It pays to complain !

HEADRAT

HEADRAT

HEADRAT

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
21,522
Location
Cambridge, UK
Hi,

OK let's have your complaint stories and their outcomes.

Yesterday 5 of us went to see "Trolls" (don't go and see it, it's terrible) at Cineworld with my 3 year old, problem was there were no booster seats left. We did our best to prop her up with our coats but it wasn't ideal.

So I went out to see the lady manageress and explained our problem, I wasn't aggro but just said I wasn't very happy. She apologised and asked if a complementary ticket would be OK. I thought she was just going to give me one ticket for my 3 years old but she gave me 5 tickets.

We stayed and watched the film anyway, I was very glad not to have paid to watch it as it was tripe, 3 year old loved it ;)

Cheers

HEADRAT

PS Cineworld just went up 1 notch in my estimation
 
Once had a model shop send me a radio worth nearly double what i paid, the one i ordered was out of stock due to an error so phoned up and they offered the alternative.

They had the one i paid for the very next day, rang them up to say i was fine if they sent me the one i'd ordered but they said they'd made a deal and would stand with it.

Some companies can be very good when it comes to customer service, others not so much. The worst i heard (or overheard rather) was an apple salesman claiming they only had a 1 year warrenty, was so close to butting in and calling him on it.
 
Logitech are epic. I've phoned them about an 18 month old mouse that has broken and they have straight away sent me a brand new newer and slightly more expensive model.
 
It's little things that make you always want to go back to a particular company.
Many years ago, when Crucial also sold graphics cards, I had one of their 9700 cards (ATI based).
I'd had the card about 10 months when I upgraded my motherboard to one that apparently had issues with the 9700 graphics cards from all manufacturers.
They tried everything they could with me and then eventually took my 10 month old 9700 card, no longer sold and sent me out the new 9800 totally FOC - they even refunded the postage of me sending it to them.

That act alone means I always check them first if I'm looking for new purchases.
 
I can appreciate when complaining when things are sub par in quality but i will also mention that retail has built a self entitled attitude among consumers, where they expect companies to always offer lower prices than before at top quality service and value, even if costs go up.

An example being when cost of production increases, so some goods go up in price or pack size is reduce to offer the same margins and people go up in arms about it.

I did a stint approving RMAs for electronics and tech and you cannot believe how much people will argue to use their warranty on a £6 kettle their bought for their office of 20 people, 18 months prior.

On a different note, a while ago a newspaper did a comparison between complaints and compliment letters and found that positive feedbag often got more freebies when sent to manufacturers and brand names, over complaints. Interesting considering the opposite was found with retailers.

Stands to reason though, manufacturers find it very valuable to know when they have done something right, as they probably get enough complaints to see when something is done wrong and they can see what has contributed to gaining a new customer. Retailers instead offer freebies to keep customers from leaving.
 
I bought an Onkyo receiver from Best Buy UK (RIP) and it developed a fault around 8 months in. As Best Buy had folded, I tweeted Onkyo UK asking about the best way to deal with it. Minutes later they'd responded with a direct message and instructions to call them to discuss my options.

I was given two options: send it back at my cost and wait for a repair (model I had was on back order) or pay for an advance replacement of a different model to which they'd refund me the original cost as /when they received the faulty item, but I'd still need to pay for the extra.

As I was reluctant to send it back at my own expense or pay for a model which didn't have the features I needed (they offered me a 5.1 amp vs 7.1 that I had) they agreed to cover the cost of the shipping but also to UPGRADE the model that I had, as a offer of goodwill. It arrived in 48hrs and Yodel (lol) picked up the old model a day later. Fantastic.
 
Only one I had was complaining to Duracell that their batteries (that were in a maglite) had leaked, meaning they couldn't be removed. They asked me how much it would cost to replace the maglite, and BACS me the amount along with vouchers for free batteries.
 
I have friends that complain about everything, even if they have a nice time they'll find something to complain about so they can get something free.

His sister had an issue where one of the children she cares for leaked from his nappy. Nappy company sent her £50 in vouchers and a free pack of nappies in the size that fits him. He was wearing ones that were too small.

So they copied and did the same thing.

I wet myself laughing though when she bought a salad, bit something crunch and had half a caterpillar in her mouth. She went on Facebook ripping them a new one because she is a vegetarian etc but they wouldn't do anything unless she returned the salad + offending object. She'd already binned it :D Karma :D
 
Had a weekend away with the wifey at a hotel in one of their suites. Got there and the suite opposite us was being refitted out. They worked until 9pm Friday night, so I complained and got told they wouldn't be working the rest of the weekend and was offered a free bottle of champagne. Come 8am the following morning the workmen are back making a racket, were there all day until late again, then back again sunday morning.

Complained a couple of times and got a few more free drinks. When it came to check out time I asked to see the manager and explained I wasn't happy with the whole experience. He asked what he could do to make it right. Ended up getting a refund of the cost of the suite (£500) and all bills cancelled (room service, evening meals etc) which had come to around £400.

Got a call a couple of days later from the regional manager of the hotel chain and got an all expenses paid stay in a suite at another of their hotels!

