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!! 💖

We ordered dominos once and it took 2 hours to arrive. We’d gone past being hungry. Which was a good thing because when it turned up, it was stone cold yet also quite burnt. I was hangry so I really laid into Dominos and they sent us 2 x £50 vouchers. Each voucher could only be used in one sitting, so we ordered a massive amount of food each time and ate it over a few days (because we don’t turn down a freebie).

I’ve received freebies preemptively sometimes when out for a meal. I’m not very good at hiding what I’m feeling. So if I’m pissed off, my face will definitely let you know. I think people can see me, my reaction and think I’m a pot about to boil over so just hope freebies will calm me down (they usually do). In reality, I’d probably make a non-committal sound when asked how meal was and just leave after paying full price with my pissy face set to stun. I will only complain if someone is being an arse with me and either not trying to rectify the situation or actually goading me. When I do complain though, I really let loose. And if I’ve got to that point, I will be telling everyone about the awful customer service/shit meal.

I once complained (genuinely!) to Co-op because the ratio of jelly teeth to lips in my bag of 'jelly teeth and lips' was disproportionate. They sent me £2 worth of vouchers. I still have them!

I got £25 from the Co-op because the manager wouldn’t let DD use the toilet when she was 4 and she wet herself.

I got £15 for a piece of bone in a pork pie.

We were students at the time and it seemed a fortune!

Also I once ordered a couple of swimming costumes from an online lingerie retailer. I made sure to tick the ‘don’t send me marketing material’ boxes. I ordered them to my work address as there was a postroom team who would sign for personal deliveries (as long as you didn’t take the piss with loads). The costumes didn’t fit right so I sent both back. But a few weeks later I received a catalogue from them at my work address. I was quite embarrassed as it was quite a saucy cover with a lady in a teddy and lingerie and the Post assistant left it on my desk at lunch for everyone to see which I was embarrassed about. Not very professional!

So I emailed them explaining I didn’t consent to be sent marketing materials, could they remove me etc etc and not send me catalogues. They acknowledged and apologised saying I’d been removed, but then another one appeared! And another! And one was a really sexy one for Valentine’s Day - it looked almost like soft porn!

After I’d received 3 catalogues and complained 3 times I told them I was going to to report them to the ICO which I did, and they reviewed it in my favour as the company had failed to remove my details from their marketing material database despite acknowledging my request. I was mainly embarrassed my colleagues would think I was perusing underwear at work...

One of the Directors of the company wrote me a long apologetic email and I got £50 compensation. Which was good, but a right faff.

I once made an enquiry about some life insurance for DH and I. Had to give bank details as part of the process but would then receive everything in the post and would only be charged if we signed the forms etc. It ended up being more expensive than we first though so never went through with it.

Fast forward the following month and the first payment was taken.

We rang to complain and were told to ask the bank to do a charge back if we needed the money urgently. They also tried to sell us the insurance again whilst on the phone complaining.

About a week later I had an email asking for a trust pilot review so I obliged and was polite but very honest.

Within an hour I had a phone call from the companies CEO. We ended up with £100 and gifts for our children as an apology.

I had a minor issue with my bank which took too long to sort out; when it was finally sorted, they comped me £50 completely unprompted.

Changing electricity provider was an absolute balls-up which took around six calls to chase down and have the matter put right. It was mainly down to the new provider; I told them I expected compensation and got £100. It was nice to get the £100, but I’d rather have had a trouble-free switch.

I once complained about some childrens school uniform trousers that were sold as 'playground proof' with reinforced knees e.t.c. Complete bollocks- bobbled and ripped through the knees within a week.

So I complained and was asked to return one of the pairs. A few weeks later an enormous parcel arrived with loads of uniform in it. Apparently said dodgy trousers were not up to their usual high standards so they hoped what they sent me would.

