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Consumers are demanding better service in unprecedented ways.

In the past several months, public outrage has helped beat back efforts by Bank of America, Netflix and Verizon to raise fees or significantly alter services. The victories come at a time when money is tight all around and consumers are tapping into social media to air their frustrations with like-minded individuals.

“In the past people would be angry, but they’d be all over the country talking to their neighbors,” said Kit Yarrow a professor of consumer psychology at Golden Gate University. “Now they can connect online and they have power.”

For example, petitions on Change.org were instrumental in convincing Bank of America and Verizon to drop plans for new fees. “Bank Transfer Day,” which sprang to life after Bank of America’s announcement, called on Facebook supporters to move their money to a credit union or community bank.

Not every issue demands a mass call to action. But consumers basking in their newfound sense of empowerment should keep their expectations high going into 2012. Here are some strategies for making sure you get the service you deserve.

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Work the chain of command

Before you switch into outrage mode, give a company a fair chance to right any wrongs. It may be that the issue can be easily resolved with a simple email or phone call to customer service.

But if the customary means aren’t helpful, one strategy is to reach out to the company CEO or another high-ranking officer. Most major companies have “executive resolution teams” that field correspondence from customers who take their complaints to the top, says Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org, which features news and tips on deals. And these teams generally have a lot more leeway to appease customers.

To get your message in the right hands, start by searching under the “About” section on the company’s website. Even if executive contact information isn’t listed, you can usually figure out their email addresses based on the contact information listed for other employees. Otherwise, try mailing a letter to the corporate headquarters.

“Really boil it down,” Dworsky said. “If it goes on and on, they’re not going to have the time or patience to read it. Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient of the letter.”

Make it easy for the company by quickly spelling out the resolution that you’re seeking. And don’t forget to include any relevant information, such as order numbers or purchase dates.

Reach out and tweet

You don’t have to be Alec Baldwin to have your complaints heard on Twitter.

Most major companies have a social media presence by now. And since they don’t want negative mentions turning up in search results, any reasonable question or complaint is likely to get a response.

Even if you don’t hear back from anyone, it’s likely that companies are taking note of any comments about them.

At JetBlue, for example, a few customers recently tweeted about a crowded gate that only had one agent. That triggered the airline’s social media team to contact staff at the airport to find out if any additional agents were available to help out, said Morgan Johnston, JetBlue’s social media strategist.

But he noted that Twitter is more commonly used to request time-sensitive information that can be conveyed in 140 characters _ such as connecting flight or gate numbers. The company monitors its Twitter account around the clock and tries to respond within a few minutes.

“It’s more of an information booth than a traditional customer service channel,” Johnston said.

Twitter isn’t only for basic information requests, however. Citibank also monitors the site and tries to respond to any questions within an hour, said Frank Eliason, who heads the bank’s social media strategy. If customers need to share personal account information, they’re sent a link to a private page on the bank’s website where they can continue the exchange in the same Twitter-like format.

Call for backup

If you’re not getting anywhere and feel your complaints are being brushed off, it can help to get a third-party involved.

If you paid with your credit card, you can always file a claim to have a charge removed from your account. Keep in mind that you need a concrete reason _ such as a product defect or missed delivery _ to make such claims. Your card issuer isn’t going to investigate a dispute just because you were unhappy with a rude waiter.

Another option is to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org/complaint. The local BBB office will contact the company within two days and ask for a response to the complaint on your behalf. The vast majority of complaints are resolved this way, said spokeswoman Katherine Hutt. That’s because businesses know their ratings are affected by whether they respond to complaints.

For more serious situations where you suspect fraud or feel your rights were violated, consider filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission or your state attorney general’s office. You likely won’t get a speedy resolution but at least those agencies will be on notice in case other customers are reporting similar abuses.

Stay connected online

In rare situations, you may feel a company policy calls for a broader action. In the case of Bank of America and Verizon, online petitions were key in quantifying the public’s widespread distaste for new fees.

“It’s an incredibly efficient means of customer feedback that’s not controlled by the company,” said Ben Rattray, founder of the Change.org, which hosted the petitions against both companies. “It’s customer feedback that’s controlled by customers.”

Your issues don’t necessarily have to be with a big national company either. Change.org plans to roll out localized versions so users can voice concerns about businesses in their communities.

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Dropped calls and spotty service, particularly for iPhone owners, made AT&T the most hated wireless carrier in America. Here’s the surprise twist: widespread, under-the-radar improvements to the company’s network have quietly helped AT&T move past its infamous struggles.

The nation’s second-largest wireless carrier says it spent roughly $20 billion last year making 48,000 network enhancements across the country. That spending spree bought a 25% improvement in dropped-call performance on AT&T’s 3G network, plus added capacity and faster speeds.

