Working the overall structural organization of a call: How customers use third position as leverage for gaining service representatives' assistance in dealing with service problems

•Describes the overall structural organization of customer service encounters.•Identifies methods customers use to have service problems addressed.•Considers the intersection between structure and action.•Contributes to research on interaction-based methods for explaining problems experienced in actual customer service encounters.

This article examines customer service encounters in an electronic repair facility and documents two opportunities within the overall structure of the call where customers express, and service representatives manage, different and competing goal orientations within the encounter. The central analysis then demonstrates where and how, within the call, customers seek opportunities for resolving service problems. Findings offer a communication perspective for explaining where tensions between service representatives and clients manifest in service encounters, and contribute to an existing body of research that considers language use in institutional settings.