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!! 💖

I was once with a big group of friends in a well known burger restaurant in Manchester. We were the last table in there and I saw a mouse run along the back wall. I screamed in shock more than anything and they gave us the whole meal free.

More recently I complained after a (rather expensive) weekend at Champneys was a complete catastrophe of errors. The manager replied to me with an obviously pre-prepared response to each of my complaints about the weekend and not even an apology. They then charged my credit card with the balance we’d paid in cash on departure

Oh and Superdrug last week sent me an electric toothbrush still with the security tag attached with the package split open. It was a gift so I wasn’t impressed. I sent photos via the online chat and they told me I’d need to post it back to them before they’d decide what to do about it!

I complain about any minor issue but I also write and give thanks. I get about an equal amount of freebies.

Best was about £10 in tin fruits vouchers just for sending a note saying I love peaches!

Best complaint outcome was a £££ cheque after coop sold me an out of date yoghurt.

You don't even have to complain, when I was a student we spent a rainy afternoon writing letters (actually letters in envelopes not emails) , to various brands extolling the virtues of their products and highlighting how they brightened our otherwise bleak impoverished student existence. We got loads of free stuff, boxes full of branded stationary, loads of vouchers, crates of coca cola, ribena for our snakebite, T-shirts , more stress balls than any student house will ever need. It was a joyous time and the postman thought we were up to something. These were the days pre Amazon so parcel deliveries were less frequent.

Yes. Had an Easter Egg with no sweets in, got sent a shedload back after letter. Complained No 7 stopped making Almondine
lip colour years ago & got sent 10. Complained debt collection agency contacted me again before statutory 6 week period & after I'd arranged repayment plan : & got £100 apology. Out of the blue Barclaycard this week wrote & said they raised my limit in error 2years ago so have refunded all interest charges to my card since & sent me £75 apology payment.

My best one (for worst experience) was a stay in a DLP hotel after an horrific weekend break we had. Everything went wrong from start to finish and the 'compensation' I asked for was to do it again but without all the mistakes.

DH and I were staying in a central London hotel for a friends wedding, back when I was 8 months pregnant with DD2. After the wedding I left DH in the bar with a few others and went up to our room as I was exhausted.

It was about 11pm and despite being on the 3rd floor (top of the building), it quickly became apparent that there was a nightclub of some description, playing really loud music with pounding bass in the basement of the hotel, directly below our room. It was so loud that there was no way I'd be able to sleep though it, so I called reception and found out that they only had a licence til midnight and they promised all would go quiet then.

I decided to have a bath while I waited for some peace, but come 12:30am, the music was as loud as ever. I called reception again, telling them I was in room 312 and wanted to complain about the noise. They were apologetic again and said they would send someone to sort it out.

I got into bed with my book, only to be interrupted a couple of minutes later by someone pounding on the door. Initially I thought it was DH, a bit drunk, thinking it would be funny, but I quickly discounted that, deciding he'd know better than to try and freak out his heavily pregnant wife! I went to the door and asked who it was and a man shouted "Security! Open up!" I opened the door and there was this HUGE guy, around 6'5" - he filled the whole doorframe! He told me there had been a noise complaint - about ME! He took quite some convincing before he'd believe that the complaint had been made by the woman in room 312, rather than about me.

The music carried on until gone 2am, and I called reception 3 more times - Security paid me another visit too - it was farcsical!

The next morning I asked to speak to the hotel manager and explained what had happened. He initially offered me a 50% discount on the cost of the hotel, but I argued that their Security guard had been intimidating towards an 8 months pregnant woman TWICE, in the middle of the night, in error, when she was alone in a hotel bedroom. He agreed to waive the entire cost of our stay and I still wrote to their Head Office to let them know what had happened, as I would hate for anyone else to experience the same - I was pretty terrified at the time.

In 2017 I used to work in fashion whilst at university and these silver “mirrored” ankle boots were all over LFW. I was so obsessed.

I ordered a pair from New Look as obv couldn’t afford Prada. They arrived unworn but badly scuffed. I didn’t complain per se, I just sent photos to them and practically begged them to hunt their warehouses/stores for a 2nd pair as sold out online. They ended up writing me a really lovely email in response, gave me a refund and told me to keep them.

I complained to Morrisons once about ice lollies (on opening all the lollies had lolly sticks that were inserted so far you couldn't hold them, kids ended up having them in bowls), didn't expect any compensation as they were about a quid, got a £5 voucher...

