#complaint

Second hand complaints

Have you ever received a complaint second-hand?  How did you receive it?

I once received an email that expressed frustration from the author over something that I owned.  When I read through the email stream, there had been an ongoing email discussion for a full month where no one had looped me in. Once I was looped in, we were able to put together a solution rather quickly.

The more a complaint is repeated, the more likely it is to be distorted, misunderstood and re-enforced. Direct connection is simpler, quicker and more accurate.  

What communication processes do you need to simplify?