Posted on 04/07/2025 7:58:48 PM PDT by Red Badger
Long before Karen, there was Nanni. (Geni/Wikimedia Commons)
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Almost 4,000 years ago, a Mesopotamian man named Nanni was so disappointed with the copper he bought from a trader named Ea-nāṣir, that he decided to write a formal complaint. Today, this Bronze Age clay tablet is the oldest customer complaint we know of – and it's a doozy.
Writing and trade have an inseparable history. Some of the oldest surviving examples of written language are stocktakes and ledgers recorded in the ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform script.
Since copper is a key ingredient in the very bronze the age was named for, it's no surprise that business surrounding this resource sometimes got heated.
But letting a business know you weren't satisfied with your order was not so easy in those days. Without a customer help line or an unblinking AI bot to rant at, the outraged customer Nanni had to etch his gripes in earth, and then send it to Ea-nāṣir via messenger (as in, a person who physically carries messages between people, not an app that sends them across the internet).
Wasting no inch of his clay, Nanni's complaints cover both front and back of a small tablet measuring 11.6 by 5 centimeters (that's 4.6 by 2 inches). It was translated from its original Akkadian language by assyriologist Adolf Leo Oppenheim, and published in his 1967 book Letters from Mesopotamia.
Nanni had quite a bit to say about the transaction. (Geni/Wikimedia Commons)
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"You put ingots [of copper] which were not good before my messenger and said, 'If you want to take them, take them, if you do not want to take them, go away!'" Nanni writes.
Presumably, he had already given Ea-nāṣir the money for an agreed amount of copper, which, as he seems to have discovered soon after, may not have been a wise move.
In spite of being, by all accounts, a terrible copper merchant, it seems that Ea-nāṣir was a meticulous record-keeper. During 20th century excavations of the city of Ur (in modern-day Iraq), this clay tablet was found alongside multiple others addressed to the same hapless businessman, in what was presumably his own dwelling.
Nanni's was not the only complaint among these records – Ea-nāṣir seems to have ticked off more than just a handful of his clients – but it's the oldest, and most scathing.
"I have sent messengers, gentlemen like ourselves, to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times," Nanni continues.
"Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with [Tilmun] who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt!"
'Tilmun' traders are thought to have brought several hundred kilograms of copper to Southern Mesopotamia during the 3rd millennium BCE, which includes Ur. It's unclear whether Tilmun describes the copper's origin, or a renowned trading post for the metal, but Tilmun copper was so dominant that transactions in Ur were conducted using the 'Tilmun standard' of weight.
Yet, by the time Nanni wrote his complaint in 1750 BCE, Tilmun copper had been on a long and steady decline, overtaken by Magan competitors. If Ea-nāṣir was indeed a crooked businessman, it may have been because of his supplier's dwindling stocks.
"It is now up to you to restore (my money) to me in full," Nanni concludes. "Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard."
We will never know if Nanni got his money back, but he certainly had the last word.
PinGGG!...........................
And just like today Nanni is still waiting on hold.
Yes, I doubt Nanni got his money back...............
I remember this complaint .
The sales guy mislead the buyers, he made his sales numbers that month and got his bonus.
Apparently the copper ingots Nanni received were of very poor quality.....................
Trump's fault.
Earliest references of “Trump”.
Not sure if Nanni got his money back but I would like to report a modern day case where I got my money back. Two weeks ago we flew to Memphis and the flight was delayed several hours. Avis Customer Service had advised us that their rental counter would be available until 1:30 AM to pick up our reserved auto. We arrived at the counter at 1:20 AM to find the place locked up tight. We took a cab to our hotel and then an uber back to Avis the next day to get the car. After complaining to Avis about their early closing and our extra cost they agreed to rebate back to us our extra transportation costs. Thank you Avis.
“I need to speak to Ea-nāṣir’s manager!”
Nani was cautioned about dealing with that vendor.
The vendor swindled some cave painters with subpar cave paint that washed off after a heavy dew.
But Nani thought he was a smarter than everyone else
I am still trying to figure out why the "A dog walks into a bar..." joke is funny but I am guessing it is probably a pun.
And court records are great. Everybody was suing over pretty much three things, "Items loaned out and not returned", "Items broken or lost by someone's action or inaction", "You had sex with someone you shouldn't have". Judge Judy in cuneiform.
Technology changes, people stay the same.
I hope your rebate doesn’t come in the form of low quality Tilmun copper ingots.
Somebody should slap some stiff tariffs on that outfit.
For Akkadian, etch 1.
For Spanish, etch 2.
Damn tablet is LOADED with 4-letter Cuniforms, or whatever they call that.
I saw his one star review on Yelp!
“Presumably, he had already given Ea-nasir the money for an agreed amount of copper”
A mistake he’ll never make again, first giving money to the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparent of a Muslim.
Lemme’ guess... They ordered over easy and they got medium?
Nanni:
I don’t understand. Do you have my copper ingots?
Babylonian Ingot agent:
We have your reservation, we just ran out of ingots.
Nanni:
But the reservation keeps the ingots here. That’s why you have the reservation.
Agent:
I think I know why we have reservations.
Nanni:
I don’t think you do. You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don’t know how to *hold* the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.
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