<p>I complain, but I also try to send a compliment once in a while as well.</p>
<p>I got two halves a a pizza once at a Chuck E. Cheese’s (we now refer to it as Chuck Up Cheese’s). The manager handled it poorly. I reported the restaurant to the health department and have not been back.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s being a good role model that’s part of it for me. DS1 is close; he’ll identify an issue and then hope I’ll step in and correct it. If I don’t, depending on how strongly he feels he’ll address it himself. But ds2, just 15, doesn’t “want to hurt people’s feelings.” Argh. He just got a bad haircut because the lady cutting it “thinks he looks better with a longer bang.” And he just said OK. I could tell he didn’t like it, and the minute we walked out he said so. I said, “Why didn’t you say anything?” He said because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. I told him her pocketbook will be more hurt when we never go back there again. He said I was mean. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>My neighbor is the brand manager for a well known snack food line. She loves to share some of the complaints/comments that get forwarded to her on all aspects of the product from advertising to product quality. One comment was their marketing was too racey and another said there were too many calories in the product. Trust me all comments that come into 800 numbers or the internet are handled and if it’s a quality problem they want to know and will send out coupons. </p>
<p>I find the internet is the most time efficient way to do it. Just today I went on the Ben & Jerry’s website to highlight that most of their new flavors contain bakery products and are therefore not gluten-free and these are the only B&J flavors my grocery store is carrying. This is probably trivial to most, but I find it very annoying as I’m gluten intolerant and I traditionally liked their ice cream.</p>
<p>Yesterday, I tried using the comments section on the organization’s website, but it wouldn’t submit, so I ended up looking up the head of the network news and wrote to his e-mail address. I hope the secretary passed it along to someone!</p>
<p>I complain and sometimes get results, so my kids think I have mystical powers. </p>
<p>I ALWAYS email the company when I have an allergic reaction to food; they really need to know if their employees are ignoring allergy issues. (One time I asked for a quesadilla at Tin Star with no pesto; I took a bite and discovered that it had pesto. I emailed the company and the owner of the chain sent a written apology along with a $20 gift certificate - I thought that was so funny. We’re so sorry that our employee endangered your life that we’re giving you $20.)</p>
<p>OK, people! This thread is not at all uplifting. Have any of you ever been on the other side? Customers are VERY demanding! I work retail and the last three days I have worked, I have stayed a total of one hour and twenty minutes extra to meet your needs when you entered the store at closing. I receive no pay for this, by the way. Have you ever thanked anyone for extraordinary service??
Wouldn’t this be a better world if people would stop complaining and give thanks for what they have?</p>
<p>Sorry you’ve had a rough three days, ksm. I also compliment. I think I wrote on here once about the ruckus I caused at the Whataburger drive-thru once for complimenting the woman taking orders on her lovely voice!</p>
<p>Yes, I give compliments also. I usually ask for the manager to give the compliment directly to about his employee. The look of relief on the manager’s face when he finds out he is being given a positive comment instead of a complaint is priceless. I try to always do this when some service worker has done his job particularly well and cheerfully.</p>
<p>I also frequent stores that have good service and have obviously trained their employees although they are harder and harder to find.</p>
<p>I have written to complain when the product was defective and have received responses. One was a box of pencils where the lead just fell out of the wood. I received a case of pencils of various interesting types. Another was a batch of sandwich cookies where the package came with the top and bottom of every cookie separated from the cream. That resulted in an interesting letter from the company about their attempts to develop a cookie with no trans fats and that they were still working on it. I got a coupon. I would want to know if I was selling defective products. My kids think I am crazy.</p>
<p>missypie, so your life was only worth $20! I made a complaint to a department store and they sent two letters of apology from different offices with a $100 gift card! They were responsive to part of my complaint (the easy part to remedy), but they decided not to do anything about the second part of my complaint which involves paying for a full time tailor.</p>
<p>Now we have a situation where an auto company tried to extract $400 from us on a returned car that was leased. We were smart enough to take pictures which prove that most of what they claimed was damaged was NOT damaged at the time it was returned to a dealer. They were dumb enough to still charge us for $100 for what they say is a missing part of an interior part of the car and we do not have a clear enough picture to disprove this. They owed us a refund on milage, so they were in the “driver’s seat” regarding the $100. I may put in a complaint, but my DH decided that we will definitely never buy this brand again!! Pretty stupid to lose two customers (plus our kids) over $100.</p>
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<p>I complain when I want something to be made better. Here’s my latest example: One of my favorite restaurants opened a branch in my office building. I ate there 2-3 times a week. </p>
<p>Then the restaurant got a new manager. I don’t know if he fired all the old employees or if they quit, but he ended up with an entirely new staff. It was a disaster. You had to wait forever for your food. It tasted bad. They’d run out of napkins and silverware before the lunch rush was over. Everyone I knew stopped eating there. </p>
<p>I repeatedly emailed the corporate office -saying that I had previously loved the place but that it was terrible with the new management. They replied several time, with several very general comments. Then about three weeks after the new manager started, the restaurant closed. I was so sad but it was the outcome I feared. Had they really paid attention to what I was saying, they’d still have a very busy restaurant today.</p>
<p>I can’t understand why people who take the risk of opening a new business often don’t have any sense about training their employees. I live in a high-traffic area and can pretty much predict how long a new store or restaurant will stay in business after the first, and sometimes last, visit. I don’t like Starbucks or Walmart or any of the other big chains, but at least they make the effort to train their employees well (usually).</p>
<p>@ksm - my kids have also worked retail, and I work for our public schools. I know about people complaining about trivial things, and people not appreciating hard work. </p>
<p>But if management isn’t told when there’s a problem, then they don’t know there’s a problem. And if they don’t know there’s a problem they can’t fix it.</p>
<p>I do agree that most of us need to be sure to pass along compliments as often as we pass along criticism!</p>
<p>There’s a difference between a complaint and constructive criticism, and I have done both. If I like a product, I will go to the trouble to suggest needed improvements. For example, I have called the 1-800 number to suggest that the cooking instructions were written too small on a product. </p>
<p>However, I have found that, for me, if I am really incensed about something, I NEED to say something. Otherwise, it will prey on my mind. And much of the time, all it takes is an apology to get my blood pressure back down.</p>
<p>I will complain if I feel the need. Once I bought a package of bagels and as I was eating one, I bit into something unusual. It was a piece of paper towel (the “industrial” kind, not like the Bounty kind for home use). I was so yucked out by this, that I put the piece of bagel in a ziplock bag and threw it in my freezer. I notified the company and they called me within a couple days. When I told them I still had the “sample”, they asked me to send it to them. After they reviewed, they wrote me and told me there was no way that piece of paper towel could have come from their bakery. Right.</p>
<p>They sent me several coupons, but I couldn’t bring myself to use them.</p>
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<p>I guess you’re taking a calculted risk that you won’t get an eye roll or something less than an apology that will leave your bp elevated.</p>
<p>Do you remember the old Skaggs Alpha Beta grocery stores? One time, from a distance, I observed a cart careening into my car. I went in to complain. They were very nice, took me to the office, had a short form for me to fill out. Of course, I never heard a word from them and I’m pretty sure they must have just pitched my form once I left. But I thought they were so deviously clever for coming up with a way to handle the situation that left me walking out the door satisfied while they did next to nothing!</p>
<p>missypie, if the restaurant closed only three weeks after it got a new manager, it was already on its last legs.</p>
<p>I called to complain that they “improved” my kid’s favorite cereal by adding more sugar to it. They sent me coupons for more cereal! Thanks guys. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>And I try to say something when I feel I received exceptional service.</p>