I've found that over the years, the likelyhood of a positive outcome from a letter of complaint has reduced markedly, Time was that letters of complaint were taken very seriously and I've had good or adequate recompense from several letters in the past. Nowadays, it's as though their initial concern is to prevent you getting anything back and I wonder if it's the volume and frequency of letters and e-mails of complaint that has reduced their effectiveness. Just yesterday my wife recieved a response from M&S regarding some flowers and decided as a result, never to buy flowers from that store ever again. Their response was to ask for the location of the store that had sold them, the price, batch number and bar code of flowers that had wilted after two days. Now who's going to keep such information "just in case" flowers wilt in such a short time?
Saying that though, I'm sure most people have seen the following genuine complaints recieved by holiday companies and I'm sure these can't have helped the writer of legitimate complaints.
20 of the most ridiculous complaints made by British holidaymakers to their travel agent, taken from research by Thomas Cook and ABTA.
A tourist at a top African game lodge overlooking a waterhole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel "inadequate".
A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she'd been locked in by staff. When in fact, she had mistaken the "do not disturb" sign on the back of the door as a warning to remain in the room.
"I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends' three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller."
"The beach was too sandy."
"We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."
"It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."
"I was bitten by a mosquito - no-one said they could bite."
"I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."
"It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - this should be banned."
"On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."
"We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."
A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.
"There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners."
"Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."
"We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."
"We bought 'Ray-Ban' sunglasses for five euros (3.50) from a street trader, only to find out they were fake."
"It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England but it only took the Americans three hours to get home."
"My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."
"No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."
"The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation'. We're trainee hairdressers - will we be OK staying here?"
, it's good to let a bit of steam off now and again.
