I have a favourite customer complaint letter.  This particular letter was written by a copper merchant called Nanni to the proprietor of the copper smelter that supplies him.

The merchant and the supplier have had a long term relationship but have apparently had a minor dispute that escalated when the courier turned up to pick up the most recent consignment and the supplier has changed their agreement.

As a result Nanni sits down and writes a long formal complaint letter.

Notable quotes from the letter include:

“I will not accept any copper from you that is not of fine quality”

“It is up to you to now restore my money to me in full.”

“What do you take me for that you treat me with such contempt?”

Nanni completes the letter, and sends the courier all the way back to the supplier, across a war zone, to express his dissatisfaction.

What makes this letter unique is that it was written 3,500 years ago.    This particular letter was written in cuneiform on a clay tablet.

Customer Experience has been around for a while.

141562001

Photo credits:

Natural Copper – Jonathan Zander, http://photography.jznet.org/

Cuneiform tablet – CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 – ©Trustees of the British Museum.