The XX Factor

My favorite story of facing down a big company's terrible customer service has long been Julie Snyder's war of attrition with MCI on This American Life . But now Dooce has bested Maytag on Twitter in her battle to repair her faulty new washing machine. Read about it in all her trademark gory detail . It's the mommy blogger's perfect revenge: You go after a big company for indifferent and crappy service in front of an audience of a million, the bad guys figure out they've got a PR disaster on their hands, and then they grovel like crazy to get back into your good graces. And in this case, another rival company throws in a free washing machine for a local homeless shelter. Triumph.

Photograph by Getty Images.