In the process, the company turned on two new networks. Though both were confusingly labeled "4G," they each offer significant improvements over AT&T’s (, Fortune 500) existing 3G network: one new network has speeds of up to four times faster than 3G, and the other brings a ten-fold improvement in speed.

Yet consumers have been slow to change their opinion of AT&T.

"Satisfaction with our network performance has gone into a neutral state," said John Stankey, CEO of AT&T Wireless, at a telecommunications conference held in San Francisco by Citigroup (, Fortune 500) last week. "Our goal is to go from neutral to positive. We’ve made a lot of progress, but I don’t want to suggest we’re done."

A recent survey conducted by Consumer Reports ranked AT&T the worst carrier in America in terms of customer satisfaction. AT&T received the lowest possible rating on value and voice quality, and the second-lowest possible rating on data service.

That’s not particularly surprising. AT&T’s network woes have been very high-profile thanks to its four-year iPhone exclusivity deal with Apple (, Fortune 500). The wireless giant’s struggles were blasted and mocked everywhere from the mainstream news media to late-night comedy shows.

AT&T’s reputation wasn’t helped by dismal satisfaction with the company’s customer service, according to the Consumer Reports survey. AT&T also took a PR hit during its wildly unpopular T-Mobile takeover attempt.

Still, the mediocre perception of AT&T’s network quality lags behind the much-improved reality, according to wireless industry experts.

Frost & Sullivan, an influential telecommunications industry analysis firm, awarded AT&T its 2011 strategy award for the North American mobile network market, praising the company for its dual-network improvement strategy.

AT&T is gradually rolling out its ultra-fast 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, which will be the mobile network standard of the future guaranteed fast personal loans. AT&T’s LTE network now covers 74 million Americans, which is about a quarter of the company’s 3G network coverage.

At the same time, AT&T is upgrading its 3G network — which operates on the older High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) standard — to what it calls "4G" HSPA+. The upgraded network is now available to more than 285 million Americans, AT&T Wireless CEO Stankey said last week.

Archrival Verizon (, Fortune 500), by contrast, quickly rolled out its LTE network to cover 200 million Americans by the end of last year. But Verizon’s 3G network is based on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard, which is essentially maxed out in terms of speed. Sprint’s (, Fortune 500) 3G CDMA network also can’t be upgraded significantly.

That’s potentially a huge advantage for AT&T, since it will take several years for LTE networks to reach the vast majority of Americans the way that 3G networks do today.

"As 4G LTE networks are rolled out nationwide, AT&T’s wireless network strategy will undoubtedly benefit its customers, who will have access to faster speeds, even when outside an LTE coverage area," said Peter Finalle, analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

What’s more, Verizon’s recent 4G struggles give AT&T an opportunity to flaunt its own rival strategy.

Though Verizon has been praised for rolling out its LTE network before any other wireless company even got started, its deployment speed was more out of necessity. It lacked the 3G upgrade option that AT&T has. Verizon is paying for that strategy now, suffering outage after outage: Verizon’s 4G network totaled five nationwide outages in 2011 and four in December alone.

Will customers notice? They haven’t yet. The alphabet soup — 4G, LTE, HSPA and so on — is confusing to most.

"AT&T advertises HSPA+ as ‘4G,’ so the average consumer will likely not think of the carrier as not being current with latest technology," said Ari Zoldan, CEO of Quantum Networks, a next-generation network supplier. "Having HSPA+ in areas outside of LTE markets is very smart and serves a niche for the carrier, and it’s still to be determined whether customers will put enough value on ‘true’ 4G."

AT&T’s network is getting better, and it’s better positioned for the long haul than any of its rivals. Now it just has to wait for perception to catch up to that reality. 

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Stock prices are being increasingly influenced by the trading of exchange-traded funds, with real estate investment trusts as well as energy and consumer companies most affected, according to a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. study.

REITs and energy companies accounted for eight of the top 10 firms in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index whose trading volume was most driven by trading in ETFs, Robert Boroujerdi, a Goldman Sachs analyst, and three colleagues wrote in a paper released Friday.

Consumer retailers accounted for the five most affected companies in the Russell 2000 Index, which tracks small-capitalization stocks.

ETFs bundle together investments in a particular market index, such as the S&P 500. Unlike mutual funds, they can be traded during daily sessions just like stocks.

They have come under increased scrutiny over whether their trading has increased market volatility and correlation between individual stocks business card. The growing impact of ETF trading on the price movements of individual stocks has discouraged some companies from publicly listing ETFs.

Correlation between the share prices of companies within the same industry groups has increased as ETF assets and trading volume have soared, the study said. Higher correlations indicate that stock prices are rising or falling in tandem.

