I Heart Complaining

Two of my favorite hobbies are gossiping and complaining.

Over the years, I have sent nasty letters to various companies, particularly my arch-enemy UPS, but it had to be a pretty bad situation to actually work me into a state to complain to someone besides my closest friends and family.

(My crowning complaint achievement was crying in a furniture store after receiving ridiculously rude and uncalled for treatment from their delivery men. After their departure, I promptly drove (with Mr.) to the store of purchase to complain (I was that worked up) and broke into tears (very atypical for me. I am a rock). They were extremely apologetic and I was amply compensated for my distress.)

Anyways, I have noticed these days, that it takes a lot less to put me over the edge and complain straight to the source. These days, I expect a certain level of customer service/ satisfaction and if I don’t get it, you are going to hear about it. I am beginning to understand why old people are so crotchety. Because I am becoming one of them and seeing their side.

Case in point, over the past few weeks, I have:

1. Sent an e-mail to our resort in Hawaii to complain about our food poisoning. No one else has reported being ill. Good for them, no help to us. And I will say, even though we can't figure out where we got the food poisoning, the resort still offered compensation for our troubles which was quite nice of them.

2. Sent an e-mail to our airline complaining about various issues I had with our flight (lack of food, lots of extra charges, etc.). They are sorry but that’s the way it is now.

3. Posted a review on a company’s website (my first one!) complaining that their body lotion was listed as fragrance free on the packaging but in fact smelled like sunscreen. I purchased it specifically because I wanted an SPF body lotion that did NOT smell like sunscreen. I have no desire to sit at work and smell like a vacation. I was pretty peeved at the waste of $10 on this lotion because they misrepresented their product on the label. No response from them.

Potential #4: I am pretty peeved right now because I ordered something and had it delivered to work and the company in question failed to put the suite number on the address label. (I put it in the shipping address so their fault, not an oversight by me. I checked.) So UPS is trying to track it down. I sent UPS an e-mail this morning with the suite number but we’ll see how that resolves. If this is a major pain, the store in question will be hearing from me. Cue big cat growl and swiping paw motions.