By Cheryl Mattox Berry
What do you do when carefully arranged plans go awry due to no fault of your own or a service you paid for was less than perfect?
A. Suffer in silence
B. Cuss out an employee though that person has no authority at the company
C. Complain to friends
D. Tell yourself you’ll deal with it later but never do.
My answer: Write a letter to the Customer Service Department or head of the company.
Friends joke that I should start a business that specializes in writing such letters because I’ve sent so many in recent years. It’s not that I’m a whiner or nitpicker. I believe that when I pay money for something, I should get exactly what was promised. Here are a few examples of problems I’ve encountered that led to one of my letters:
On a trip to Paris, I booked a City of Lights Tour, which started at 8 p.m. Well, at that time of night in June it’s still daylight. I didn’t know that it doesn’t get dark until around 10 p.m., but the tour operators did so why would they offer a tour that began and ended before nightfall?
I tried to get a refund on-site, but the cashier gave me the run around. After I returned home, I wrote a long letter explaining the absurdity of the tour and got a full refund.
The airlines – pick one – get the most letters from me because they’re always messing up. Usually it takes only one email to resolve a problem, but I had to write three letters to get fair compensation for my mother-in-law’s lost luggage.
An agent checked her bag at the gate and assured my mother-in-law that it would be waiting for her when she arrived in Memphis. However, the bright blue carry-on, which she bought to avoid checking luggage, was nowhere in sight.
Initially, the airlines offered $100, which covered the cost of the bag but not the contents. After going back and forth for three months, she finally received $450.
In May, I paid the airlines twice for one bag. When the ticket agent informed me of my mistake, I asked that $25 be credited to my Visa card. She told me that the airlines didn’t give refunds. “Oh, yes it will,” I told her. I wrote the airlines and received the credit two months later.
It takes time and patience to deal with problems, but you do yourself a disservice by not following up if you weren’t satisfied. Plus, companies needs to know when they’re doing a lousy job.
My letters are very simple: I explain the problem, how it affected me and what I think needs to be done to make me happy. Sometimes, I let the company offer compensation first, and then we negotiate.
So far, I’ve had a 100 percent success rate. That’s something to write about.