In Business; Reaching Out to a Third Party
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THE first time Bill Palmieri settled a dispute with a customer through the Better Business Bureau’s arbitration program, he lost. But Mr. Palmieri, owner of Stanton TV in Elmsford, had such a positive experience that the next time he and a customer squabbled over a disputed television repair job, he again took the case to arbitration and won. The first case was five years ago, the second three years later. ”I found it to be a good way of learning about yourself,” Mr. Palmieri said. ”In a service business, differences are inevitable, and you need to solve these problems. Sometimes when you’re mad at somebody, it could be you. Arbitration helps you see that and then you move on.” Last year, a woman in Peekskill and her husband decided to get a divorce. Instead of spending $10,000 to $12,000 on lawyers, she sought a mediator, who met with the couple four times over two months. Total cost: $1,200. ” ”It was my first experience with mediation and it was better than I expected,” said the woman. ”The mediator helped with the negotiating and was not there to support one particular party. We had a firm sense of what we wanted to do and then it was just a matter of finishing the paperwork.” Not every divorce is clear cut and not every dispute is easy to settle, but scenarios like these are more commonplace as the concept of alternative dispute resolution, known as A.D.R., becomes more widely known. More : query.nytimes.com |