Part of being a stay-at-home parent is answering the phone and the doorbell when it rings.  It’s very hard (some say impossible) to do those things from an office somewhere, but as someone who is fortunate enough to “work” from home, I’m here when the carpet guys, and the painters, and the delivery guys show up.  I’m also here when DirecTV calls me to tell me I’m late with a bill or AT&T calls to “upgrade” my service. I’m not sure how people with 2 out of the house jobs actually handle this.  Do you burn a vacation day to wait from noon ‘til 4:00 PM for the cable to be installed?  Do you take a half-day, that invariably turns into a full day, when the plumber runs late to fix a defective dishwasher?  With the United States being well behind the rest of the world in average paid vacation days (13 days per year as opposed to 42 in Italy, 37 in France, 35 in Germany, and 25 in Japan) I find it hard to imagine that anyone would willingly want to sacrifice his or her precious free time with such mundane life maintenance. If you’re going to make the sacrifice, though, then at least let me provide you with my 4 part proven method to get the customer service you deserve.  It’s simple, really. PLAY DUMB PLAY NICE BE SMART BE AN ASSHOLE Why is it this way?  Because there’s no turning back.  Once you’re the smart guy with everything figured out it doesn’t really matter how nice you are.  You’ve made your case and you will win or lose your battle with it.  You could get angry if things don’t go your way, but you haven’t built any empathy with the...