To ask if you've ever had compensation for complaining..?

[thinkingoutloud4]

So I was in Tesco last week getting our weekly food shopping with my DP, when a member of staff came out of the warehouse section with a large trolley filled to the brim with produce to fill the shelves with.
The staff member didn't check behind him before moving out onto the shop floor, and pushed the trolley into my ankle causing a nasty gash, and quite a lot of blood 🥴
He was lovely and really very apologetic, I was hurt but not extremely and although he offered an ambulance 😆 I politely declined.

The store asked to take my details to make note of the accident, which I complied with and left my name and address etc for their accident log.

Anyway.. fast forward to today, and I've received a lovely letter in the post from the store manager, and a store voucher for £150. I'm completely blown away!

it got me thinking, as i remember once a friend of mine once said her sister complains as a hobby to companies and receives large amounts of free items, vouchers etc...

have you ever been sent something from a company following a complaint?

I have just sent a thank you letter back to Tesco, as I am completely shocked and so grateful for their lovely gesture!! 💖

Every time I go into Tesco my scanner dies causing me to have to rescan my whole shop. It dosent happen at the other Tesco just one. It drives me mental. I complained last time and was given a gift voucher which was nice of them. I complained to MAC before and got a £25 voucher. However when it comes to serious things like the NHS messing up my operation and me having serious after complications I didn't complain as I was grateful they did it in the first place

I got a calendar one year and the months were in the wrong order. No big deal and I thought it was funny so I tweeted a video of it. The company saw my tweet and PMed me asking for my address so they could send a £10 voucher to buy a new one. I got the voucher but spent it on other stuff as the calendar was still perfectly usable, we just had to remember that when we got to November that it was after April instead of after October.

I’m a bit of a complainer, as in if I’m paying for a service and it isn’t up to scratch then I will comment on how I’m not pleased with it.
I’ve never ever been discounted or compensated, even after being given a fully burnt mixed grill that we couldn’t even cut, the wrong drinks with the meal and a desert dropped on my husbands back. (We never went there again!)

Me and my mum were on the maiden voyage of a ferry turned cruise liner many moons ago. They had lots of teething problems, although nothing I really noticed and we didn't actually complain. However, so many of the other passengers did complain that mid cruise they made an announcement we all got half our money back and then a free cruise the following year, it was ace 😁

But in response to your other point, some people do make a career out of complaining. There was a TV program made about it called the complainers. Most customer service agents can put credits of between £10-£25 on your account and will do it just to stop you going on at them. I try not to use that knowledge though cause I think it makes you a bit of a nob, and instead only complain if it's something I think actually needs flagging, rather than with the intention of getting money!

I don't complain unnecessarily but when I do, I will include all relevant details and, as a result, I've received in the region of £500 over the last 10 years for instances of: trying to close my late mother's bank accounts, being given incorrect information with a mortgage application which delayed an already fraught process, a failed broadband installation (actually, it failed twice) with one supplier and a failed engineer visit to repair said broadband connection with another supplier. I used to deal with billing enquiries a long, long time ago and learned to always make a note of time/date/name of person I spoke to.

If I complain, I just want my issue to be resolved because there has been a failure and I don't want to be further inconvenienced, so the compensation is the cherry on top.

Nothing large but several small things:

• Bought a box of 6 Mr Kipling jam tarts but when I opened them there were only 5. Wrote to them and they sent me another box.
• Once cut my lip badly on Sellotape and wrote to suggest the packaging should carry a warning against trying to bite pieces off. They sent me a tape dispenser and several reels of tape.
• DH once made a tight carry on about how foul and disgusting Sainsbury's own brand expectorant cough mixture was so I wrote asking if there was any reason they made it taste so bad. They sent a £5 voucher.
• Once wrote to Old El Paso about how their instructions for heating tortillas in a microwave were impossible to follow because it said just pierce the bag, but you actually had to open the bag in the first place to get to the instructions. They sent me a postal order. How quaint!

That's all I can think of for now.

5foot5 love the idea they sent you a dispenser.. clearly didn't want to risk any more cut lips!

