A friend of mine attended a company training session on quality problems, and was shocked at one statistic. I don't remember the exact number, but a large fraction--well over half--of people surveyed said that if they bought a moderately priced item (such as a toaster) that turned out not to work when they got it home, they would not persue the matter, except that they'd quit buying things made by that manufacturer. This, of course, terrifies manufacturers--if they let something with bad quality slip though, they could lose over half their affected customers without even knowing anything was wrong.

Companies with smart management know that for every customer that calls with a problem there's others out there with the same problem, but not speaking up. The ones who speak up are the ones that they still have a chance to keep as a customer.