Complaining does work

Kamerad · 16 Mar 2006 at 19:29

rayer said:
Out in the states a fire alarm accidentally went off a 7.30 am. Later i went to complain about it waking me up, and recieved free breakfast for myself and my better half, and a $25 voucher for the shops.

You don't want to know what they put on your breakfast :eek:

norm · 16 Mar 2006 at 19:39

rayer said:
Out in the states a fire alarm accidentally went off a 7.30 am. Later i went to complain about it waking me up

Where would you be if the fire alarm had failed and there really was a fire however.

AndyPants · 16 Mar 2006 at 19:55

I Complain and get free stuff all the time. Had a free room at a Travel Inn in Slough cos i moaned about noise, I was drunk so was probably my head buzzing!.
Had 12 cans of Heinz Spaghetti and Sausage from my local Tesco because they came up 1p dearer than the shelf label.

.
Had...£3 Mr Kiplings vouchers last week becasue there were only 7 French Fancies in my cake box rather than the usual 8. lol.
Had a round of free drinks at a Brewers Fayre not long ago - about 10 of us, because they didnt put boiled potatoes on our Sunday lunch dinner. It says its included on the menu, nothing to say otherwise

The English/British do not moan often enough. We just put up and shut up. Suppose me been from sheepland i moan about a lot of things, and usually get what i want.
Remeber, If your not completely satisfied, Moan.

Hussman · 16 Mar 2006 at 20:01

This isn't so much what I got by complaining, but thought you'd like the story.

Many years ago, I took my Mum to a local pub for Mother's Day.

The pub was mega-busy, but we found a table and ordered our meal. We waited and waited. As it was so busy we expected a longer delay than usual.

The table next to us finished their meal and left. A new couple sat down ordered their meal and received it, and we were still waiting.

At this point I returned to the bar and complained to the manager. He was very apologetic and gave my Mum & I a free drink. He took the order again and asked me to return to the table.

As lunch time was now almost over most of the people in the pub had left, or were just having drinks.

After another twenty minute wait I again returned to the bar and asked to speak to the manager he was furious. He told me to return to my table and the meal would be brought out.

About 5 minutes later he bought ours meals. He asked me to accompany him to the window by the main entrance. He pointed out a man trudging down the road, hands in pockets, and head down.

The manager told me the man had been the chef. As he had got our order delayed for so long twice the bloke had been given the boot!

I thought it was a bit extreme, and actually felt rather sorry for him.

Got a free meal though...

LoadsaMoney · 16 Mar 2006 at 20:04

Piggymon said:
I once complained that my ready brek didn't make me glow like the ad said

I got loads of free glow in the dark stickers

I was about 10 at the time

PMSL!!!.

Street · 16 Mar 2006 at 20:13

Piggymon said:
I once complained that my ready brek didn't make me glow like the ad said

I got loads of free glow in the dark stickers

But did you have the poster for them? I used to love my Ready Brek poster

This thread reminds me... I have a tenners worth of Cadburys vouchers that they kindly sent me after I was disappointed with one of their chocolate bars, might have to go on a chocolate spree

Ex-RoNiN · 16 Mar 2006 at 20:42

Hussman said:
This isn't so much what I got by complaining, but thought you'd like the story.

Many years ago, I took my Mum to a local pub for Mother's Day.

The pub was mega-busy, but we found a table and ordered our meal. We waited and waited. As it was so busy we expected a longer delay than usual.

The table next to us finished their meal and left. A new couple sat down ordered their meal and received it, and we were still waiting.

At this point I returned to the bar and complained to the manager. He was very apologetic and gave my Mum & I a free drink. He took the order again and asked me to return to the table.

As lunch time was now almost over most of the people in the pub had left, or were just having drinks.

After another twenty minute wait I again returned to the bar and asked to speak to the manager he was furious. He told me to return to my table and the meal would be brought out.

About 5 minutes later he bought ours meals. He asked me to accompany him to the window by the main entrance. He pointed out a man trudging down the road, hands in pockets, and head down.

The manager told me the man had been the chef. As he had got our order delayed for so long twice the bloke had been given the boot!

