Complaining - A Beginner's Guide

Kila

I've written a blog detailing how I usually go about complaining to a company. I think it would be helpful to many on here, so I'm going to link it rather than repost the content (if that's ok). If not, I'll just repost the content (mods, please let me know).

The blog is at http://www.zenbuffy.com/2009/12/complaining-a-beginners-guide/

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Drop us a note when the content actually contains something new! :rolleyes:

Kila

Sorry that you didn't get much out of it. To me, the advice is obvious, as it's the way I've always dealt with things. I expect that plenty of people on here won't need to be told the best way to go about complaining.

But I've also seen plenty of threads where a poster has a problem and doesn't know where to start, or has complained but hasn't gotten the response they wanted. I suppose that I wanted to share my advice with them, in the hopes that it would help.

ejmaztec

I think that people do know how to complain, and that those asking questions on here, are hoping that someone more knowledgeable on a specific matter will give them a clue as to which direction they should take, not to mention give them more ammunition with which to fight their case.

It's an added bonus when someone else posting on here has had exactly the same problem, and knows how a particular retailer or service provider's complaints system works.

Cabaal

Kila wrote: »

Sorry that you didn't get much out of it. To me, the advice is obvious,

Thats the thing its very obvious stuff and has been written about in every advise webpage and/or book.,

You sure your not just pimping your blog?

Kila

That wasn't my intent, no. I wasn't aware that it was something that had been covered extensively elsewhere.

Maybe best to get a mod to nuke the thread if you think it's all been said before.

Sorry.

aidan_walsh

You'd be surprised how often the obvious is lost on people who think that shouting and threatening are going to get them what they want.

dudara

Guys, I think that you're being a bit harsh on Kila.

What is contained in the blog may be obvious to well-informed posters but remember that there are a lot of Irish people who would rather eat cement than complain. If Kila's blog post helps them, then that's good.

dudara

majiktripp

I think its a pretty good post as you'd be suprised how "un-common" common sense is these days.
Some of the horror stories my girlfriend has told me about where she works, for example, a customer wanting to return a pair of shoes that were "failing apart" except he was still wearing them, and then proceeded to take off the shoes - which were filthy - and stand in his bare feet demanding the highest amount of attention....
That and the usual "'I'll be phoning Joe Duffy/Jerry Ryan about this!".
Very few people know what their rights are as consumer's in this country and have a confused approach to lodging or making complaints when they need too, short of "I'm entitled to a refund! - End of discussion!".

tallaghtoutlaws

To be honest I say fair play OP. What you have written is common sense and if more people followed their own common sense then there would be no need for folk like yourself to go to the trouble and help out the hopeless.

To others bashing the OP, just because you see it as common sense doesn't mean the guide wont be helpful to others. I know I read it from top to bottom and I would see myself as someone who knows how to complain.

ejmaztec

dudara wrote: »

Guys, I think that you're being a bit harsh on Kila.

What is contained in the blog may be obvious to well-informed posters but remember that there are a lot of Irish people who would rather eat cement than complain. If Kila's blog post helps them, then that's good.

dudara

Only one of us didn't go to charm school, and it wasn't me.:D

axer

majiktripp wrote: »

I think its a pretty good post as you'd be suprised how "un-common" common sense is these days.
Some of the horror stories my girlfriend has told me about where she works, for example, a customer wanting to return a pair of shoes that were "failing apart" except he was still wearing them, and then proceeded to take off the shoes - which were filthy - and stand in his bare feet demanding the highest amount of attention....
That and the usual "'I'll be phoning Joe Duffy/Jerry Ryan about this!".
Very few people know what their rights are as consumer's in this country and have a confused approach to lodging or making complaints when they need too, short of "I'm entitled to a refund! - End of discussion!".

The problem with that is that those people are probably the least likely to look for reasonable common sense advice.

Kila

Thanks.

I suppose that I wrote it with a few of my friends and people I know in mind. I know people who will moan to friends about a bad experience, but won't bother complaining (which I think is pointless). I partly wrote it to try to spur those people on to actually complain and try to have something changed, rather than simply putting up with it and not really doing anything about it.

I figured that if I know people who will simply sit on a bad experience and do nothing about it, that there must be others like that out there. And I thought that maybe if I outlined why I think it's so important to complain and how I think it should be done, then maybe they wouldn't just sit on their hands the next time something bad happened, but they'd actually take some affirmative action and get a result that they could be happy with.

pickarooney

If nothing else, it's a handy reference to point them at next time they start bleeding your ears with their whinging.