There are two sides to the statistics.

On the one hand, 20 percent of the people send in 80 percent of the complaints. That's the old 80-20 rule: the same one that says 20 percent of the people drink 80 percent of the beer, fly 80 percent of the miles, earn 80 percent of the As (or Fs) in school, etc.

On the other hand, 20 percent of the people have 80 percent of the bad luck. That's the same 80-20 rule. If 1 percent of all flights are cancelled, one person out of every million travelers is going to have three flights cancelled in a row. Ditto for lost bags, missed special meals and all the rest. If that person writes in about them, he/she is NOT a serial complainer. It was just his/her week to be dumped on.

Companies generally know this. Someone who complains a lot is either (a) a serial complainer or (b) someone who randomly got more than his/her share of doo-doo.

They have to be able to tell these two apart. That's where the tone of your letter makes so much difference. If you come across as "I'm not blaming you, but I had this series of problems, and here's what I'd like you to do about it," your chances are good. Something along the lines of "I know it happens every so often and this must have been my turn" can help. If you sound like "You did this to me so you are the devil incarnate," it will not help your case.

OK- so who can help me write a complaint letter to Honda Customer Service

About a month ago the car ( a 97 Passport) started dying 'n flight'. Had it towed to a Honda dealer. Both they and AAA said nope not the alternator( which is what my teenage son thought it was) - you need a bigger battery to run this aftermarket stereo ( which had been running fine for 6 month http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

OK- bought bigger battery. Car dies again about a wk later. Back to Honda - Service dept keeps it 2 days and tells me these gold things are shorting out the battery and disconnects entire aftermarket stereo system,because they wont work on them. Well you guessed it - next day dead car - wont even jump start. Back to Honda ( I've already been told how stupid I was to bring it back there so we can leave those comments out of the replies please http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Now of course they say it needs a 600 dollar alternator.

I know what I want - the cost of the alternator that they probably broke and what it will cost me to have the stereo system reinstalled. Is this reasonable? How do I ask? And I dont even know if the car was fixed as alternator is just being put in today and I am , of course, not in town

All input appreciated

aka Pareto principle.

On the other hand, 80% of the time, its the fault of the system, not the individual. This includes inadequate staffing/high workload, overly long hours, and not empowering the employees which may appear to be the fault of the individual to the outsider, but which are really management shortcomings.

As a former Front Office Manager for a number of hotels, I can assure you that 99% of complaints directed to me (or for that matter to any of our desk agents, hotel operators, etc.) are responded to in favor of the guest, particularly when we feel that it is in the best interest of both parties to compensate the guest. We of all people know that we are human, and that our hotels are things that are never in "perfect condition", and we create or exaserbate these problems. Typical scenarios include: numerous "screw ups" on our side, including failure to meet reservation requests, staff that are not in the best of moods, or in the place that they are supposed to be, noise from construction or ballroom parties, bad plumbing, old/tired rooms, late or incorrect room service or restaurant meals, airport transportation delays from our shuttle, excessive phone/movie charges (another topic to be sure, but we do try to be fair), outside resources/vendors that we endorse who purposely "rip off" our customers, etc.

Situations that we won't be held accountable for (although will sometimes compensate for, based on the situation) include hurricanes (water coming into the room with 90 MPH winds outside), noise from unruly neighbors/parties (after we have been informed and have corrected the situation), failure to recognize and upgrade accordingly the elite level of a frequent guest, delays and or problems with taxicabs or other outside parties, weather problems (can't use the pool, etc. as a result).

What DOES drive me totally insane are the 1% of people who, from the time of check in (or even from the reservation stage), who we KNOW are problematic. For example, the people, who are at the absolute lowest rate demanding upgrades (and I am NOT talking about frequent traveler perks here), people who eat an entire $300 room service meal (including licking the plates clean, and I am not kidding about that either), and then go on to say that the food was inedible, etc.

My favorite example was a few months back: we were fore-warned about a guest coming to the hotel, by the travel agent who handled this persons itineraries. The TA was kind enough to give us a head's up; we in turn made sure that she was put in the very best available room (inspected in advance by our Housekeeping Director, Director of Engineering, and myself), on our Concierge floor (at no additional charge). From the moment of her arrival, the complaints abounded. "The door shuts too fast" complaint was met immediately by our engineering dept, who adjusted the door. "The meal is inedible" complaint resulted in, upon investigation, completely "licked clean" plates. Attempts to reach her to discuss these issues were unsuccessful; on the first round of complaints, she demanded an upgrade; it was explained that based on the input to her "selective needs" we had already upgraded her, as a courtesy, she was unimpressed.


Prior to check out, this individual made a statement on the phone to me that she in no way was going to pay for her entire stay. We forwarded a complete log of our encounters to her credit card company, and let her battle it out with them. We of course submitted the full charges (minus the "inedible meal"), which we, in good faith, "ate".

Another example was that of a couple, who were, to be fair, put into a shabby room. We comped the first night, and then put them into a "model room" (renovation was just beginning, so they got the latest and greatest of the hotels newest product). The complaints continued, to include the insulation of the sinks hot water pipe (really!!!!, one has to literally get on ones' hands and knees to even see the insulation, which is designed to prevent a guest from burning their knees if they got too close), the fact that the curtain rods were not only on the front side of the curtains, but were a conflicting color, and the fact that the bathroom door opened "out", instead of "in" (this room was on a wheelchair friendly floor). They went on to criticize the design of the mattress (which is a very expensive, and comfortable design, by the way), which obviously they had never seen.

Needless to say, this type of behavior will result in being labeled a "serial complainer", and rightfully so.

LOL! The "door" never shuts fast enough on this type of client ...

I once worked for a very nice gentleman who was no longer allowed to fly United for various complaints. 1K, high revenue, international travel, the works. A United executive simply called him and stated that they could not meet his service expectations, so please don't fly us. He went on to book a flight and the travel agent was descretely informed to book him on another airline. I thought that there would be a lawsuit, but a couple of us in the office convinced him that it wasn't worth it, and anyway none of us were flying United anymore. Let's get the best of them.

I consolidate all of my serious travel to CO + partners, Hilton and now TWA/AA. On the rare occasion that I phone it is taken seriously.

On the bottom of a TWA printout I received, it has the following customer areas for remarks:

Profile
Lookups
Amenity History
Amenity Requests
Customer Miles Adj

Somebody's keeping track.

If I can throw my 2 cents into the ring, As one who used to work for a major Hotel Chain, yes you can become labeled as serial complanier, the trick is to write really postive things let the management know how great something is, and when something is wrong let them know with some positive critism. It works a charm.

I think that reading these posts a clear picture emerges. It is quite obvious that if it becomes obvious that there are three sorts of complaints. Genuine, trivial, and imaginary. I am certain that there are company's that truly believe that any old thing will do. There are equally customers for whom nothing will ever be good enough. It is a sad truth that these sort of people poison the ground for the rest of us.

If a company sees your track record of consumption and knows that you do complain but do so rarely, reasonably, genuinely, and (and this is very sad) truthfully; you will be taken seriously. If you are prepared to write and say "well done", your letter of "I'm sorry to point out" is taken much more seriously.

With some of the appaling examples cited here, I do not blame companies from keeping track of trouble makers. The danger of course is that it is open to abuse, and can be subjective and judgemental.