Traditionally complaining is considered a bad thing. Products that you purchase or service you receive often are good things to complain about when you have an issue, even if it is a simple one. The complaining is not only often good for you, but for the company as well. Here are three good reasons you should complain.
1. A food item was sub-standard.
This might often take more time than it is worth, however there often is something in it for you. I recently had to contact Breyers Ice Cream. I purchased a type of ice cream that had nothing to do with butterscotch. However apparently butterscotch was the last thing they had run on the line and someone failed to properly clean the machine.
Why not just eat the ok tasting ice cream and get on with life? Because Breyers had two problems and I had one. Mine was bad ice cream, but Breyers had a customer which was less likely to purchase from them again and a quality control issue. Yet, only I knew about my problem. By calling and complaining, I did them a service, and they sent me a coupon for a new carton of ice cream for my trouble.
Breyers’ quality control team is now able to look into the problem and I am able to get some free ice cream.
Some companies will go beyond just replacing the product for you. We purchased a bag of potatoes and 50-75% of them were bruised internally. Green Giant sent us coupons for two bags to replace it.
2. The product is under warranty.
This might feel like a no-brainer, but most people forget that the item is under warranty. A great example we recently had was a crock pot. The crock received a crack. This was about 2 years after purchase. I called Jarden (who runs CrockPot) and they sent us a new crock right away.
Side note: That crock was the last in their stock and it had a flaw in it, so when I called again about it they sent us a whole new crock pot.
Some companies do lifetime warranties. Kingston who makes computer memory and stuff like SD cards guarantees most of their products for life. I had an older 2 GB SD card that was failing. I went to Kingston’s website and did an RMA (costing me a stamp to send it to them). They no longer had that one in stock so they sent me a larger and faster 4GB card. Next time I am looking at SD cards whose am I more likely to purchase?
Most people forget that their stuff might be under warranty. It is always worth asking even if you do not know and it is always worth asking if you do because of reason number three.
3. The product is out of warranty.
This is a slightly different reason to complain. Perhaps the product is just over the one year mark, go ahead and call. Some companies like Lenovo say they have a 12 month warranty, but they actually have a 13 month one in the system.
Other times the product has failed in a way that is big enough that it is worth complaining. Remember than when something has failed it gives you a bad impression of the company. If the company is a good one they will try to help you out.
We had an older toaster which recently caught on fire due to a pop tart and failure to pop up. No damage except to the toaster, but I emailed Sunbeam (also owned by Jarden) and they are sending me a new one and request that I send the old one back to them in the box with the label that will be provided. This is a special case where the company needs to find out if they have a larger problem where they might need to issue a recall. It is important to the safety of others that you complain.
4. To find out what companies you do not want to use!
This is a bonus reason to complain especially about small things. If a company handles a small complaint well, it is likely they are also good when you come to them with a bigger one.
So although you want to do it as nicely as possible (remembering that the person on the phone had nothing to do with the problem and might be able to help you) remember to complain. It is your civic duty!