Just a few general tips on the topic
Complaint Letter Scam Writing Tips
By: DIzzIE [c]opyleft 2003
A few tips on how to go about obtaining free merchandise, coupons, and checks by writing complaint letters to product manufacturers about the product you ‘purchased.’
While the complaint letters can be written to the manufacturer of any consumer good, customer satisfaction being an important aspect of every company’s mission statement, experience has shown that it is most successful in ‘grocery store’ type items, such as food or personal hygiene products.
All you have to do is pick a product, look at the box and find the address of the company that makes it (or simply type the product name into a search engine and check out the ‘Contact’ area of their website).
Next, proceed to write a letter explaining how you are (or rather, were) a loyal customer but have found that the last purchased product did not meet expectations, in that it was flawed, stale, damaged, etc…
First of all, it is always better to write a complaint letter, versus a praise letter (saying how much you liked the product), due to the fact that companies are more worried about loosing customers, and in some cases they are worried about possible legal action.
Here are a few tips for drafting the complaint letter:
• Keep it short. Two-three paragraphs will suffice, and maximum length should be one page, keep it to the point: you liked and purchased the product for a long period of time, but now you have been stabbed in the back by a dissatisfactory and potentially harmful product.
• Start the letter off by saying that you were a loyal, long-term customer (hence increasing the value of the loss of your business in the manufacturer’s mind)
• Proceed to state exactly what the product was, for example ‘Pop Secret Extra Movie Butter 12 pack Microwavable Popcorn,’ versus just ‘Pop Secret Popcorn,’ this helps the company compensate you for a specific amount. This also leads me to another point: always go for the larger package, for example don’t just say you bought one can of ramen noodles, say that you bought a bulk 25 package. Likewise, you didn’t just buy one can of Red Bull energy drink, you bought a 24 pack.
• State the irregularity found in the product, keep this reasonable, don’t go overboard. For instance, don’t say anything extravagant like ‘there was a dead rat in my bag of cookies…’ Instead, say something along the lines of ‘the cookies were stale beyond consumption, the ones that weren’t were crushed…’ Basically vent your believable dissatisfaction.
• For evidence, state that you have unfortunately lost the receipt, but are including the UPC (Universal Price Code) that you cut off from the product. The UPC is the barcode that you see on virtually every piece of merchandise. To obtain the code, you can bring an X-Acto knife and cut it out from the shelves in the supermarket, or simply ask the clerks for bulk boxing for the particular product (“I’m doing an art project…”).
• Make it clear that you are very upset over this matter, and while you can be blunt and state that you expect a full refund, this is not necessary. As long as you express your strong dissatisfaction, you can expect either a coupon or check within two-three weeks. Also not stating a direct request for a refund will show that you are not focused on the monetary loss (although feel free to stress that this was significant, nonetheless), just with the bad quality of the product.
Formality goes a long way, and helps show your professionalism, thus make sure that your letter is formatted correctly.
The letter should be composed in either formal block or semi-block format. The semi-block format has the sender’s address, and date on the right side of the page, followed by a double space, and the receiver’s name and address on the left hand side, followed by a double space, a salutation such as Dear _____ (name of manufacturer), another double space, and then the letter body with a double space between paragraphs and a closing indented ‘Sincerely,’ followed by a quadruple space, and then your name printed, with the quadruple space being where you hand-sign your name after printing. If you are enclosing a UPC code, a double space below your name, include ‘Attachment: UPC Code’. Don’t just toss the UPC cut-out into the envelope, but attach it with a paperclip.
A formal block letter has everything beginning on the left hand side of the page, with no indentation. If in doubt, merely glance at a business letter you have received in the past.
Finally, be sure to use your real name—that is, unless you have some novelty identification lying around—or else you will be unable to cash any refund checks you receive.
Complaint letter scam result (Budweiser) 
Linear Mode
