One customer was not satisfied with his copper purchase and wrote a harsh message to the businessman Ea-nasir, etching both the front and back of a clay tablet in cuneiform.
Wikimedia CommonsThe first ever tape customer complaint comes from Mesopotamia and is over 3,800 years old .
Before client service hotlines and societal culture medium survive , people disgruntled with the serve they received would inscribe their complaints onto stone tablets , with some of the oldest complaints on phonograph record particular date back to the Mesopotamian era .
In fact , theworld ’s first know customer complaintwas sent about 3,800 years ago from the southerly Mesopotamian city of Ur — now Tell el - Muqayyar in modern Iraq .
Wikimedia CommonsThe first ever recorded customer complaint comes from Mesopotamia and is over 3,800 years old.
The tablet belongs to the British Museum in London ’s assembling and contains a complaint from a man named Nanni to a man of affairs constitute Ea - nasir that ’s drop a line in the Akkadian language incuneiformscript , one of the oldest forms of writing . Nanni complained to Ea - Nasir the wrong grade of copper ore had been bear to him , and about misdirection and hold of a separate shipment .
Ea - nasir was a member of the Alik Tilmun , a society of merchandiser free-base in Dilmun . Archeologists discovered that he was a prominent copper trader . As it turn out , Ea - nasir was a pretty uncollectible businessman and receive multiple complaints from angry client .
The Trustees of the British MuseumThe clay tab contain the letter from Nanni to Ea - nasir complaining that the wrong grade of copper ore had been delivered after a gulf ocean trip , and about distraction and delay of a unlike rescue .
The Trustees of the British MuseumThe clay tablet containing the letter from Nanni to Ea-nasir complaining that the wrong grade of copper ore had been delivered after a gulf voyage, and about misdirection and delay of a different delivery.
According toForbes , a man named Arbituram sent a note to Ea - nasir complaining about why he had n’t have the copper that he paid for . “ Why have you not given me the bull ? If you do not give it , I will recall your assurance . Good copper , give again and again . beam me a serviceman , ” reads a rough translation of the pad .
But the harshest ailment tablet sent do from Nanni , who chiseled both the front and back of his tablet that he sent to Ea - nasir century ago .
The lozenge was translate by Assyriologist A. Leo Oppenheim in his out - of - print 1967 book , Letters From Mesopotamia : Official , Business , and individual letter on Clay Tablets from Two Millennia , and read as follows :
“ enjoin Ea - nasir : Nanni send the following substance :
When you issue forth , you said to me as follow : ‘ I will give Gimil - Sin ( when he come ) all right timber copper ingots . ’ You left then but you did not do what you foretell me . You put ingot which were not good before my courier ( Sit - Sin ) and say : ‘ If you want to take them , take them ; if you do not want to take them , go aside ! ’
What do you take me for , that you treat somebody like me with such contempt ? I have sent as messengers man like ourselves to collect the bag with my money ( deposited with you ) but you have treat me with scorn by send them back to me empty - handed several times , and that through enemy territory . Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way ? You alone treat my courier with despite ! On explanation of that one ( trifling ) mina of silver gray which I owe you , you sense free to talk in such a direction , while I have given to the palace on your behalf 1,080 pounds of copper , and umi - abum has likewise given 1,080 pound of copper , apart from what we both have had written on a seal tablet to be kept in the temple of Samas .
How have you handle me for that copper ? You have withheld my money base from me in foe territory ; it is now up to you to restore ( my money ) to me in full .
Take cognizance that ( from now on ) I will not accept here any Cu from you that is not of fine quality . I shall ( from now on ) quality and take the block of metal individually in my own yard , and I shall practice against you my right field of rejection because you have treat me with contempt . ”
Even in the earliest civilizations known to man , masses complained about defective service as ofttimes ( and unsparingly ) as they do today .
Next , check out this narrative about theworld ’s first “ Yo mama ” joke that go out back to 1,500 B.C.Then , read aboutthe ancient Sumerian gods called the Anunnaki , who some historians arrogate were believed to be extraterrestrial beings .
