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| Send This Jerk
the Bedbug Letter: How Companies, Politicians, and the Mass Media Handle
Complaints & How to Be a More Effective Complainer
By John Bear, Ph.D. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, 1996. Have you got something to complain about? Then read this book. John Bear has put more useful information about how to get results from complaining than I have ever seen in any book, and it's fun to read. The Bedbug Letter story is classic. A businessman traveling by train found his bed aswarm with bedbugs and wrote a complaint letter to the president of the railway. He got back an apology letter, with the comment that this had never happened before. Furthermore, that bed had been located, stripped, fumigated, employees disciplined, and new policies put in place to make sure this would never happen again. Sounds good? Unfortunately, the president's secretary had included the businessman's original letter, on which the president had written: "Send This Jerk the Bedbug Letter." Whoops. John Bear, who bills himself as the first person to write a Ph.D. dissertation on complaining, has the consumer at heart. But at the basis of his book is another fundamental point. Until businesses also have the consumer at heart, they will never get this "complaint handling" task under wraps, and he is determined to make the American consumer a more effective complainer. As a practical tool for readers, Dr. Bear has listed virtually every national consumer organization in the U.S.; every State Consumer Protection Office (plus addresses and telephone numbers); Trade Associations who will help resolve problems between their member companies and consumers (It's called damage control.); and 25 pages of corporate complaint-line telephone numbers. If you have a serious complaint, you will find a resource in this book. When I teach A Complaint Is a Gift seminars, participants always want to talk about their complaint situations. And everyone listens eagerly. There is something about complaints that people like to talk about and people like to hear. John Bear's book has dozens of outrageous examples of complaints and how companies responded (in most cases, poorly) to them. While this makes the book entertaining to read, Dr. Bear is also delivering a serious message that businesses obviously need to hear over and over againmost consumers never complain, and when we do we don't like the responses we normally get. The room for improvement is so gigantic, it's time for consumers to help businesses get this message. Go out and complain! You don't have to be nasty, but it helps to be persistent. Think of your complaint as a gift you are giving the organization. Janelle Barlow, President TMI USA
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TMI US 8270 West Charleston Blvd Las Vegas, Nevada 89117 tel: 702 939-1800
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