Stephen Robbins here.

Welcome to the Get It Done guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

In a perfect world, we'd all live in harmony.

We'd take care of each other, help out when things go wrong,

and clear up misunderstandings over clotted cream and scones.

Unfortunately, we live in the real world, a dog-eat-dog world,

and, let's be honest, it's the dog with a laser-targeted rifle and metal-tipped teeth

filed to a razor-sharp point. Who gets to eat the dog who's sitting on a park bench,

playing the guitar and holding a peace sign? My friend Bernice used to have a guitar, but then she's started

planning her wedding. She's discovered that the words customer service are often a lie. She's had to

fight tooth and nail to get vendors to listen to her. Fortunately, she learns fast. She's traded

her guitar for a laser-targeted rifle. We chatted recently as she was polishing her body armor and filing her razor-sharp teeth,

and she shared her thoughts on handling disputes.

Here are seven tips for helping you get your way.

Tip number one, create a dedicated email account for disputes.

Set up an email account that you'll use exclusively for disputes.

This email account will become your filing system.

Your ISP may allow you to create several different email accounts.

You can also get free accounts on Yahoo or Google or Hotmail.

And if you're an exhibitionist, I highly recommend choosing a service that's ad-supported,

so you can sleep soundly at night,

knowing that a huge corporation is scanning and analyzing your email while you sleep.

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