Physical Versus Email Complaint

What Complaint Works Best?

By now, so many of us have experienced making a general (vs specific) complaint to some business or organization, only to receive an empty letter of thanks for your feedback.

In the digital age, many organizations basically DWR such concerns which in case you do not know, means deleting without reading. The people processing your complaint are merely tallying your complaint and closing it out.

Yes, sending a physical letter carries a bit more weight but can end up to the same cruel response as it is digitalized, and responded to, as the same as if it were email.

I exploited the problem with one corporation by sending three physical letters. I explicitly said in each letter I was sending three copies and taunting them to share with their supervisors. This meant all three copies were forwarded to supervisors as no employee receiving my message wanted to be accused of not forwarding the message I sent. Change did take place. This proves to me, you need to have strategy in making a complaint.

Now many, especially younger people, will object. “Why pay for postal mail? Why envelopes and paper?” and “I need a printer for this”. Actually, there are local print shops which can help but as to why you should consider a physical protest, it all comes down to tangibility.

Holding information in your hands has far more transfer-ability in emotion, empathy and impact of a described situation compared to emails. Suddenly, the effort someone took to communicate a problem takes great emphasis without using profanity, because the hands hold the details of the problem and cannot be easily deleted. This ends in better results for all.