I rang Argos after our new washing machine (black) arrived with scuffed up marks all down the side of the powder drawer. They offered replacement or £40 refund on the purchase price. I accepted the £40 and covered the scratches with black nail polish. Tbh I've always found Argos pretty excellent for replacing or refunding if I've had an issue with an item. Next were not so good! I had a bedframe delivered in the wrong colour and missing the frame footboard. They gripped and wheel spinned about collection and redelivery (on an unusable frame 🙄).

We went to a local restaurant for Xmas dinner a couple of years ago, 7 adults and 3 kids. We were booked for 5.45pm so we went in got seen to our table and since the food had been pre ordered we didnt mind the wait for drinks, eventually my dad and dh went to the bar and ordered drinks waiter brought them we asked about meals he said he would get someone to check our order, by 7.30pm still no starters my mum, sister and me had drunk 3 bottles of wine whilst waiting so we weren't bothered by the time we had finished dinner it was 9.00pm people were complaining and demanding compensation and were getting free drinks, we never complained, we made the most of it opened a box of sweets and a selection box, the poor staff were run off their feet 3 people had phoned in sick. When we went to pay they wouldn't take the money it should have been £700 ish. We did leave a really good tip though.
Moral of the story you get more when you don't complain.

Sorry Tesco again. My Mum bought me some sausages. She didn't check date as did not have her glasses on. When she gave them to me I noticed one looked green. The date was 10 days out of date. I took them back and was given refund and two packs of in date sausages.

I ordered a T shirt with character on front and personalised name message on back. They got the message correct but wrong character on front. They sent me another and said to keep the first one.

When I was heavily pregnant I was pushing my trolley in Tesco and there was a tear in their flooring which I hadn't seen, my trolley wheel caught in it and ricocheted off bouncing back into my bump. I had to to go to the hospital to be checked and I didn't even get.an apology.

I've received £500 and a hamper from a bank plus a hamper for them delaying a BACS payment for our house sale and generally giving me the run around when I tried to sort it out, £450 from a supermarket when their van damaged our drive, a free meal from a upmarket steakhouse when the person front of house made some low-key racist remarks, a £100 voucher from an airline for some terrible food. I used to work in customer service so don't complain for the sake of it, but when I think I have reason to I tend not to let it go for a while

I’ve always done it but only if it’s justified. I also send letters about great service and great members of staff. They send you little treats for that too. The best thing is that the member of staff often gets something nice

I've had £100 off Tesco when I was at university because a member of staff kept harassing me to give me his number and whilst I was polite initially the last straw was when he left the store and followed me to the bus stop to ask again. I didn't expect any compensation but just for a comment to be made to the staff member, because it made me feel like I didn't want to step foot in there ever again.

I'll complain if I feel that I've not received a service or that the service was significantly poor. I don't think I've ever expected compensation but it is often given. The key is to be respectful and understanding.

Some other examples are:

• Booking a restaurant to find it was closed for refurbishment when we arrives for our meal (£40 voucher for meal off)
• Ordering a item which turned out to be faulty but I had to drive to store to return (P&P refunded and small amount gift card)
• A boiler service being cancelled very last minute despite being booked for many months (partial refund of the boiler service packet)

To give him my number** that should say

Asda gave me £10 voucher after their staff was horrendous to me, I normally don't complain but I left the store in tears.

I found a long white hair in a frozen fish pie and I got a £3 voucher when I complained

They only paid it because they hope it will stop you making a personal injury claim against them. If you did you would get more than £150.

Hotel put us in a smaller room than the family room we had reserved. Probably double booked due to covid!

Would normally just get on with it but complained, got £100 back plus a meal in their restaurant. They were completely in the wrong and I am going to start complaining more when things like that happen.

I ordered a lot of ‘party’ food from M&S - (party being the wrong word as it was for a funeral wake.)

I had ordered everything to come the day before the funeral but I noticed that many of the items went out of date on the day of collection.

The items I bought usually come with a decent shelf life (e.g cold meat, pies, salads, cake etc).

I expressed my disappointment (and mild panic) when I saw the ‘use by’ dates and mentioned that it was for after the funeral the next day.

The store manager actually went round the shop with a trolly and picked out as many of items as she could from the shop floor and deli counter (big store thankfully).

As well as providing me with as many fresher substitutions as possible (several smaller packets but the same item) she refunded me the entire bill and told me to keep the original order.

She told me to freeze the soon to be out of date items and ‘enjoy them at a later date’ as they were obviously perfectly fine, just not as fresh as usual.

She was so kind. I was quite embarrassed & shocked at such a generous gesture but such an act of kindness was not unwelcome by any means.

Don’t know why I just called it the ‘wake’...
I meant funeral reception obviously!

BTW, this was many years ago but I still feel quite moved when I think of how insistent & lovely she was.