The Goldman Sachs analysts also estimated the impact of ETFs on the trading volume of individual stocks. Smaller companies were more affected. Among companies belonging to the Russell 2000 small cap index, three had more than 60 percent of their volume driven by ETF trading., led by Houston-based retailer Stage Stores Inc. at 66 percent.

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If Republican primary voters are inclined to reward candidates who have big, bold, game-changing plans for the tax code, Mitt Romney might be in trouble.

Compared to the ideas pushed by other White House hopefuls this cycle — particularly Newt Gingrich — Romney’s plan is just not that aggressive.

Of course, Romney’s plan is still firmly rooted in mainstream Republican thought, and that means big tax cuts and a corresponding reduction in federal revenue.

If the Bush tax cuts remain in place — something Romney favors — the federal government would bring in $180 billion less in 2015 under Romney’s plan, according to an analysis conducted by the Tax Policy Center, a group of tax experts who have already examined the plans of Gingrich and Rick Perry.

The rich would see the most benefit, with individuals in the top 1% receiving a tax cut of more than $80,000, while the average person would get a little more than $1,000 break.

"In many ways, Romney’s tax plank is a fairly mainstream Republican offering," Howard Gleckman of TPC said in a blog post. The plan, he said, contains "no major tax reform."

Romney would leave marginal tax rates on income at their current levels, while eliminating taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for taxpayers who make less than $200,000.

The Romney plan also calls for the elimination of the estate tax, and a reduction in the tax rate paid by corporations from 35% to 25%.

Other candidates have gone further.

"It’s timid, at least by standards of Republican primary plans," said Daniel Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. "From the perspective of the average primary voter, he is probably just trimming around the edges."

Romney has not proposed a flat tax like Gingrich or Perry, and the front-runner has also shied away from the retail sales tax that was the centerpiece of Herman Cain’s now famous 9-9-9 plan personal loan for poor credit.

The Tax Foundation, a think tank that generally advocates for lower tax rates, has said that Romney’s plan for the individual code "really takes no step toward fundamental reform."

In fact, Romney is the lone Republican candidate who has not proposed modifying current tax brackets or substantially reducing income tax rates. Instead, he has articulated only a vague promise to pursue a future plan with "lower, flatter rates on a broader base."

Even President Obama’s fiscal commission, which won plaudits from both sides of the aisle, planned to lower individual rates across the board while eliminating special deductions and loopholes. Under that plan, the top rate paid by individuals would have dropped from 35% to 23%.

On corporate taxes, Romney favors higher rates than his competitors. Romney’s 25% proposed rate carries a less aggressive reduction than that of Gingrich (12.5%), Perry (20%), Rick Santorum (17.5%) or Ron Paul (15%).

America’s Choice 2012

Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said Romney’s economic policies are a "blueprint for governing that includes dramatic spending cuts to reduce the deficit and pro-growth tax policies."

Grover Norquist, head of the anti-tax advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform, said late last year that Romney’s plan was "fine" but noted that he was falling behind his rivals.

"I think Romney put his plan in very early, Norquist said on Meet the Press, and he "needs to update it to catch up with where the debate’s going,"

But after capturing the Iowa caucuses, Romney might not need to change or explain his tax policies in more detail.

"If you’re the front-runner, then there are a lot of incentives to just run out the clock," Mitchell said. 

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The job market is looking a little brighter at the start of the new year.

Weekly unemployment benefit applications have fallen to levels last seen more than three years ago. Holiday sales were solid. Service companies grew a little faster in December. And many small businesses say they plan to add jobs over the next three months.

The mix of private and government data released Thursday sketched a picture of an economy that is slowly strengthening, stoking optimism one day ahead of the government’s important read on December job growth.

“Businesses have increased hiring to meet the underlying pick-up in (consumer) demand,” said Neil Dutta, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The mostly positive reports had little impact on financial markets. Traders seemed more focused on the debt crisis in Europe, which could slow U.S. growth later this year. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 37 points in midday trading. Broader indexes were mixed.

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 372,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s 11 percent lower than the same time last year.

The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, fell to 373,250 _ the lowest level since June 2008.

When applications drop below 375,000 _ consistently _ they generally signal that hiring is strong enough to reduce the unemployment rate.

Steven Wood, an economist at Insight Economics, said applications last year averaged 411,000 per week, down from 459,000 per week in 2010.

That’s “a clear indication that the pace of layoffs has slowed,” Wood said.

U.S. service firms, which employ roughly 90 percent of the work force, grew a little faster in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

The trade group of purchasing managers said its index of non-manufacturing activity rose to 52.6. That’s slightly above November’s reading of 52 _ the lowest in nearly two years _ but well below last year’s high of 59.7 recorded in February.

Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

An increase in new orders and stronger imports drove last month’s modest expansion. But a gauge of hiring showed many service firms were hesitant to add workers no fax payday advance.

