The Art of Complaining

Sometimes it's good to complain. In order to get results though, you have to do it right.

And I'm not usually one to complain very often. Okay, so I'm not one to complain very often to anyone who can do anything to fix the problem. And if I do, I'm more likely to be completely bitchy about it.

But last night I did some complaining and managed not to be a total bitch and was actually pleasantly surprised with the results.

The kids wanted pizza and I happened to have a tiny bit of cash so I decided I would treat them to delivery instead of the sauce-on-cardboard frozen variety. I placed the order on-line (a handy little feature, by the way) and the estimated delivery time was 5:52 p.m.

Twenty minutes after the estimated delivery time, almost an hour after I ordered it, the pizza finally shows up and it's barely even warm.Usually it's so bleeping hot that you burn your mouth off trying to eat it.

So, I call the pizza place, fully prepared to rip someone's face off. But something interesting happened. Instead of ripping the poor person who had the back luck to answer phone to shreds, I took a second, took a breath, and simply stated the facts. We ordered a pizza, it arrived 20 minutes late, it was cold. And then, instead of firing off some smart ass comment that was entirely inappropriate and would have pissed the girl off, I just waited for an answer. And instead of being snotty to me because I had been bitchy to her, the young lady offered to either send us out another pizza or post a credit to my account.

So, even though I was boiling over on the inside, because I was able to be civilized, we get a free pizza next time we order.

Progress, not perfection.