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!! 💖

@SuperbGorgonzola

At the moment DH is wrangling with Vodafone after they've continued to charge us for broadband every month for four months since we cancelled. He's rung every time it happened, spending hours on hold, and they've apologised and told him this time it's definitely cancelled, but each month the money has gone out again. They've not offered anything.

Vodafone are fucking shit. They allowed my sil who was one of their employees to renew a contract in my name and run up a debt of £1000 pounds once she left the company. She had managed to get into my account, change all the details including bank details, address, email. We only found out when I took out 2 new sim only deals. I still don't know exactly how she managed it and even after I went into shops and proved who I was and that I hadn't renewed the contract, I still had to pay the debt.

A couple of years ago I complained about how my car insurance claim was handled. We had been hit from behind in low-speed traffic on the motorway during the Christmas period. It was a clear cut no-fault claim.
It took nearly 5 hours of being on hold to actually speak to someone as they had skeleton staff as it was between Christmas and New Year. The claim was made and they sent me a hire car etc but I had to keep chasing them as the garage had not collected my car for inspection after 3 days then on the 5th day they decided it was a total loss (still on my drive and unseen) and said they were collecting the hire car the next day! They finally collected my car for scrapping and I was still waiting for payment, I was told that they were still waiting for the other party's insurance to admit liability or they would have to charge me the excess fee, I had to politely inform them that THEY were the other party's insurers too . Then when I finally received my payment it was short by the excess amount when I called back the department that dealt with it was closed for the weekend so I asked to open a complaint and told them how fed up I was of their incompetence!
On Monday I rang back and they admitted they had missed ticking a box and would send me a cheque for the difference straight away.
A couple of days later I received a call from the complaints department, apologising for the problems and it was clear from the call log that the claim had been mishandled and as such they were sending me a cheque for £100 for the inconvenience.
I could probably have proceeded and got more but by this point, I was just sick of dealing with them and accepted it and will never use them again!

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion take them to the ombudsman

Got my £4.95 next day delivery charge back from boots because the parcel took 3 days to arrive!

@throwaway100000 we did but they wouldn't help. My other sil also works for Vodafone and she advised on on how to take it further but basically we would have had to go to the police and I was worried what would happen to my neice. She doesn't have the best life as it is, so I didn't want to make the financial situation worse.

I got a main meal free once for honestly answering to how I liked it (not a lot). I was only being honest, wouldn't have mentioned it if they hadn't asked and certainly didn't expect anything. The friends I was with thought this was very cheeky as I'd eaten every last scrap and like to remind me of it years later!

Have thought very kindly of that place ever since

Took a pair of boots in to Russell and Bromley for repairs as the sole had come apart. Didn’t complain but the assistant took one look and replaced them with a new pair. Was rather surprised and of course happy.

Received money from a bank after pointing out they had left me on an international line for about 20 minutes. Wasn’t expecting anything but just wanted them to get on with it!

Free coffee when I accidentally dropped mine - I was completely at fault for being clumsy and protested as it was my fault but they insisted.

Amazon refunded money as I had ended up subscribed to Prime and cancelled it as soon as I noticed it on my statements. Explained in customer survey that I had mistakenly signed up. Wasn’t seeking anything but got a lovely email and refund.

Most gobsmacking upgrade I ever got is as follows.
I had a client who flew a member of staff to Canada to buy a whole load of iPads. Why? You could only take two with you out of the US but Canada didn’t care how many you took. The dollar price was the same as the pound price so they actually saved money with the quantity they brought in. I had one from this batch. A week later I dropped it onto a flagstone floor and smashed the screen. It was still operational but broken. I was unsure if it was worth making an insurance claim so I contacted my local Apple store to find out the cost of a repair.
I booked an appointment with a member of the Genius Bar and turned up at the appropriate time. The member of staff took my iPad from me, plugged it in and ran some diagnostics. He said (genuinely with tears in his eyes) ‘You’ve only had this for a week, you must be devastated’. I explained that it was only a device and not my firstborn and that I was looking for a ballpark repair cost before making, or not, an insurance claim. He’s response was to ask if I had it backed up, I said yes and he produced another iPad from under the counter. He handed it to me and said ‘this is yours’. I asked again how much the repair would be and he said ‘This is your replacement iPad, there is no charge’.
I had to sit down outside the shop for 20 minutes to actually be able to process what was happening!

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion wow, I’m sorry you had to go through that. You sound like a kind and caring person for putting your niece first

I once picked up a sandwich from a hot food counter in Tesco that promptly gushed hot grease right down my brand new coat . I went to customer service and they asked me to send them my proof of purchase. When I did I received the money back for my coat . I ''twas then able to replace it . I was super impressed.?