I complain when I believe something is wrong/not fair, when items are missing or not as advertised, etc. But always genuinely, not just to get things.

I have received vouchers, refunds, free pizza (Papa Johns), free business banking (Natwest), free food at restaurants, wine bottles in hotel rooms...

My bank sent a payment to a completely random person by miskeying an a/c number, they then refunded me twice in error. They claimed back the extra refund from me and paid me £50 compensation for their clock up .
I also got x2 free Big Mac meals vouchers after I went through the drive thru and when I got home they put a spicy sauce on rather than big Mac sauce.
I’ve also got Costa points put on my card after drive thru cock ups too.
I don’t make a big deal and I’m very polite when I complain - shouting doesn’t get results.

I only ever complain about things that really annoy me/cost me money.

Complained about a solicitors completely fucking up once and got the fees back I'd spent so far and rest of work done for free. Also a similar debt recovery firm (working for our company) fucked up so badly it cost our company about 20k so I complained and got £1500 compensation.

Only other thing was local Indian food place changed chef and food went downhill so we stopped ordering. After about 6 weeks we got a phonecall asking if we were OK, had something gone wrong etc Told them food had changed so we didn't think it was worth the cost (expensive for average food), they agreed said normal chef had been ill but back now and could they send a free order to prove things back to normal. Accepted and it was so went back to ordering.

I got £100 of nectar points after complaining about bad customer service in Sainsbury's. It was the last Friday before Christmas, I had put a few crockery items in my shop, the cashier refused to give me anything to wrap them up to prevent breakages, I then asked for my £50 cashback in £10 notes, she refused even though her till was full of notes, I put a comment on the Sainsbury's Facebook page, got a message back asking for the date, time & till number on my receipt & my nectar card number, they credited me with £100. Whenever I went in afterwards if I went in the same cashier's queue she always asked to be taken off until I had paid so I imagine she got a good telling off.

Forgot my other one - Dreams!
Ordered a beautiful cream cast iron bedstead, when it arrived I had box 1 of 2 and box 2 of 2. All sounds good so far doesn’t it? Turned out when I opened them I’d got a headboard, a footboard, all the slats, screws etc but no side rails. Called the shop and they wouldn’t talk to me as they were doing a stock check. Called customer services who couldn’t see what the problem was at first, then said they’d have to order me a whole new bed which would take several weeks. Passed that deadline and still no bed so I called them again and got a lovely guy called Jerome who was really confused about why I’d been told that, as he could get the side rails ordered in 24hrs and shipped out to me. Dreams sent me £60 in Dreams vouchers, as if I’d ever buy anything from them again...

Sent an email of complaint to Gordon Ramsey restaurant after just a generally crap experience when we dined there for a special occasion. Got a £100 voucher which I’ll never be able to use as an unlikely to be back in London any time soon!

My husband pre-ordered a book from amazon which came yesterday in a massive box with a badly ripped cover (probably from sliding around the box!) He complained and has been offered a refund plus £10 credit.

I complained about a well known coffee shop was minding, flies everywhere, horrible. Got quite a lot of vouchers. Bought some spray bleach from Morrison’s, got home and noticed it had been leaking in my car. I complained and got a voucher to buy my daughter a new top, which was ruined as it was in the boot.

I once got a loaf of soreen and it was hollow, like it just has a big air bubble in the middle that filled the whole thing. They sent me a few vouchers. And complained when a wrap I got from asda was mouldy and got vouchers.
I'm surprised they gave you so much, I imagine it was influenced by how reasonable you were.

@StillCoughingandLaughing definitely your fault.

I bought some cheese from Asda that turned out to be mouldy (not the sort of cheese that's meant to be mouldy). I contacted them and was given an incident number then offered compensation to the tune of 50p less than I'd paid for the cheese in the first place!

@Frouby that was lovely of the restaurant, great customer service.

@Nat6999 that’s a lot of compensation. I doubt she got told off tbh. In retail, cashiers are allowed to refuse to serve any customer, she probably just avoided you to prevent an altercation.

