Complaints

I'm a complainer. It is what I do. I try to be positive. I try to internalize my aggravations and not let on to the world that I have negative thoughts. But the truth is I do. Rather frequently. Usually I complain to the fiance. Or the mother, or the sister, or the friend. Rarely do I complain to the perfect stranger. And every so often something annoys me so much I feel the need to complain to the reliable customer service personnel. I hate the phone, and I get flustered making my case in person, so this usually entails a well thought out and strongly worded email. As much as I hate writing (it's true, I do) and as much as I struggle with it, writing these emails are a bit of a release. Almost as soon as I hit send, I can let the annoyance go and forget about it. All is forgiven. Until the poor schmuck who was unlucky enough to draw my email from the database of complaints responds.

Most recently I found issue with Delta airlines. On our trip to Vegas my fiance was told he had to check his baggage. This was not the issue. The bag was quite obviously over carry on limits and we were trying to sneak it on. The issue was HOW he was told he would have to check it. The employee was out right rude. This set the tone for the remainder of our trip, and every small inconvenience or perceived slight from then on escalated my annoyance and made the trip seem that much more unfortunate. To the point that by the time we landed in Vegas I was seething over the rude, unprofessional employees, broken sun shields and seat back entertainment, and failure to universally enforce the rules, which resulted in lack of storage space for my perfectly dimensional bag. And all these little annoyances seemed like legitimate complaints. It stuck with me too. On the flights home four days later I was looking for issues, sure that Delta couldn't possibly pull off two acceptable flights. So, to get things off my chest I composed an email and sent it into cyber space outlining all the small aggravations and admitting they probably wouldn't have been such an issue had the first employee we dealt with just been nice.

As compensation poor Delta dude forced to resond sent two $50 vouchers to apologize and (hopefully) make us fly with them again. We probably won't use them, but just the offer makes me feel a bit better. I've gotten a few other compensations in the past. Out of a $200 DC parking ticket. Four days of parking at a New Orleans Hilton reimbursed. I'm pretty sure all this says about me is I like complaining and I am good at getting things out of it. A good thing? Not so much. But that's the cold hard truth. And if something is really bothering me it's a way to let it go. If people want to throw consolation prizes my way, who am I to stop them?