TOEFL Essay - address grievances in person

Q. When people complain about a product or poor service, some prefer to complain in writing and others prefer to complain in person. Which method do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

A.

We buy goods and services from merchants. Often, these merchants deliver less-than-satisfying results. Dissatisfying goods and services are expected, since we buy so often. However, there are avenues we might use to deal with disappointment. Some complaints are received via mail, others via a long phone conversation and yet others via face-to-face discussion. I prefer to complain in person if possible, because a corporate face can't ignore human presence and records are kept safe. I'll explain.

When we stand in front of another human being, it becomes very difficult to openly offend their person. Part of this is because we believe in dignity, and understand that were our slight reciprocated, issues would escalate until the gravity became unbearable and one or the other would pull out their fists. Furthermore, people are humorous. Their appearance, their facial outcroppings and grooming discrepancies soften customer service representative's behavior we might need to rely on. We accept this token of unconditional love in the form of conversation as a facial phenomenon and not merely as a result of someone's pen or key strokes. The collapse of diplomacy occurs thanks to similar oversights. If you send an ambassador it's preferable to writing with fancy letterheads that “you're upset.” It's easy to throw away and disregard “you're upset.”

Another reason why I'd prefer to address consumer grievances in person is for prima facie evidence's sake; you keep records of insufficient products in person. If I receive a broken hat which really insults my appearance, fitting this hat in the presence of a rep shows that my grieving is justified. This is just not a kind of grief that writing or telephoning excels at. Writing and telephoning cannot mimic fitted hats in person. Our viewing materials, namely, the retinal area of the eye, need to behold how deficient certain goods and services are. You can see the repulsion in the representative's eye. It will then be impossible for them to deny that “this, dear sir or madam, is a truly terrible hat for you.”