Want to reach customer service fast? Call Vietnamese line

E-mail and the Internet may be the quickest ways to get customer service, but the back-and-forth of e-mails doesn't always resolve the issue quickly.

A telephone call -- if someone answers the call and you don't end up on hold forever -- is often the best solution and can lead to immediate answers instead of waiting a day or more for an e-mail to be answered.

But what if the operator is too busy to answer, as they were last year at the California Employment Development Department, where callers heard a recorded message about unemployment benefits because its call centers were so swamped with calls?

Rudy McComb has an answer: Call the line for Vietnamese speakers.