Hello

For a while now I've been thinking about making it a point to regularly write letters to companies to comment on their products or services whenever I have something worth commenting about. Obviously these thoughts are usually driven by complaints or frustrations but sometimes you find a really great product or have a great interaction with a company and it seems like it would be cool to let them know about that too.

Then, earlier this week I started to formulate a plan of doing this - writing regular letters to companies - and tracking it in a blog. I thought it would be interesting to see what, if any, responses I would get.

Then, just this morning I was reading an entry in Seth Godin's blog about Robert Benson's $39 Experiment and that inspired me to put my plan in action. I'm sure many will think I'm just copying Robert's idea.

My plan is a little different than Robert's in a few different ways. First of all, I'm not going to be asking for free stuff (although I may ask for a replacement or refund if I'm writing about a product that I've had a problem with). I'm not going to send a batch all at once - my goal is to just send a letter every once in a while. I'm also not going to limit myself to snail mail - I may just email some companies. I'm also going to be up front with the companies. I'll let them know that I'm posting my letter, and their response (should they choose to send one) to my blog. I intend to balance compliments with complaints but I guess we'll have to see how it pans out.

Now, let's see who my first letter should be to...