To Complain About the Complaint Line, Call the Complaint Hotline

We just love stories that read like this:

"Beijing authorities will set up a complaint hotline to supervise the operation of hotlines, convenience services phone numbers and emergency phone numbers of government agencies and State-owned enterprises and institutions," according to Beijing News.

So if you have a complaint, and you call the hotline, and you're not satisfied and then you want to complain about the complaint hotline, there's another hotline for that. Perfect.

The report goes on to say "The [Beijing Service and Information Center] will collect complaints and suggestions from the public through the hotline, and the assessment of those service calls will be included into the performance evaluation system of the government.

"The center will also be responsible for the investigation of public complaints and must respond to complainants in a timely manner.

"The center will circulate notices of criticism for people and organizations that get frequent complaints. Such people and groups will be investigated."

But what if one of the people or organizations that gets frequent complaints receives criticism and then wants to complain about the criticism? What if this news itself is a scam? In that case, who phones the phonies?

The report did not include the hotline number. Perhaps someone should complain about that.

Photo: News.Harvard.edu