World's First Customer Service Complaint Was Etched on 3,800-Year-Old Tablet — and It Was Brutal

Customers have a variety of ways to communicate their misgivings about the service they have been provided. In ancient Mesopotamian society customers communicated their problems, too, albeit the methods were not as easy, ATI reported.

The discovery of a stone tablet estimated to be almost 3,800 years old, featuring the complaint of a disgruntled customer angry at a trader for not giving him good-quality copper has stunned archaeologists.

The stone tablet was discovered in the ancient city of Ur in 1931 during an excavation led by famed archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley, which is now assumed to be the trader's home, National Geographic reported. 

As per experts, the stone tablet features the world's oldest customer complaint, ATI reported. The complaint came from a party living in the southern Mesopotamian city of Ur — now Tell el-Muqayyar in modern Iraq.

The party has been identified as a man named Nanni, who is communicating his grievances to a businessman named Ea-nasir. 

The complaint has been written in the Akkadian language in cuneiform script, one of the oldest forms of writing. Nanni expresses on the tablet that the wrong grade of copper has been delivered to him by Ea-Nasir and also communicates his dissatisfaction at the delay of another shipment. 

The script in the tablet was translated by Assyriologist, A. Leo Oppenheim, in his book, Letters From Mesopotamia: Official, Business, and Private Letters on Clay Tablets from Two Millennia, ATI reported.

The translation read, "Tell Ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message: When you came, you said to me as follows: 'I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots.' You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: 'If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!' ...You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy 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 copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt," ATI reported.

The tablet is currently under the custody of the British Museum, ATI reported. 

On further research, archaeologists found that Ea-Nasir was a member of the Alik Tilmun, a guild of merchants based in Dilmun, ATI reported. Ea-Nasir traded and supplied copper for a living.

Ea-Nasir must have had a large customer base as the copper trading industry was flourishing in the Mesopotamian era, National Geographic reported. Copper was heavily used in everyday items like tools, vessels, and cutlery and was in huge demand.

This wasn't the only customer complaint Ea-Nasir received about his services, ATI reported. Another tablet was discovered, which was addressed to Ea-Nasir by another customer named Arbituram, who was also complaining about the copper that he received from the trader's establishment.

Arbituram's tablet roughly translated to, "Why have you not given me the copper? If you do not give it, I will recall your pledges. Good copper, give again and again. Send me a man," ATI reported.