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Complaint as a Problem-Solving Mechanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1978

H. Laurence Ross  and
Neil O. Littlefield
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Extract

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When consumers experience problems with purchases the most frequent mechanism for their solution is complaint to the seller. This case study describes and attempts to evaluate the working of the complaint mechanism in handling the problems of purchasers of selected household appliances. The complaint mechanism was found to be commonly used and effective in handling matters defined by consumers as problematic, and consumers often seemed to obtain more generous concessions than the law required of the seller. The latter's response was liberal because management defined generous dealing with customers as consonant with long-run commercial interest, and because staff experienced both official and unofficial pressures to grant customers' requests.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , Winter 1978 , pp. 199 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

This research was supported by Grant SOC 74-14809 from the Law and Social Sciences Program of the National Science Foundation. The authors appreciate the thoughtful services of our research assistants at the University of Denver, especially Ted Banks and Joyce Sterling, and of colleagues who read and commented on earlier drafts, especially Richard Abel, Herbert L. Costner, Frederic L. Dubow, Sheldon Messinger, and Eric Steele. We are particularly indebted to the personnel of Fred Schmid Appliances and TV Co., of Denver, Colorado, the retailer studied here, (referred to in the text by the pseudonym of “Western Television and Appliance Company”) and to its president, Roy Jansen, for the permissions, information, and encouragement received during the study.

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