{"id":692,"date":"2012-03-15T01:21:55","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T09:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/?p=692"},"modified":"2012-03-14T21:31:32","modified_gmt":"2012-03-15T05:31:32","slug":"complaining-the-art-of-getting-what-you-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/complaining-the-art-of-getting-what-you-want\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaining \u2013 the art of getting what you want"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"When<\/a>
There is a right way and a wrong way to complain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When not to complain and what you shouldn\u2019t complain about<\/h3>\n

Don\u2019t complain just to get a lower price.\u00a0 There are plenty of ways to negotiate over price, but complaining about quality or results when that is not the case is a dirty trick.\u00a0 You may end up doing it, but realize it really isn\u2019t ethical.\u00a0 There are better ways to save money<\/a>.\u00a0 Think how you would feel if someone complains about your product, posts a bad comment on your blog or website, and generally bullies you into a lower price.\u00a0 Then they buy your product and don\u2019t change any of their prior actions.\u00a0 That\u2019s complaining just to get a lower price.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be a douche.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be rude, mean, or disrespectful, especially to customer service folks.\u00a0 In general, the customer service people that you deal with didn\u2019t cause the problem.\u00a0 They are there to help you are at least appease you, take advantage of this.\u00a0 Yelling at the customer service folks, much like yelling at the waitress because the cook didn\u2019t do something right, will likely lead to more problems than they solve, whether that is being hung-up on, having them refuse to compensate you, or spitting on your burger.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t complain if there is no way to make you happy or if you don\u2019t think there is a solution.\u00a0 If there is no way you\u2019ll ever be satisfied with any possible solution why waste your time and theirs?\u00a0 Some people just want to start a philosophical debate about why they are right and some company is wrong.\u00a0 It may be a perceived slight or disrespect.\u00a0 Most of the time the provider is completely unaware that this may have occurred.\u00a0 You then have someone who just wants to go and complain.\u00a0 This usually is the venting process.\u00a0 It lets them blow off steam, and good customer service reps let it happen, then try to fix the problem.\u00a0 But some people just like to yell.<\/p>\n

Related to the waste of time mentioned above, if you\u2019re just asking that the company apologize for treating you poorly in your opinion, but aren\u2019t seeking anything else, just skip it.\u00a0 Pretend they deeply and sincerely apologized to you and move on.\u00a0 Remember everything has a trade-off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When to complain<\/h3>\n

You should only complain when the product or service is not meeting your needs.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not happy with a product or service, there is no psychic manner for the provider to know this.\u00a0 The good firms even like to receive feedback, though they\u2019d also prefer that you were satisfied.\u00a0 Given this, the respectable firms will help you become satisfied, and they\u2019ll learn from the process to improve themselves.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Make sure you complain when you should and do so the right way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Complain only when it will be worth your time to do so.\u00a0 Are you willing to wait on hold because you were overcharged a dime?\u00a0 Will you return to a store after driving home to get an extra quarter off your bill because they missed a coupon?\u00a0 Why bother?\u00a0 There is a materiality threshold, to use accounting parlance, which you need to meet in order to complain.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be petty.\u00a0 A dime isn\u2019t going to make a difference, and odds are you\u2019re not paying yourself for your time very well.\u00a0 Think of life as a big give a penny take a penny jar.<\/p>\n

How to complain<\/h3>\n

Be nice.\u00a0 Be considerate.\u00a0 Tell them what the problem is, what you were expecting from the product or service, and that you are disappointed.\u00a0 Be understanding, stating that you know errors and mistakes can occur, and that if you didn\u2019t bring it to their attention, they wouldn\u2019t have known there was a problem.\u00a0 Be firm that you\u2019d like compensation.\u00a0 You can either let them offer you something, or simply state what you\u2019re interested in receiving.\u00a0 That\u2019s a negotiating tactic that I\u2019ll get into in another article<\/p>\n

When asking for compensation, know what type of things you\u2019re interested in.\u00a0 If you were somewhat satisfied with the product or service, a full refund really isn\u2019t in order.\u00a0 You\u2019ll have the best luck with things that you value, but are very cheap for the company to provide.\u00a0 For example, I went snowboarding with a couple of beginners, and of the two lifts that a beginner ticket could take, one was down for the day, resulting in very long wait times.\u00a0 At the end of the day, after about 4 runs, I complained, stating that on a weekend, having a single beginner lift was unacceptable, and that I would like a refund.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t give me a refund, but they did offer free tickets for the next trip.\u00a0 They can do this because there is essentially zero incremental cost for them to have 2 more people on the lifts than not.\u00a0 Very low cost to them, but saved me $75.\u00a0 Anything super-high margin is good.\u00a0 Free soda in a restaurant, special highlight in a web job listing, or extended access to something.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Readers, what tips and tricks do you have to resolving your complaints?\u00a0 Any stories where things went really well or really poorly for you or someone else?\u00a0 What did you learn from that?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When not to complain and what you shouldn\u2019t complain about Don\u2019t complain just to get a lower price.\u00a0 There are plenty of ways to negotiate over price, but complaining about quality or results when that is not the case is a dirty trick.\u00a0 You may end up doing it, but realize it really isn\u2019t ethical.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63,48],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}