My ethical dilemma: Help needed!

The teacher looked angry as she handed back our writing assignment. Everyone’s paper was loaded with comments in dark, red pen. My paper looked like a bright fireworks display. I missed a comma in one spot included a comma in another spot where one didn’t belong. She had comments everywhere.

I love writing, but I haven’t always been a fan of punctuation and grammar. Oh, it’s critical for good writing, I just never like to see it take the joy out of the process. This is my long way of saying that I have an affinity with folks who have challenges with English grammar. I understand their plight.

Image by Mikhail Nilov by Pixabay.

So here’s my ethics questions of the day:

Saying all that, my love-hate with grammar has led to some interesting recent ethical questions. When my son and I were traveling cross country in May, we stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn outside of Denver and didn’t have the best of experiences. There were a few things that were “off” with our room and the service. I probably would have let them pass without comment, but when we left, I found the hotel staff to be rude and unfriendly.

When I got back home, I ultimately decided to write the hotel an email. I mentioned getting my money back, but I was more interested in letting the hotel chain and the local management know how they had let us down. The customer correspondence center wrote back overnight with a check-the-box, general apology, forwarded me to the local management, and mentioned that they had chipped in a few frequent user points, but that was it.

I noticed the points, which weren’t all that much, not even enough to cover one-night’s stay, but I was more shocked to see noticeable grammatical and punctuation errors throughout their email. They included:

• Lack of capitalization at the start of a sentence.
• Incorrect spelling, “apologies” instead of “apologize.”
• Poor grammar construction, such as “I firstly want to…”
• Lack of subject-verb agreement.

Image by David Lee by Pixabay

A failure to communicate

If I had received the note out-of-the-blue, I would have assumed, thanks to the number of errors and how noticeable they were, that it was spam and an attempt to steal my identity. On top of that, there were several tell-tale signs that suggest that customer correspondence has been shipped to an overseas office. It’s a common thing for hotels to do. This isn’t a slam on English as a second language communicators, nor even Hilton’s decision to send work overseas, I may not like it, but that’s their decision.

However, it is a question of service. So, here’s where I need help: How would you have responded to the original complaint? Getting an email with less-than adequate English?

I considered letting it pass, good proper English is frequently confusing, even for trained professionals, but something inside of me couldn’t let it go. I wrote back again, this time restating my original concern and also pointing out the poor punctuation and grammar. I called the bad grammar a sign of bigger issues.

I didn’t say it in my email, but I immediately thought of the 1960s movie Cool Hand Luke and the prison warden’s infamous line: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”

Now the the ball is in my court?

I have issues with Hilton, but I have to give them credit. They were speedy in their response, but that’s about it. The tone of their next email was off again and completely missed my point about my experience and any reference to their poor communications. They didn’t even address that. Yes, we definitely have a failure to communicate.

In the end, I’m glad I’m glad that I spoke up but I never got the heart-felt apology I was expecting. I expected better of Hilton — I’ve never been a frequent traveler, but I’ve generally been a loyal one — but it is what it is.

The ball obviously rests now in my court and my decision where I stay on my next trip. I think it’s going to be a pretty easy decision? Hello Marriott? Hyatt? An Airbnb?

What do you think of my actions? Legitimate complaint worth my time or am I becoming a Grammar Czar whining over silly grammar?