DURING our recent office relocation, we consulted with a technical expert on a variety of tools to help us communicate between our remote offices. The tools he recommended were just what we needed, and we bought several for company-wide use.

A few weeks later a bill arrived from the technical company for time spent consulting to us on the tools we bought. This seemed unfair to us since we know the company received a commission on the items. From our perspective, we were paying for the company's sales call.

When one of my employees called the consultant to question the charges, he listened carefully to our concerns and then promised to look at the bill to see if we bad been charged erroneously. The next day we received an e-mail from him explaining that the charge was for a meeting in which we talked about a number of issues related to the move, including the new tools. He made a good faith gesture by reducing the invoice by 30 percent, to remove the cost of time spent discussing the tools.

Our consultant handled the billing question skillfully. He listened carefully, acted quickly and protected the business relationship by coming up with a solution that gave something to each party. As a home-based business owner, you're bound to be called upon to handle difficult situations like this one. Work-at-homers usually wear many hats, including director of customer service. Handling disputes as diplomatically as our tech consultant did can help you protect customer and vendor relationships.

Here are some steps to take when you need to turn a negative situation into a positive one.

* Address issues quickly. One of the best things our consultant did was to answer our query right away. By not letting bad feelings linger, he removed any chance that they might fester into something bigger that could permanently damage the relationship.

* Listen first and then ask questions. Give the other party the chance to explain fully his or her perception of the situation without interrupting. Afterward, you may need to ask questions to uncover the real source of irritation. Some people may think they're upset about one thing, and then realize it's another. For example, my company was not upset about the cost of the tech consultant's bill; we were troubled that he was charging us for the opportunity to sell a new product.