Great 'Who Pays Compensation If You Ask?' Hunt

Gray0103

Sky
£150 for puting staples through my alarm cables and I subsequently had to call out an alarm engineer to reset and check the whole system.

melaniec_2

I am one of the worlds complainers but generally only when a big company gets it wrong.

Earlier this year we brought a wardrobe from Ikea, there were a number of problems with our purchase the details of which I won't bore you with but they were appalling at putting it right. After 3 months we made the 50 mile round trip into the store because you cannot speak to the store unless they call you and they don't like doing that.

We got hold of a manager who was very nice and apologetic but their compensation offer was a free meal and £5 for petrol. After telling him that was an insult and that he'd only had the short version of what had happened but I was quite happy to give him all the details if he had an hour, he gave us £100 in vouchers! My boyfriend was impressed, although it took us another 3 months to face going back to spend it.

My tip would be to stay calm, be polite and don't accept an offer if you really don't think it would cover what you've spent in calls, petrol and lost time etc. It is also worth finding out the name of the MD and writing directly to him/her they don't usually get to hear about problems.

fredmarkone

I had a poor experience collecting a rental car from Dollar at Orlando Sanford airport a while back - a 90-minute wait in 100F heat due to lack of staff and the first car I finally got had a faulty seat adjuster so I couldn't drive it. All was sorted out but once back in the UK I emailed customer services and Sanford Airport's management to complain. The airport management never replied but Dollar offered a $US80 refund (2 days' hire, roughly). They accidentally sent out-of-date vouchers at first, apologised again when I emailed the agent handling my case and then sent a $90 cheque - the extra $10 to cover bank handling fees in the UK. Needless to say, I'll probably rent Dollar again - they promised to speed up check-in when large charter planeloads of Brits arrive.

tonyivb

My Dell PC arrived with the wrong monitor... at first they said it was a substitute as the one I had ordered was out of stock for 3 weeks. I managed to get them to send me a (slightly) higher spec monitor instead, but refused to let them collect the old one until I had been compensated for all the hassle/phone calls/having to be at home. After many phone calls they gave me 10% off my order which equated to £120... result!

Dnew_2

I ordered a telly on Tesco's website, which went missing via parcelforce. It took many phone calls to sort out and Tesco have an 0870 number. I complained that they were earning money whilst I was trying to sort out what was happening, and was refunded £5.

THFC

Got £50 off my bill in addition to what was over paid-

Turned out i had 2 accounts at my new address, after telling them something was wrong, i had been charged £180 too much, 4 months later they sorted it out.

I Said i was writing to the chairman in my final letter.

Lot of hassle for their mistakes though

derrick

Needed to phone Norwich Union about transferring a personal pension from another company into my PP with them, the guy I spoke to had to go and ask someone else every time I asked a question, (Indian call centre), was on the phone for 1½ hours and did not get my queries answered, phone again day after, another ½ hour with no answer, 2 days later phoned another number, got all my Qs answered, (by someone in England), then asked for £150 compensation, this was credited to my bank account 10 days later with profuse apologies.

basmiles

basmiles wrote:

I'm currently in dispute with a credit card company and a mobile phone company. I would expect at least £100 in compensation from each.

basmiles

A result on the credit card problem where I was asked to suggest a figure for compensation - after all charges were refunded. Suggested £110 and a £110 credit reached my account. Now to follow up with the phone company...

basmiles

steve_cov

Abbey National offered me £100 for a catalogue of errors which took many hours to sort out, including a payment made on cancelled standing order taking me into overdraft, mailing me the incorrect forms for my needs and a plethora of inaccurate information and lame excuses from their call centre.

In the circumstances, I thought £100 was generous; I was expecting about £50, for out-of-pocket expenses such as calls and postage - and only a small acknowledgment of inconvenience.

I've still closed my account there, though!

clark1982

basmiles wrote:

As a 'professional' complainer I bring in around £600 a month from complaints. I travel a lot for work so a great deal of these relate to airlines and hotels. I've just had a refund of £650 from Hilton for a poor stay with many errors, £250 from a US hotel for an error in the rate a couple of weeks ago, £270 for a security alert in another US hotel a few weeks before that. On airlines I've had a free upgrade to first with BA due to their catering dispute, a free trip on Concorde - bought with 100,000 BA miles I was given due to a previous problem. I've scored over £500 from my bank in the last year for mistakes, my Amex Platinum annual fee (£275) has been waived. Most of my clothes are bought by insurance or airline compensation for delayed luggage - always look for complicated and tight airline connections. I'm currently in dispute with a credit card company and a mobile phone company. I would expect at least £100 in compensation from each.

Of course I also play the free balance transfer game investing the money in an ISA and high paying deposit accounts and use a cashback credit card. I'm also a seriel collector of Tesco extra points - I now have enough for my £1,500 watch from Goldsmiths (£375 of Tesco vouchers).

I've kept a record for most of this year and have received around £5,000 in cash or cash equivalent benefits from complaints and careful use of offers.

basmiles

I think your sad.. is your life so boring that you don't have anything else to do!