I got some soft, stale popcorn from Proper Corn and got a lovely box of different flavours as a 'sorry'.

When I was a teenager we got a loaf of Warburtons bread with a section of fan belt running through the middle. My mum didn't want to complain but my nana did on her behalf - they gave us a voucher to buy a snazzy new toaster, and then a Warburtons van turned up at our house and delivered just about every Warburtons product going!

Last year TSB gave me £500 because I made an official complaint about the fact that their mobile banking app was inaccessible to blind people who use screen readers. It wasn’t just a one off update that bricked it, it had been a total no go for years. It used to work a long time ago then it was updated then it didn’t, and like that it stayed for years. I complained about it so many times in branch and on the phone. and nothing was done, so I finally lost my rag and took it upon myself to officially complain. It’s straight up and down disability discrimination so they paid me off to shut me up and sorted it out.

I seem to spend a good proportion of my life complaining about lack of accessibility, see my previous post for another example. You’d think it’d be quite lucrative but it’s actually not. Most of the time you just get an insistence that despite all available evidence to the contrary, x company do actually care about blind people and a loose promise to maybe do somet about it at some point if they can be arsed. Equality is certainly more equal for some than it is for others.

I complained about Barclays cocking up once and subsequently someone turned up on my doorstep with a bouquet of flowers from them. To be honest, I didn't really appreciate it - I would rather that they had just put the equivalent to the cost into my account.

I once ordered something from John Lewis and it was sent to my home address rather than the Waitrose store I’d selected for delivery, but I was out all day at work and missed the delivery so they took it back as needed a signature. And then they came back again the following day and it happened again. It was odd as my order very clearly had collect at store on the confirmation.

I called JL as I’d purposefully selected Waitrose delivery rather than home because I work long hours and often miss deliveries. They apologised and sent another one out...to my home again..and I missed it again! 😖

I ended up writing an email to their CS explaining the two failed deliveries (well 4 as they both tried to deliver twice) with proof I’d selected collect at store etc etc. One of the managers called me to apologise and sent me some vouchers in the post which was nice!

@thinkingoutloud4

So I was in Tesco last week getting our weekly food shopping with my DP, when a member of staff came out of the warehouse section with a large trolley filled to the brim with produce to fill the shelves with. The staff member didn't check behind him before moving out onto the shop floor, and pushed the trolley into my ankle causing a nasty gash, and quite a lot of blood 🥴 He was lovely and really very apologetic, I was hurt but not extremely and although he offered an ambulance 😆 I politely declined.

The store asked to take my details to make note of the accident, which I complied with and left my name and address etc for their accident log.

Anyway.. fast forward to today, and I've received a lovely letter in the post from the store manager, and a store voucher for £150. I'm completely blown away!

it got me thinking, as i remember once a friend of mine once said her sister complains as a hobby to companies and receives large amounts of free items, vouchers etc...

have you ever been sent something from a company following a complaint?

I have just sent a thank you letter back to Tesco, as I am completely shocked and so grateful for their lovely gesture!! 💖

To be fair this isnt compensation for complaining/not complaining. It's the manager realising you could've issued a PI claim and that £150 is a lot less than you could've claimed so deciding to give you a voucher which has to be spent at Tesco anyway so you'll be bowled over enough not to do that. Isnt it?

Nope. Our local Indian restaurant forgot part of our takeaway order and sent round some poppadoms to apologise last week. That's about it. Oh and Yorkshire Tea sent me a replacement box of teabags when their new eco-bags kept splitting a few years ago.

I am generally a very unsuccessful complainer:

Apple - months of denial and obfuscation about a dangerous faulty item followed by zero refund - I will never buy anything from them ever again.
Uniqlo - accused me of trying to fraudulently claim a refund on a faulty item - as a result I will never buy anything from them again either.
John Lewis - eventually got a refund on a faulty item with the help of a newspaper consumer watchdog. Have really gone off them as the customer service seems to have gone downhill.

DH and DC think my ban on certain brands for poor customer service is hilarious, but it's the only power I have!