Although the topic 'complaint' has been the subject of numerous studies, the present article stands out for examining the conceptual, social, and intellectual evolution of this field of research through a longitudinal global analysis from 1900 to 2019. Additionally, a comparative analysis of four different periods of time was developed. To this end, 2,084 scientific articles published in the Web of Science (WoS) were retrieved. The SciMAT tool was used to analyse them through scientific maps of co-words, citations, and the h-index. Performance analysis and scientific assignment were combined. Our results, based on bibliometric indicators, led us to conclude that research on complaints can be separated into nine main research blocks that have evolved differently over time: Satisfaction, Behaviour, Customers, Countries, Communication, Data analysis, Business, Law, and Theories.