Mike Carruthers

I guess obviously it's going to depend on the situation.

But people very often go straight to that because they figure, you know, let's get up the food chain here and talk to somebody with some authority before they talk to the frontline people.

I don't know if that's a good idea or not.

And yet, going higher up, getting somebody who really has some authority can pay off.

I mean, I've used it before and it's paid off.

It can make things happen.

Yeah, there is something about trying to get resolution on the spot that's gratifying, but it just may not happen.

But I've had plenty of cases where I've written a letter later saying,

and gotten a very good result.

It just took some time, but the result was decent.

Not always, but it's happened.

And I guess it depends on, like, let's talk about complaint letters.

Like, who do you send it to?

Because it seems like if you just send it to some generic complaint department, not much is going to happen.

So how do you figure out, like, how to navigate that letter, and then what does it say?

I don't know if it's fair to say that you complain a lot, but you are obviously more comfortable in using complaints as a way of getting what you want.

And so since you probably do it more than many of us do, how successful are you?

What's your batting average?

And you have better success with letters than with phone calls.

But it does seem like people on the phone are really just trying to placate you and move on to the next customer, where if you send a letter to the top guy, it seems like that gets a little more attention by somebody who has a little more authority, and they know that you took the time to write, the setting is set, the place is set for a better resolution than screaming and yelling on the phone.