(FORTUNE Magazine) – Delivering sloppy service is always shortsighted. According to Forum Corp., a Boston-based consulting firm, the typical consumer tells nine people about a bad experience before he or she ever tells the company. Blowing it with the wrong customer is suicidal. Paul Kahn, the developer of the AT&T Universal Card, wrote to Hyatt Hotels President Darryl Hartley-Leonard in March complaining about his awful overnight stay at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans. In the letter, Kahn, 48, identified himself, described what had happened, and concluded: ''I would not visit another Hyatt Hotel again.'' At check-in, he said, the desk attendant ignored him for several minutes while she typed into her computer. Once inside his suite he discovered that the bathroom lacked toilet paper and the heat didn't work. After several tries, the hotel's engineers finally fixed the heat. At 3 A.M. the room safe flashed and beeped -- an unwelcome alarm clock. Bleary-eyed at breakfast, Kahn had to ask the room-service waiter to remove the previous night's dirty tray. A few weeks later Kahn received what seemed to him a canned thanks-for-your- letter-we'll-fix-the-problem reply from Charles McElroy, the regional manager based at the New Orleans Hyatt. The first Hartley-Leonard heard about Hyatt's unhappy guest was a phone call from FORTUNE. He said contritely: ''Unfortunately Mr. Kahn's story is accurate. Our system of quality assurance broke down.'' Though Hartley-Leonard, 49, is supposed to see every customer letter, he says, ''this one fell through the cracks.'' Hotel managers are also supposed to telephone guests who write letters of complaint. Tim Zagat, co-publisher of the Zagat Survey, reports, ''Service is the weak link for restaurants, hotels, and rental-car companies.'' Each year his company surveys tens of thousands of consumers, who rate these businesses according to various criteria. Scores for ''service'' are consistently lower than those for physical amenities and food quality. My own experiences certainly back up those figures. Two months ago I spent four days at / Jacksonville's Embassy Suites hotel, where, its brochure told me, ''the luxury and convenience never ends ((sic, alas)).'' Embassy's standard of ''luxury,'' I discovered, is a dirty carpet in the room, sticky cups on the kitchenette counter, and a clogged bathtub drain, which the hotel never fixed despite my complaints. And that wake-up call that I requested my first day? I never received it. Sometimes service providers can err in the opposite direction. A plea to Ritz-Carlton: Need you be so stuffy? During my recent stay at your hotel on Amelia Island, Florida, I ate often in your ''casual'' dining room, the Cafe, and noticed the programmed, robotic ways that your waiters and waitresses spoke to guests: ''Your server will be with you momentarily,'' and ''Is everything to your taste this afternoon?'' Not to mention that repetitive ''my pleasure.'' An exasperated executive staying at Amelia Island asked me rhetorically: ''Can't they loosen up? This is a beach resort, after all.'' Of course, some other service companies also rate high on the glitch-o- meter: banks, car rental agencies, department stores, and airlines. A word to the wise: I fly a lot. I also drive, use ATMs, shop -- and I'm not going to take it any more. -- P.S.