I thought it was a bit extreme, and actually felt rather sorry for him.

Got a free meal though...

Owned

Baz · 16 Mar 2006 at 20:46

Tesco's charged us for two bottles of wine last week when we bought one bottle, so we got a free bottle of vino and the money back

The week before the guy at the checkout buggered up the chip and pin three times, and forgot to put on the £20 cashback....

Sanzy · 16 Mar 2006 at 21:12

was supposed to go to a 4* hotel but was deamed structuraly unsafe so we got moved to a mint 5* for no extra cost

Chronicle · 16 Mar 2006 at 21:37

spike's said:
a couple of weeks ago i bought a muller yoghurt from tesco's, got home, opened said yoghurt and found there was no filling in the yoghurt. just plain yoghurt and the cruncy bits.

well i wrote muller a nice email, they asked for my address and today i got £5 worth of vouchers.
not bad for a 38p yoghurt.

so whats the best "compensation" you have got.

I've done better. I got bored so decided to compain that my muller corner was too hard to open, and i got £5's worth of vouchers

. So that was £5 plus a whole yoghurt

.

cheets64 · 16 Mar 2006 at 21:42

I once had a Kit Kat that was just pure chocolate, no waffer, complained because my mate said they will gave you somthing as its poor QC so they sent me a box full of Kit Kats.

Also went to USA in 99 and 2 weeks before we went they shut down the villa complex because of somthing eating the wood in the villas, so they moved us to a better villa complex and gave us about £300 each.

Jake 2.0 · 16 Mar 2006 at 22:06

Scuzi said:
The best compensation I've had is 2 free return flights from Flybe. I used to fly Southampton -> Belfast with them every 2-3 weeks and as the customer service was shocking I wrote a complaint. They handled it quite well and gave me a voucher for a free return flight. When utilising that voucher I had a bit of trouble with the numpties at the check in desk which I complained about and got another free voucher

I think you did allright to get a fiver out of 38p. I personally wouldn't have bothered though

My Grandad got a years free supply of Golden Wonder products after he made a complaint back in the 80's. He bought a pot noodle which had lots of ground up glass in it. Had he know better he would have taken it to his solicitor but Golden Wonder sent a guy round who gave him a letter to sign if they gave him a years free supply of stuff.
I think there's a few boxes of Cheese & Onion in his attic from about 20 years ago

sell them on ebay

paul@ · 17 Mar 2006 at 10:46

Brought a donut from Tesco's a while back whist at lunch, the donut was vile it tasted like "out of date".

I complained to the manager of the produce section and I was given a bag of fresh donuts and a five pound gift voucher.

The other month I was really angry with Bulldog billing department, I obtained 2 months free internet by complaining.

callmeBadger · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:09

I went and stayed in a travel inn for work, they were picking up the bill.

The hotel messed my food order up 3 times, messed my room up, "non smoking is not a smoking room with the ash tray removed"

I wrote a snotty email with specifics about almost every interaction with named members of staff.

They said they will use my complaint letter in their training literature, offered gave me 3 weekends of my choice in any of their hotels, £200 restaurent vouchers as an appology for the bad service, also £250 cheque as payment for permission to use my complaint letter in their training.

All that and it cost me nothing as work were paying.

manveruppd · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:18

kitten_caboodle said:
I also got 150 quid back on my sofa because ikea messed up the delivery.

When Ikea sold me an office chair that had a screw missing (fell headfirst to the floor when I sat down on it and the armrest popped out of its socket!) it took me two MONTHS to get them to send me a replacement! They kept saying that since I bought it at the store I had to bring it back myself, which was impossible for me, since I don't have a car and the friend who drove me there in the first place has a sports car and there was no way the assmbled chair would've fit in his boot! (Never mind the fact that it's over an hour's drive from me and I had no intention of losing a Saturday over something that was their fault!) I told them I would actually have to rent a car big enough to do that and they had the gall to compensate me FOR MY PETROL!! I told the manager to drop off the chair to me in HER car and I'd refund HER petrol. After weeks of complaining I got them to agree to send me one. Needless to say their van didn't turn up on the day they said it would. I call them the next day and they said they would reschedule delivery for two weeks later! :eek:

I then told them that I would report them to Fair Trading,and in addition I'd continue to use the chair until they sent the fixed one and if I hurt myself in that time I would sue them for criminal negligence too. They sent a replacement two hours later by taxi.

