When I was in 9th grade English, the teacher had us write a letter to a company. My complaint letter resulted in free stuff, and things have never been the same since
.
Seriously, I do enjoy writing letters to firms, because I find that if written properly, they will often be taken more seriously than phone calls answered by minimum wage "customer care" people.
One thing I did learn though is that it makes a much better impression if you tried to resolve the situation at a lower level but were shot down. I now try this approach, partly after reading on this board about the risk of being labeled a serial complainer.
Another thing that I sometimes do if I write to complain and get a form letter is to write again, and include the following text at the end:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">In concluding, IŽd like to relate to you the story of the man who wrote the Pullman Coach Company to complain that on a trip from Pittsburgh to New York, his sleeping car was full of bedbugs and he had suffered a number of bites. He received a letter from the executive office of the firm shortly thereafter, apologizing for the incident and promising to look into the matter. The man noticed that his original letter had been left paperclipped to the reply, with a note on top:
"Send this S.O.B. the Bedbug Letter."
I hope you will not send me a Bedbug Letter.
Sincerely Yours, etc. etc.</font>
(edited to fix formatting)
[This message has been edited by yonatan (edited 06-29-2001).]