Page 26 - American English File Student Book 3B

3 READING d Now read Clive’s top tips. Complete the tips
with a heading from the list.
a In your country, if people have a problem w ith som ething they’ve
DON’T BE TOO SPECIFIC
bought, or with the service in a store or restaurant, do they usually
DON’T LOSE YOUR TEMPER
complain? If not, why not?
KNOW WHO YOU ARE WRITING TO
b Read the article The King o f Com plainers. W hich o f these THREATEN ACTION
adjectives (or any others) would you use to describe Clive? W hy? WRITE A LETTER
USE FLATTERY
admirable cheap crazy eccentric obsessive smart
e Now look at the highlighted verbs and verb
c W hat does Clive think is the best way to com plain? W hat did he phrases. W ith a partner, try to figure out
get as a result o f com plaining about...? their m eaning from the context.
1 the smell o f cookies 3 his wife’s bill during a vacation f W hich two tips do you think are the m ost
2 a friend’s faulty car 4 some old strawberries im portant?

The King of C live Zietman loves com plaining - but not shouting in hotel lobbies,
or angrily telling a salesperson to call the manager, or making
a waitress cry. He loves com plaining properly and in writing.
Complainers Over the last 20 years, he has written over 5,000 letters of complaint.
His successes include refunded vacations, countless free meals, and
complimentary theater tickets.

So how has he achieved this? “Screaming
and shouting is a complete waste of time and
is usually directed at a person who is not in
a position to do anything," he says. “I like to
write a polite letter to the company. People
won’t want to help you if you are aggressive.
They respond much better to good manners.”
It all started many years ago, on a boring train trip home to W est London.
The train passed by a cookie factory, and the smell of the cookies made
Clive feel hungry. He wrote a letter to the m anaging director to complain,
in a humorous way, about the fumes com ing through the train window.
The result? Som e free packages of cookies. But since then there have
been more serious victories as well. On one occasion he managed to get a
Volkswagen Golf GTI within 24 hours for a friend who had been
complaining for almost a year (without any success) about
his faulty vehicle. On another occasion he got a travel
agent to refund the cost of a vacation after Clive’s wife
Bettina broke her leg when she slipped in a puddle of
water in their vacation apartment in Spain.

These days, there is almost nothing he won’t complain
about. After Clive was served moldy strawberries on a
British Airways flight, he used a courier service to send
the fruit to the airline’s chief executive. To compensate, BA
invited his daughters, Nina and Zoe, to Heathrow to personally
inspect the airline’s catering facilities. “I just can’t bear bad service,” says
Clive. “We have a right to good service, and should expect it and demand
it. In fact, what irritates me more than anything is that, unlike Americans,
we British are hopeless at complaining.”
So how do Bettina, his wife, and daughters Nina, 22, Zoe, 18, and 12-year-
old son Joe cope with living with one of the world’s biggest complainer?
Surely he must be a nightmare to live with? Has he ever
asked Bettina to explain why a meal she made is
badly cooked? “Oh, no, of course not,” says
Clive. It seems there are som e things
even he knows you should never
complain about!

Adapted from the Daily Mail website