I have written several letters to various types of organizations, mainly to complain about their lack of professionalism /poor service / lackadaisical attitude etc. in the past. Thought I can share some tips with with everyone.
1) Do not write when you are extremely angry. It does not serve much purpose to use derogatory words such as stupid, idiot, useless etc. to vent out your anger / frustration. This will only reflect badly on you. You can however state that you were angry/extremey upset with the organization etc. Or adopt a sarcastic tone in your letter/email (I always do) . E.g. I always quote the great Warren Buffet in my complaint: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently”
2) Provide facts. Remember, the party reading your letter/ email has no inkling as to what has happened. Emails (presumably very few people write letters to be sent by post these days) has to be as factually correct as possible - try not to exaggerate. Remember, the party whom you are complaining against, may later use your email against you. So you have to be careful over what you write. E.g., should you decide to take legal action later, whatever you wrote may weaken your case
3) Address email/letter to the "right" party. This is the hardest part. This is what I normally do.
- First, I would write a complaint email to the organization itself. To get the relevant email address (ie complaints dept or customer service email add), you can check their website. If you cant get the "relevant" one, address your complaint to the general email address that you can find on website. e.g. info@CoABC.com.my. As long as your email has been "sent" to organization, that should be ok. Then wait for a reply. Give them say 2 weeks.
- If they did not reply after 2 weeks, escalate your complaint up to the highest level in the organization. Find out the email address of the CEO / directors etc. You can call the general line and demand for the email address of the CEO. Or try to google (e.g. if you want to make complaint against Co ABC, try using search words such as "@CoABC.com", "email" etc). If you can get the CEO/director's email add, write another email telling them that you were extremely disappointed that they have failed to respond to your earlier complaint (attach the first complaint email). This usually works --- You can be quite assured that you'll get a prompt reply (within the day itself). The customer service manager may suddenly call you personally, giving you his/her handphone number should you need any further assistance.
- If you cant get the director's nor CEO's email add, then just write randomly to anyone in organization. Google for anyone with the email address "@CoABC.com.my" and send your complaint to as many people as possible in the organization. Quite likely, one of the staff members would forward your complaint to the relevant party within organization.
- If their reply is not to your satisfaction, write another email, but, this time, to the relevant governing authorities. E.g., if you are complaining against a bank and the bank's explanation is not to your satisfaction, then write to Bank Negara. - see list below
- Sometimes, instead of writing to the authorities, you can write to a third party whose opinion may matter to the party whom you are complaining against. E.g., if you want to complain about poor services of an airlines, you can write to Skytrax. Skytrax is an independent organization which rate airlines annually. E.g., a bank may be awarded the accolade of being the best bank in Malaysia by a magazine. Write to that magazine editor and tell the editor how strongly you disagree and why. But make sure that you CC the bank/airlines etc. so that they know the cost of bad/poor customer service... One may also write to mainstream newspapers, consumer groups etc.
4) Useful list - to complain against:
- telecommunications co - write to Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission http://www.skmm.gov.my/
- banks - Bank Negara Malaysia http://www.bnm.gov.my/
- doctors - Malaysian Medical Council http://www.mmc.gov.my/
- dentists - Patient COmplaints Bureau Committee under Malaysian Dental Association http://www.mda.org.my/
- hospitals - Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia http://www.hospitals-malaysia.org/ or Ministry of Health http://www.moh.gov.my/
- airlines - Skytrax http://www.airlinequality.com/
- property developers - http://www.kpkt.gov.my/ (Local Govt and Housing Ministry), National House Buyers Association of Malaysia http://www.hba.org.my/
- General - National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC) http://www.crcc.org.my/
- Refund of $$ - Small Claims Tribunal ( no legal fees required, only $5 application fee)
