It sounded like a joke. It turned out to be a masterclass in problem-solving.A customer once wrote to General Motors, specifically its Pontiac division, with a complaint so strange that executives initially assumed it was fake. His new car, he said, refused to start only after buying vanilla ice cream.Every other flavour worked just fine. Here’s how this complaint led to become a lesson! A complaint that made no senseThe letter explained a simple family ritual. After dinner, the family would vote on an ice cream flavour. The customer would then drive to the store, buy it, and head home. After purchasing his new Pontiac, something odd started happening.If the chosen flavour was vanilla, the car would stall on the return trip and refuse to restart. If the family picked chocolate, strawberry, or any other flavour, the car behaved normally. Same driver. Same route. Same car. Only one variable changed. To most people, this sounded absurd.Why GM took it seriously anywayInstead of dismissing the complaint, GM did something unusual. They sent an engineer to investigate.The engineer followed the customer, repeated the experiment, and confirmed the pattern. Vanilla trips did indeed fail. Other flavours did not. He began logging everything such… Read MoreYourStory RSS Feed
