In 1750 B.C., a Mesopotamian named Nanni was so dissatisfied with the copper he purchased from a merchant named Ea-nasir that he decided to file an official complaint on a clay tablet. Today, this Bronze Age tablet is recognized by scholars as the oldest known customer complaint.
However, writing and trade share an inseparable history. Some of the earliest surviving examples of writing are inventory and accounting records inscribed in ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform.
Since copper is a key component of the very bronze that gave the era its name, it’s no surprise that disputes over it sometimes became heated.
Back then, it wasn’t easy to let a company know you were unhappy with a product. An angry buyer didn’t have the luxury of a customer service hotline or a responsive AI chatbot to vent to. Frustrated Nanni could only etch his grievances onto clay and send them via a messenger—what we would now call a courier.
Nanni densely covered both sides of the tablet with his complaint, leaving no empty inch of clay, as reported by Science Alert.
The content of the tablet, measuring 11.6 by 5 centimeters, was translated from the Akkadian language by the Assyriologist Adolf Leo Oppenheim and published in his 1967 book “Letters from Mesopotamia.”
What Did the Text Say?
Nanni wrote, “You placed inferior copper ingots before my messenger and said: if you want to take them, take them; if not, go away!” Researchers speculate that the buyer had likely already paid the seller for the copper he ordered but soon realized it might not have been the wisest decision.
Despite this complaint earning Ea-nasir a reputation as a terrible copper merchant, he seemed to have been a meticulous record keeper. In the 1920s, the tablet was discovered during excavations in the ancient city of Ur, located in present-day Iraq, by a team from the University of Pennsylvania. The artifact was found alongside several other tablets addressed to the same unfortunate businessman, likely in what was once his residence. It appears that Ea-nasir had angered quite a few of his customers.
Thus, Nanni’s complaint was not the only document of its kind. However, it turned out to be the oldest and most scathing.
“Why do you treat people like me with such disdain? I sent messengers as worthy as I am to collect the bag of my money (left with you), but you treated them with contempt, sending them back empty-handed several times,” Nanni fumed.
It is believed that in the third millennium B.C., traders brought several hundred kilograms of copper from Dilmun to Southern Mesopotamia, including the city of Ur. However, by the time Nanni wrote his complaint in 1750 B.C., copper trade in Dilmun had declined. If Ea-nasir was indeed dishonest with his customers, it might have been due to dwindling copper supplies.
“Now you must return my money in full. Take into account that from now on, I will not accept copper from you that is not of good quality. I will henceforth choose and accept individual ingots in my own courtyard,” noted the cheated buyer.
We may never know if Nanni got his money back, but the final word was certainly his.
Moreover, the Guinness World Records officially recognized Nanni’s tablet as the oldest recorded customer complaint in history.