Retailers, meanwhile, reported solid but not spectacular sales gains last month. And much of the increase stemmed from heavy discounting that will likely cut into profits.

Sales rose 3.5 percent in December for a group of 25 retail chains tracked by the International Council of Shopping Centers. Holiday sales, which cover the last two months of the year, rose 3.3 percent, a decent rise but less than last year’s gain.

Small businesses remain encouraged about their plans to hire over the next three months. The National Federation of Independent Business says the proportion of those firms that expect to add workers is slightly off from the three-year high hit last month.

Economists are predicting that overall hiring increased in December and will strengthen this year.

John Ryding, an economist at RDQ Economics, forecasts that employers added 180,000 jobs last month, a big jump from November’s 120,000 net jobs.

Economists surveyed by the Associated Press project that the economy will generate an average of 175,000 jobs per month this year. That would be a step up from average monthly gains of 130,000 last year and 78,000 in 2010.

In November, the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent from 9 percent. Still, about half that decline occurred because many of the unemployed gave up looking for work. When people stop looking for a job, they’re no longer counted as unemployed.

The pickup in hiring reflects some modest improvement in the economy. Growth will likely top 3 percent at an annual rate in the final three months of this year, economists expect. That would be a sharp improvement over the 1.8 percent growth in the July-September quarter.

Even so, many economists forecast that growth could slow to roughly 2 percent this year. Europe is almost certain to fall into recession because of its financial troubles. And without more jobs and higher incomes, consumers may have to cut back on spending. That could drag on growth in 2012.

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AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

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British police and journalists agree that their cozy ties allowed illegal phone hacking to go on too long, an independent investigator said Wednesday.

Elizabeth Filkin, a former Parliamentary standards chief, said a culture of confidential briefings, poor guidance from senior staff too ready to accept reporters’ hospitality and a bias toward some tabloids must be overhauled by London police.

Police officers should be wary of journalists who offer alcoholic drinks, make flirty advances or tempt potential sources into “late-night carousing,” Filkin warned.

“Alcohol is fraught issue … drinking loosens tongues, so common sense is needed,” her guidelines state, warning that “some journalists do not practice abstinence.”

Witnesses from both sides had told her inquiry the issue lay behind the failure of early police investigations to uncover the true extent of media malpractice.

An initial police investigation led to the jailing of a reporter from the now-defunct News of The World tabloid and a private investigator in 2007, but failed to unearth the widespread interception of cell phone voice mail messages of celebrities, sporting stars, legislators and even crime victims.

Since then, London police have identified 5,795 potential phone hacking victims and launched three new inquiries into alleged criminality by the press.

Filkin’s inquiry said relationships between the police, particularly senior officers, and the press had “compromised the capacity of both the police and the media to scrutinize the activities of the other.”

However Filkin, who was appointed by London’s Metropolitan Police to review their relationship with the press, said it would be down to a new police inquiry, not her, to say how badly that had hampered inquiries into phone hacking.

“I don’t know whether it inhibited that inquiry,” Filkin said paydayloans. “What I heard from a large number of people, both journalists and people who work at the Met, was that they feared it had.”

“That was the greatest concern for me from what I heard,” she said, presenting her proposed new guidelines to officers on how to handle the press.

Since the extent of tabloid phone hacking was exposed last summer, more than a dozen News of the World journalists, including former editor Andy Coulson, have been arrested.

The scandal also forced the resignations of London’s top police officer, the Metropolitan Police commissioner Paul Stephenson, and assistant commissioner John Yates.

Stephenson quit in July over his links to Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive turned PR consultant. Yates resigned amid criticism of his handling of initial investigation.

“There will be no more secret conversations, there will be no more improper contacts,” said Stephenson’s successor as London’s top police officer, Bernard Hogan-Howe.

Hogan-Howe pledged to take up Filkin’s recommendations in full, including a proposal that officers should in the future record every contact they have with reporters for potential inspection.

Filkin did not discuss in detail allegations that Britain’s press paid London police for information, but said claims from senior officers that only a few people were involved conflicted with accounts she had received from journalists.

Eight people, including a serving police officer and a reporter working for The Sun tabloid, have been arrested as part of an inquiry into the alleged bribes, though no one has been charged.

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Commodities may rebound from their first retreat in three years as developing economies shore up global growth, driving demand higher at a time when raw-material producers are already struggling to keep up.

Precious metals will advance 27 percent or more, industrial metals at least 17 percent and grains 5 percent, according to the median estimates in a Bloomberg survey of 143 analysts, traders and investors. Nine of the 15 commodities covered by a similar survey a year earlier reached their predicted highs in 2011, with another five no more than 4 percent away.

The Standard & Poor

Prime Minister Mario Monti is prescribing more