Why Should I Complain ?

Why should I complain ?
This was published by DNA on 13th Jan 2011

The other day I was going through a newspaper article which spoke about the role of the Anti Corruption Bureau in India. A concerned official as quoted as saying that there are not enough complaints for them to take action on. People simply take things the way they are and hence they don’t complain. That set me thinking, I realized that this trait of not complaining and learning to live with defective products and poor services is now

an integral part of ours. If we are stuck with a bad product or service, we take private actions - we stop buying that product, we run it down in our arm chair conversations, we dissuade others from buying it, but never ‘voice’ our complaints. Mediocrity is acceptable and marketers gladly accept it or rather exploit it. So why is it that people don’t react when rightfully they should be complaining?

Someone will take up cudgels: I have seen a lot of people waiting in hope that since so many people are being affected, someone will take up the cudgels and the matter will be resolved. There is a joke that in Europe people call the power utility when electricity goes off (if at all). In the US they call 911 but in India they check the neighbours house. If they don’t have lights as well they are relieved. In Delhi, there used to be frequent powercuts. At one such time,my cousin called up the power utility after an hour of power cut. “When will the power supply get restored. It’s over an hour now?,” he asked in disgust. However, the response was even more shocking. “There is no power cut from our side, there must be a fault somewhere, why didn’t you complain earlier?” And behold, the power was restored within 5 minutes from then. If only we had complained earlier, we wouldn’t have suffered for the past one hour.

I will look like a fool: Will I not look like a fool in a crowded store if I take my faded shirt and complain that the colour ran out when it could be my detergent that was of poor quality? Well, you may not look like a fool if you complain, but definitely are a fool if you don’t take up the issue with the store and suffer in silence.

It was a bad decision: One tends to just rationalize saying this was one bad decision and that we should be careful the next time. This usually happens when we decide against popular opinion or consciously opt for a new or a cheaper brand. Choosing a low cost option may not necessarily mean accepting poor quality. While there are a lot of disclaimers put up by low cost airlines, not all of these stand up to the test of law. Eg: Even if a low cost scheduled airline is delayed beyond reason, you have a right to complain and seek redressal.

I was unlucky: Consign it to destiny. Even in a six sigma operation it is likely that you are having that one out of one million products that is faulty. That does not mean you have to live with it. It is the manufacturer of the product who should provide for it. Didn’t you pay for the product in full? You may have been told, “But we have never received any complaints of this nature from anyone else.” How does that concern me?

I have a complaint and its got to be taken care of.

It may not be worth it: People do tend to surmise that the effort and cost associated with raking and resolving an issue may not be worth it. And even if I make these efforts there is no assurance that the outcome will be favorable. This is the most common reason why people don’t complain.

And then finally, there is this great Indian trait of tolerance. 

Complaining is not in our DNA. Someone who complains is a cribber, and is ostracized “Raising an issue will make me the bad guy”. We have been taught to accept and tolerate deficiencies and that’s an impediment to the cause of zero tolerance in consumer matters. Every time someone takes up a genuine issue, he has been able to take it to a favorable resolution. He may have had to go different distances in trying to resolve it,

but the efforts have been worth it. And more importantly you don’t have to live with a feeling that you have been shortchanged. For economic

reasons marketers (often subconsciously) test the least acceptable levels of quality at the same price point among customers- whether product or service. And if customers don’t care about waiting that extra minute on the phone at your contact centre or that one extra cherry topping on your ice-cream, they would surely shave it off their costs to be more competitive. If there are complaints, it will only force the marketer to look at their quality processes in greater detail and the resultant effort will benefit all. He will save on sales returns and you will get a better product the next time around. There are instances when the marketer realizes that a faulty product has been released in the market. In some countries, they would announce a product recall and replace or repair the product before you suffered. In the Indian context where the consumer movement is not very strong, I don’t recall a single instance. Marketers don’t see the need to take proactive action. They just issue internal directives asking their staff to be responsive’ to anyone who complains. If you don’t complain and choose to suffer in silence guess who is the loser?

While I am recommending that you complain for poor products, shoddy service and delayed deliveries, I also recommend that you should be true and genuine to the cause. Dont ever complain to exploit the situation. After all if you take undue advantage of the complaint process of the marketer, it will only make him too wary and this will show up in his costs. A lot of people use a product merrily for a week and then return it to the store for some frivolous reasons. What they don’t realize is that stores build these possibilities in their price and we as consumers unwittingly pay higher.

Dont let yourself feel cheated. Complain if you are bothered. Complain if you haven’t got your money’s worth.. If nobody ever complains, mediocrity is perpetuated. You owe it to others… they shouldn’t go through what you have had to. If we complain and things improve - the society as a whole benefits