So, yeah, the only compensation I got from them was an ulcer :mad:

(And the chance to whinge about it here

) I much prefer Argos's approach, who, when they once mucked-up delivery for something (it didn't arrive the day they said it would, it didn't arrive on the day they rescheduled delivery for, and it eventually arrived on the day after that without me having had any warning or notification that it was on its way!) and I emailed to complain, completely ignored me, not even replying to any of my two emails. That was very thoughtful of them, shows a genuine consideration for my health and the state of my nerves!
/mumble&grumble

WillyNelson · 17 Mar 2006 at 11:23

Someone in the Post Office defaced the back of one of Mrs Nelson's birthday cards a couple of years ago.
Her sister had written a little poem on the back:
Postie, Postie, do your duty,
Send this to the Worthing beauty.
Under which was written, Only if she sucks my ****

Needless to say, Mrs N was a little upset by this so we wrote a complain letter to the Chief Executive of the PO. They sent back a grovelling apology and a £10 cheque as a birthday gift.

kitten_caboodle · 17 Mar 2006 at 12:27

manveruppd said:
When Ikea sold me an office chair that had a screw missing (fell headfirst to the floor when I sat down on it and the armrest popped out of its socket!) it took me two MONTHS to get them to send me a replacement! They kept saying that since I bought it at the store I had to bring it back myself, which was impossible for me, since I don't have a car and the friend who drove me there in the first place has a sports car and there was no way the assmbled chair would've fit in his boot! (Never mind the fact that it's over an hour's drive from me and I had no intention of losing a Saturday over something that was their fault!) I told them I would actually have to rent a car big enough to do that and they had the gall to compensate me FOR MY PETROL!! I told the manager to drop off the chair to me in HER car and I'd refund HER petrol. After weeks of complaining I got them to agree to send me one. Needless to say their van didn't turn up on the day they said it would. I call them the next day and they said they would reschedule delivery for two weeks later! I then told them that I would report them to Fair Trading,and in addition I'd continue to use the chair until they sent the fixed one and if I hurt myself in that time I would sue them for criminal negligence too. They sent a replacement two hours later by taxi.
So, yeah, the only compensation I got from them was an ulcer (And the chance to whinge about it here) I much prefer Argos's approach, who, when they once mucked-up delivery for something (it didn't arrive the day they said it would, it didn't arrive on the day they rescheduled delivery for, and it eventually arrived on the day after that without me having had any warning or notification that it was on its way!) and I emailed to complain, completely ignored me, not even replying to any of my two emails. That was very thoughtful of them, shows a genuine consideration for my health and the state of my nerves!
/mumble&grumble

I had to fight for it, believe me. They ignored me for the first month and I didn't get my sofa for 3 weeks! Don't email dude, put it in writing. They can't ignore you then.

Hawkpie · 17 Mar 2006 at 12:59

Akira said:
I ordered a domino's pizza and they messed the order up so I complained. The manager said my next order would be free, so next day I emailed head office to complain and ordered a massive pizza. They sent two massive pizzas for free and a voucher for a free pizza came through the post from head office a day or two later. I felt a bit guilty about emailing head office to be quite honest.

I got a free Pizza from Domino's too. Phoned the order in and went to pick it up.

As the bird took the pizzza box from the shelf to the front counter she dropped it on the floor. The box didn't open, and the pizza inside wasn't badly damaged.

I was just going to take it, and thought they might have given me some free wedges or something. But they cooked me a new one and coz I had to wait 10 mins they gave it to me free. I didn't even complain!

I felt bad on the way home, coz I bet it was coming out of that bird's wages.

Otacon · 17 Mar 2006 at 13:14

Some people need to remember where they're posting, and the rules of the house.

ScarySquirrel · 17 Mar 2006 at 13:25

i never complain