Won a brolly on twitter from Warsteiner, it took ages to come so I had a moan and got a free crate of beer too.

Had 2 replacement irons from Tefal due to leaks when both were outside the warranty period.

Full set of golf waterproofs paid for by Sunice as the original set I bought was faulty, so got a refund of £500 and a complimentary set!
 
Once, I complained that some Frijj milkshake I bought had gone off before I even opened it (it had, was absolutely rancid!). I got given a £10 voucher for the supermarket. Didn't spend it on Frijj :p
 
Logitech are indeed epic! A mate broke his G25 by dropping it down the stairs, phoned them up asking how much to replace the broken pedal box and they sent him a new one, free of charge!

I bought my Logitech mouse having heard about this, excellent customer service warrants custom!

If my Microsoft Sidewinder Force feedback wheel ever dies (which given the abuse it's had,it should be long dead) I will replace it with a Logitech wheel without hesitation, even if Microsoft still produced the Sidewinder, which they don't alas.

I highly recommend complaining (validly) to walkers crisps, got a pack years back that had an air leak and they'd gone soft, phoned them up, a rep came round the following day,inspected the pack, apologised and gave me two huge boxes of crisps for my trouble!
 
Last edited:
HEADRAT said:
So I went out to see the lady manageress and explained our problem, I wasn't aggro but just said I wasn't very happy. She apologised and asked if a complementary ticket would be OK. I thought she was just going to give me one ticket for my 3 years old but she gave me 5 tickets.

PS Cineworld just went up 1 notch in my estimation
Click to expand...

During my University days I used to work as a part time manager at Odeon and 'comp' tickets were part of my arsenal to fend off any problematic customer. We did not have to go into much detail WHY we gave them out, so we just did to make our lives easier.

Our regional manager also used to give each of us (managers) a book of comp passes every quarter as a job perk. Each book used to have around 50 passes in it. Not much of a perk when I did not have to pay to watch a movie anyway but some of used to sell them on fleabay, or others of us would use them as an alternative form of currency and cut our own deals with other chains to get our hair cut, Maccy Ds or Nandos. Awesome
 
Scania said:
Logitech are indeed epic! A mate broke his G25 by dropping it down the stairs, phoned them up asking how much to replace the broken pedal box and they sent him a new one, free of charge!

I bought my Logitech mouse having heard about this, excellent customer service warrants custom!

If my Microsoft Sidewinder Force feedback wheel ever dies (which given the abuse it's had,it should be long dead) I will replace it with a Logitech wheel without hesitation, even if Microsoft still produced the Sidewinder, which they don't alas.
Click to expand...

Do you have to return the offending part? I am sure I read a story on here a while ago about one of our members abusing Logitech's good faith with their customer service until eventually they caught on and billed him.
 
You're all doing it wrong. You should immediately start being sarcastic to them. This works particularly well when a late courier turns up at your door and will mean that any future packages will be delivered in perfect condition and promptly on time.
 
Hades said:
You're all doing it wrong. You should immediately start being sarcastic to them. This works particularly well when a late courier turns up at your door and will mean that any future packages will be delivered in perfect condition and promptly on time.
Click to expand...

vncZ8J3.gif
 
Rifte said:
Do you have to return the offending part? I am sure I read a story on here a while ago about one of our members abusing Logitech's good faith with their customer service until eventually they caught on and billed him.
Click to expand...

They wanted a picture of my broken mouse with the cable cut or the mouse smashed with a hammer when I got mine replaced by them.
 
Order a nice jumper off Crew clothing around £60 +/-.
Noticed some odd colour string had been loosely stitched into the sleeve. (Like it had been marked). I contacted their customer service teams after sending pictures of the said bit of string.

They told me to bin it and a new one has been ordered. In the end I tactically removed the string and kept them both :) Happy days
 
robfosters said:
Logitech are epic. I've phoned them about an 18 month old mouse that has broken and they have straight away sent me a brand new newer and slightly more expensive model.
Click to expand...

They've done that once with me but another time they refused to accept that this was a known problem (it was the old dodgy button sensor detecting two clicks, which a regular issue with the Performance MX) and wouldn't do anything about it. It was just outside of warranty, but I still argued that this is a common problem, but nope.

Another time they wouldn't send me a single key even when I offered to pay for it (which flew off an unknown direction and I couldn't find it). I was rather surprised that they didn't stock spares of what a fairly basic and extremely cheap but essential part. Still, I stumbled upon it many months later (and I still can't quite work out how it got there).

They are generally very good though and I'm happy to still use them. I especially liked that their only request used to be to ask for photographic evidence of the faulty item after being smashed up. "Here, have a new part, but can you please attack the previous one with a hammer. Thanks."
 
Ironically i once went to the cinema and had the direct opposite experience. The sound quality was crap. As in crackly, echoing and just downright terrible. Went and complained and got told 'come and see us again after the film'. So i did whereby they followed it with 'well you stayed until the end so it couldn't have been that bad'. Pointed out i lived an hours drive away so i certainly wasn't going to drive home and then straight back.
Their idea of compensation for me was a bucket of popcorn...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom