The World's Oldest Customer Complaint Is About Bad Copper

Around 1750 BCE, in the Mesopotamian city of Ur, a furious customer named Nanni sat down to dictate a letter. His target was Ea-nasir, a copper merchant who had promised “fine quality copper ingots” and then delivered the wrong grade. Nanni demanded a refund and accused the dealer of treating him with contempt. The message was pressed in cuneiform into a clay tablet that survives to this day.

“What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt?”

Guinness World Records certifies the object, known as the Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir, as the oldest written customer complaint, dating it at roughly 3,750 years old. It was unearthed at Ur and is held by the British Museum in London.

Ea-nasir’s reputation has not improved with age. Archaeologists found several other angry letters in what is thought to be his house, with different customers grumbling about bad copper and late deliveries. The serial complaints have made the long-dead trader an unlikely internet celebrity.