you are going to lose no matter what. However, in most cases that won’t be the scenario. It can be frustrating and tiring but perseverance is the key.

1. Be outcome oriented

Have a clear understanding of what you are fighting for and what do you want out of your it. Basically, define your success. Whether it is a compensation, an apology or something else, you should know what you are after and make it clear to your opponent too. While doing so, be well informed about the legal options and provisions. Just having a fair idea of what law says should help you make informed asks and demands.

2. Pick your allies

If something is too big for you to fight alone, pick your partners, but wisely. While it is always good idea to surround yourself with friends, having too many people around can create a false sense of safety. Important thing is to recognize people who can actually help. E.g. if you are in a legal tussle, having a well-informed lawyer on your side is more valuable than having your entire extended family.

You can even find allies in most unexpected places. Remember my parent’s electricity case above? Well, the person who helped them the most was a senior executive in the electricity board itself who guided them through the process. We met him during the case itself and once it was over, he became a family friend. Even for my laptop case, the only person who spoke in my favour was surprisingly the manager of service centre. Why? because I spoke to him nicely over calls. My feud was with the company, not the people involved.

You can also try looking for support in online forums and communities. There, people might not be able to speak up for you but can share their learnings and advice.

3. Understand your opponent

Like allies, it is imperative to understand who your opponent is. Usually, we end up wasting a lot of energy with people who are not in a position of influence. If you have trouble with a product/ service you received, you need to reach the person who has authority to make reprimands. Quarrelling with anyone who doesn’t have enough provisions to help you will just suck your energy.

4. Respect the process

Don’t play all your cards at once. I have seen people escalating an issue all the way up to CEO as step 1. While some advocate this as a speedy solution, in my experience, it closes your options pretty quickly. For someone higher up the ladder, your issue becomes important only when they understand that everyone below them haven’t been able to find a solution. Otherwise, they might just delegate it to their subordinates which can close the door of escalation for you.
Also, understand that things take time. If you write someone a mail on weekend, don’t expect to get instant response.

5. Play your cards wisely

While in a battle, all parties involved try to find and hit on the weak spots of the opponent. Make sure you don’t make it easy for them to find yours. The moment you tell a company that you have the bill for your purchase but lost the transaction slip, that slip will become the most important thing in world for them. Hide your flaws without lying. Understand they are 2 different things.

Also, never ever do something which can hurt your case. Often, in high frustration scenarios, it is common for people to lose their cool and use indecent language. It can potentially hurt your case by allowing your opponent to deviate the attention from core of issue.

6. Stick to the core

A lot of times, while making our case, we end up adding a lot of extra details believing it will strengthen our case. However, it ends up diluting the issue. For example, if you received a wrong parcel delivered to you, details like ‘delivery was late by 2 days already, delivery guy wasn’t picking up my calls before the visit, he wasn’t polite while talking to me’ will deviate the attention from your core issue. So, identify the problem, stick to it and cut out everything else.

7. Document everything

Talking to someone? try bringing it to written medium or record it. Got a document related to case? either keep it with you secured or have a photocopy/ picture, however unimportant it might feel. Saw something on screen, take a screenshot. A lot of time, only weak point people have is lack of documents/ proofs to support their cause.
This is something that came in handy to me recently. I lodged a complaint on a govt. portal. For 3 months nothing happened so I escalated it. In response, they just vanished my complaint from the portal. Poof! But I had some screenshots as proof, so I threatened them of legal action for forgery. Within a week, my complaint was restored with status update.

8. Have patience

Once you are in ring with your opponent, have patience and show endurance. All the cases I mentioned above dragged for months to good part of year. This time will be full of ups and downs. Understand that by choosing to fight, you signed up for all of this.
This process can be extremely frustrating and suck you out of energy, but persistence is the key.

While these are some of the things I learnt with my own experiences, there’s a lot yet to be seen. If you have some learning or advice on the same, please drop in the comment and I’d love to hear them. Once again —