As for the dodgy trousers, I sewed up the hole in the knee and stuck it in the kids 'old clothes' drawer. When they're rolling around in the mud in the woods, I dont give a damn how bobbled they are

We had problems with the lock on our hotel room, we were actually locked in and had to phone the front desk to be rescued! They sent us up a bottle of wine, cheese and biscuits and a fruit bowl. On check out there was a 50% reduction on the bill and we hadn't even complained!

About 15 years ago from Virgin trains after a spectacularly disastrous train journey when not only was the train many hours late, but they made everyone get off in one station and move over to another one on a different platform. I was heavily pregnant so not moving quickly and despite asking for help (and being ignored) I didn't get over before the train left. I got stranded on the station, still about 100 miles away from home and it was the last train. My DH had to drive down with our two young children in the car and we got home at about 2am. Oh and I got charged for a full extra day's parking for my car which of course was still at the station that I was expecting to get off at.
I'd been travelling first class as DH was worried about me making a long journey at that stage of pregnancy and thought more space might help. So I wrote to Virgin pointing out that I could have got one of their flights to New York for less money and in less time than this train journey. They refunded both legs of my journey, and my car parking and gave me about an extra £100 in compensation.Unfortunately it was all as vouchers which were used by my DH for business trips mainly as they were only valid for 12 months and with having a newborn baby I wasn't exactly zipping around the country. Though I did take the kids on a couple of local days out with them.
I've recently also had some vouchers from an online bike shop after a bike I ordered arrived damaged but I did have to kick up a fuss to get that sorted. Not spent those yet though - waiting to see what comes up in the Black Friday sales.

When I was skint as fuck just after graduating, I used to write letters telling companies how wonderful they were and how their [product] made me feel like I was at home. I got loads of vouchers for stuff. It was pretty cool because I genuinely did love their products!!

Flying back from India via Amman Royal Jordanian messed things up and we had to stay in the hotel from hell overnight, food problems, awful rooms etc. On our return we contacted RJ to complain, four couples, they offered vouchers for more flights with RJ increasing in value and we all refused. Eventuially someone phoned us and said it was clear we were all working together so made a cash offer which we took. It paid for a couple of weeks in Greece later in the year!

@StillCoughingandLaughing definitely your fault.

Well if that was true, @Nottherealslimshady, why didn’t they stick to their guns and say they would be claiming the full amount? Why didn’t they simply end the call and write to me again with a second demand? Why didn’t they say ‘If you feel you need to involve the ombudsman, please do so as we are confident in our case’? Why didn’t they threaten loss of supply and court action if I didn’t pay?

They didn’t do any of those things. What they did do was voluntarily offer to halve the bill and put an instalment plan in place. They’d fucked up, they knew it, and they’d come up against someone who was ready to fight back. If you’re too wet to do that, that’s your luck out.

We've had a few.

When DD was a baby I'd puchsed some baby food jars, on the way back to the car I dropped the bag and they smashed. I went inside just to tell them about the glass as I didn't want anybody hurting themselves on it. They replaced the jars and refunded me to cost if them!

We were staying in a lodge with my PIL, their shower kept filling with water in the shower tray so we reported it. They said they would come during the day to have a look but nobody turned up, we complained again and they sent a cleaner who found the drain full of hair. We complained when we got home and they gave us a free weekend break.

Halifax sent us M&S vouchers after turning us down for life insurance and saying (about DH) 'after consulting with your Drs, we've decided we cannot insure you, but if you're still alive this time next year we'll reconsider'

I've told this before....

Back in 1984 my mother sent a scathing letter to the makers of quality street complaining that her Christmas tin was woefully underweight and full of strawberry creams and little else.
She received a new tin and a voucher for £10, which at the time was a lot of money.

What she didn't know was I found the tin hidden at the start of December and had been picking them off for 3 weeks and resealing the tin.

I never did confess.

