May 27, 2013

How to have fun while complaining

It's pretty boring to write a letter or email of complaint to a company. In fact, it's downright tedious (especially when it's done online and you're talking to a bot). So I always try to inject some fun into the process.

For instance, I use sarcasm. I once wrote to a local TV station and said, "What my family loves about your news show is that you only cover yesterday's news. This way, we're never surprised. I can't tell you how much we value that. Keep up the good work!"

It's more fun than a straight complaint letter and yet it gets the job done. In fact, it might have a bit more punch because of the sarcasm. But what about the boring emails you have to write when you receive an incorrect or broken item? Lately, I've begun these emails as follows:

"The twins are sitting next to me and they're crying their eyes out." I tell them that the girls were so looking forward to receiving the item, and they haven't stopped crying since the wrong (or broken) item arrived. The fun thing is that it doesn't matter what the item is: a tire gauge, a ball-peen hammer, men's size 2XL tall sweatshirt -- anything. It always makes the little twins cry.

Remember this when you need to complain: have some fun. Life doesn't have to be boring.

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