We checked into a hotel for FPs birthday last year. Got to our room and when dp opened the door someone else was already in it!

Nipped back to Reception to explain and the lady on the desk was ott sorry. We weren't arsed and said so - she was amazed and said she'd been screamed at for much less

We got upgraded to a suite, drinks vouchers for the bar and free breakfast.

The suite was totally wasted on us as we were there to get drunk in the city, have a dance and a hotel filth shag. Much appreciated though!

about 4 years ago complained to Legoland after an AWFUL 2 day break there. They sent me free tickets and free unlimited q bots! We had an amazing day but kind of proved my point, Legoland is only as fun as how much you can spend there
Halifax gave me £100 once as they kept messing up my new card. 2 were sent that didn't work!

@SockQueen they must make a habit of it. DH and I had completely the same thing a few years ago - we got a case of wine as an apology!

@5foot5

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.

You must not have anything else to do.... petty things to complain about.

I got stopped by a member of staff in a supermarket petrol station, he said I hadn't paid, I said I had and I had the self service receipt to prove it. I complained and got a £25 gift voucher.

Yes I have.
I once got drenched while having a pedicure by an inexperienced member of staff...and I mean soaked right through to my underwear.

I didn't complain at the time because I felt sorry for her, but I called the following day and spoke to the manager.
I got an open voucher for any treatments I wanted for 2 people on a future booking.

I've received financial compensation (around £1k) for an item of clothing that transferred dye onto my skin and it lasted several months.

There gave been other times I've had compensation, but the above 2 came to mind.

I really don't complain unless I have a good reason to and I have evidence to support my complaint.

Having previously worked in the hospitality industry, I hate unnecessary complaining.

The (highly professional) sister of a guy I was dating bought a top price turkey from Tesco, fed the family on Christmas Day and really enjoyed it, then went back to the store and complained so gut a full refund! Her brother thought it was fantastic and was so proud of what she’d done. End of relationship - I couldn’t cope with that sort of dishonesty.

last year for christmas my son was desperate for a pikachu cuddly that made noises and lit up when squeezed. come christmas morning he opened it and only one cheek lit up and my son was so disappointed. i emailed amazon and they refunded my money, told me to keep the one that didn’t work, sent me a replacement pikachu the very next day, and also added a light up charmander as compensation. my son was over the moon!

I was once (back in the Olden Days) shopping in Waitrose and picked up a 2litre bottle of, I think, lemonade. As I did so it burst and the contents went everywhere, including over me. It was such a ridiculous thing to happen that I fell about laughing. (The dress I was wearing was machine washable so no cleaning problem.) A staff member was nearby and mopped me up. Later, at the checkout a staff member gave me a bunch of flowers to say thank you for not making a fuss.

Whenever I complain I get the cost of the rubbish item refunded. No more, no less. I once had a disgusting rubbery chicken from Sainsbury's that ruined our Sunday dinner. I genuinely thought a refund plus a small voucher (£10 or something) would be coming my way to compensate. Nope, just a refund of the exact amount the chicken cost.

3 times stand out.
1.Son was in Tesco beside the flowers and the shelf broke, he was soaked. So they gave him new clothes and i got a voucher a few days later.

2.In a hotel and the room they gave us was way too small and it was in the middle of a heatwave.
We complained and got a 100 euro worth of food free,changed rooms as well.

3, Was at a Christmas do a few years ago.Show,dinner and an overnighter.

They seated us bang right in the middle of a huge column.Most of us couldnt see the show.

I went and spoke to the manager,got our rooms refunded and 2 free drink for everyone.

I wrote a letter when I was ten to Claire's asking if they were thinking about doing a catalogue, they replied saying no but sent me two goodie bags!

And once I opened a packet of beef jerky and it was mouldy, I messaged the company and they sent me ten packs

Tampax as a student. I bought a box and none of the paper coverings were sealed! They wrote back reassuring me it wasn't a hygiene risk and sent me £20 in vouchers iirc.
Premier Inn refunded our stay when they had to close the kitchens unexpectedly due to urgent building works.

Yes, most companies and brands do offer compensation for complaining. But it is wrong to do it as a 'hobby' if you really have nothing to complain about just to get free stuff. It means the companies may have to stop giving anything in genuine cases.

After fighting fray bentos steak and kidney pie tins and breaking a couple of tin openers my OH emailed them and all he did was ask them which tin opener they reccomended for opening their slanty tins they went one better and sent us a brabantia tin opener which i still use two years later