I think Tesco was right to give you compensation for what sounds like quite a nasty injury. If you had diabetes or poor circulation a small cut could give a leg ulcer that takes ages to heal. I got offered £25 then £50 to make my complaint against an Atos PIP assessment go away (no Atos it isn't right to expect a disabled child travel 2hrs each way to an appointment). It is now with the independent complaints team who asked what I wanted and I might have said vengeance (was watching too much Game of Thrones) but should have said a Tesco voucher and an apology - will find out in only 18 months....

I’ve had a lot of free stuff from complaining in my time.
I don’t do it for fun or to get the free stuff. But I will always say something if it’s not up to scratch. I think we have a terrible acceptance of mediocracy when you pay high end prices. It doesn’t happen elsewhere. So I will always say.

It’s relative though. If I get a bargain and it’s a bit crap, I’m not gonna say anything as I got what I paid for iyswim.

From the point of view of someone who runs a business some customers really do "try it on!".

A buyer contacted me via my Etsy shop and complained that the widgets she ordered from me had not arrived. I responded sorry but I have no record of your ordering that product from me as we dont sell it here. Subsequently I realised that she had ordered the product in another of my shops on another platform, On checking the order I found that it had been delivered. I emailed the customer to point out that she had in fact ordered the product from my shop on platform B and that i noted it now been delivered.

The customer responded angrily that she had never visited site B or any of its shops. She then stated that she had been "confused and upset" to receive emails from so many different shops and suggested i compensate her. Needless to say her message was filed in an appropriate place called BIN.

I've worked in a few customer facing jobs 'professional complainers' take advantage and pick holes in customer service in order to get freebies of things they dont need, alot of them get off on it. I've distanced myself from people who do this as there really not fun too spend time with.

I'm on the other side dealing with customer complaints, many people now blatantly demanding compo and TBH most are not justified but we give anyway .
I categorise them from

1. Sorry -apology only
2. Sorry have a £10 voucher
3. Sorry we really messed up , have some more appropriate to complaint.

These are for the genuine complaints.

The real fun is when customers expectations are so far removed from reality.eg had one customer wanting to be compensated for a delivery 10 minutes outside of the free delivery 1 hour window.
another customer sent parking ticket in after illegally parking 5 streets away from store, claimed they were in store and had been a loyal customer, etc, etc.
have plenty more would take up a full thread and probably be outing for the company.

On the Wednesday before Lockdown2 (so the last night to go out) I went out for dinner with a group of friends. Completely fully booked of course.

A couple of mistakes were made with our order - nothing major, wrong starter brought and Lamb Shank rather than Moroccan Lamb. It wasn't a problem and soon addressed and we didn't make anything of it (we were all too busy catching up with each other!). Both were knocked off the bill. We'll go back.

Tbh I think restaurants are often very good at giving recompense for mistakes - I never ask for them but have got them often enough.

My mum got about £50 in the end from one car insurance company. The first mistake they made was wrong name on the policy (it was done over the phone and the name wasn't even close, think Elizabeth when you wanted Jane), they said they had cancel the policy (at some cost) and renew in correct name except it had now increased. Again, came back with something wrong so she put in a complaint as the insurance would've been invalid on both policies because of their mistakes. The complaint took 6 weeks and at least 8 members of staff, the first compensation was for the initial mistake but no one ever sent it out or any confirmation that the policy was indeed cancelled (unsurprisingly she didn't go with the company in the end) so they sent one out for £50 instead so she got £50 and went with another insurer.

A couple of years ago I went with my family on an all inclusive holiday to Mexico with Thomas Cook. The return flight was delayed for 24 hours & we lost our allocated seating on the return flight, which we had paid for, and were split up. The return flight seating was really uncomfortable and cold as there were no blankets. We had a lovely holiday but I was really disappointed with the return flight so decided to fill in the feedback form they emailed to me. I was contacted by customer service and advised we were entitled to 600 euro per person refund because of the delay. I received a refund of 2,400 euro in total just for giving some negative feedback.