It's a maddening experience: You have a bill that demands explanation or a question that needs answering, and call customer service.

After an interminable wait on hold, you get a customer-service representative who doesn't know, won't tell or couldn't care less.

Well, we can't solve your problem, but we can help you deal with customer service.

• Surviving a call to customer service-- Plan ahead, stay calm and know just what it is you're after.
  
  
• 8 tips for dealing with customer service -- Get what you're after with a minimum of fuss.
  
  
• Crawling through the customer-service maze -- Our intrepid reporter tries to get a straight answer and does ... finally.
  
  
• Calling tech support will cost you -- You don't spend so much time on hold, but you'll pay for the help you get.

Have a customer service nightmare story you want to tell? Send it to us and we'll share the scariest of the bunch with Bankrate readers.

Illustrations by Brandy Kesl