Great 'Who Pays Compensation If You Ask?' Hunt

gazza975526570

If youve got a complaint then complain definately.

I ALWAYS send a letter typed up and personally addressed to the CHief Executive.

State what the problem was and what exactly you want. Be cheeky - lots of people hate resolving complaints so will pay you off to go away.

If your not happy write back asking for their regulatory body (of they have one) or say you will write to them if your not happy with their next response.

Compensation recd:

Next £200 - faulty pictures
Brewesrs Fayre - £50 - poor meal and service
Phillips - £130 - TV broke down outside of warranty
Various mobile companies - poor service
Supermakets - usually vouchers of smallish amounts but much more than the cost of a stamp
Boots, Debenhams - vouchers for poor service
NPower - £30 poor service
Many others also. Its all to do with brand loyalty - say you will go elsewhere and they want to keep you as a customer.
If for shopping state how many kids/pets etc (dependent upon what your claiming for!!!)

stephenandlynn

I recently had a fault on my BT line and asked them to transfer incoming calls to my mobile (at their expense). When the next bill came through I had charges of £4.70 (£5.52 incl VAT) so I asked for this to be refunded. They agreed and then sent a cheque for £5.04. I rang for an explanation as to why they had deducted 48 pence. They had no reason and said they would send this by cheque. Shortly afterwards a cheque for £56.40 arrived. I can't be bothered to tell them they are wrong a thrid time!

humfer

Over the past few years I have been actually very impressed that when pressed for compensation, companies do on average tend to pay up. I had compensation from the likes of Sky (sky + box software issues), Nationwide (mortgage payment collection issues), Wimpey (a whole load of new house issues), First Direct (transferring DD from existing bank), Tesco (messing up life insurance clubcard points), etc. etc..

Tips would be just to keep to the facts, and if things start going wrong get a diary written of who you spoke to when - this is fundamental when complaining about poor customer service. Also remember to not get too het up, keep it professional and never have a go at the people your speaking to whose company you have a problem with. They in most cases will not have done anything wrong and will normally try their best. So just keep calm and to the point and you cannot go wrong. At the end of the day, most companies want an easy life and to keep valued customers, so its in their benefit as well to keep us all happy

Epiphone

smashing wrote:

I advise them that a bid on eBay is a legally binding contract,

It isn't.

smashing wrote:

It's a Monday afternoon, and I fill out a claim for £220 online (including £30 court fee).

Tuesday it's processed by Northampton County Court. They mail out the summons.

Wednesday morning the summons arrives at the eBayer's house.

Wednesday lunch time I get an e-mail saying the cheque is in the mail.

The cheque for £220 arrives the next day.

If they called your bluff and went to court you would probably have lost. The Courts like to see you've tried all possible efforts before initiating proceedings. E.G written to the person giving them a timeframe etc.

Plus, with it being an eBay transaction they offered to buy then changed their minds. Despite eBay's best efforts their online 'rules' aren't actually law.

patmit

we recently bought a new kitchen from Homebase, we had loads of niggly problems ranging from wrong colour plinths and pelmets being sent, to damaged items taking time to replace, this meant many phonecalls and delay in completing the kitchen and the fitter being messed about. we complained instore and initial offer was declined we held out and voila 10% off the total bill and our kitchen fitters extra charge to boot. Well done Homebase!

HappySad

Anyone out there good at getting money back from Online Supermarket.

I regularly complain for poor service.. late delivery, wrong food delivered, wrong description on the site for the food delivered (e.g. extra lean organic when you can only get lean organic ). Keeping damaged food without paying. Food box was covered in oil (oil broke in bag)... got the food for free.

Please let me know all possible ways of complaining for online food shopping. What sort of poor service have you MSEer pointed out?

HappySad

I got money for a new washing machine. Took >2month under British Gas to fix it .. so complained. Got registered with the complaints department who did nothing. Then asked for the same of the person who would provide us with a temp machine while mine was being fixed. Gave name but no number. So my partner googled his office email address and emailed his with the complaint. To cut a long story short. I got a new Bosh washing machine with free delivery .. they took my old machine and only paid £100 for it. They offered an amount and I said I would accept if they increased the amount.

articmonkey_2

Not exactly compensation but similar ...
- i complained to Apple about my laptop needing a new 'logic board' just 3 months out of warranty and they very kindly paid for the part! Which at £309 + vat was fairly substantial. I paid only £50 for the labour.
RESULT!!
I have had so much trouble with NTL recently also - trying to get them to transfer our broadband and phone services when we moved house.
They simply do not know what they are doing. Set up 2 dates for them to come and nobody came out either time - we have wasted so much time and money on our mobile phones trying to sort out their mistakes. Finally they have now managed to get us connected (3wks late) and are giving us broadband at £9.99 a month for 6 months instead of it being 17.99 (1MB).
Also giving us talk unlimited 24 free for 6 months and are refunding the calls we had to make to them.
Not as nice as a cheque, but will do.

Helen_from_yorkshire

Had problems with Abbey earlier this year ... had a fixed rate monthly saver account at a good rate of interest and, when queried with branch staff what was available once the fixed rate ended, I was told that I would continue to receive a good rate of interest if I transferred at least £20 per month. I needed to do nothing as the DD from my Abbey current a/c remained in operation from the time of the fixed rate.

This did not happen ... the payments had been set up for a time limited period to end when the fixed rate came to an end but wasn't informed. When complained to the Manager, as a goodwill gesture, he offered to send either a hamper, wine or flowers - opted for the hamper, very nice too!

gromituk

basmiles wrote:

Actually, the flights I take are always valid connections on one itinary so the airline(s) are saying that there should be no problem with both me and my luggage making a connecting flight.

Of course. No one's denying that. After all, if it weren't the case, you wouldn't be able to claim compensation! Don't cloud the issue though - your previous words make your motives abundantly clear:

always look for complicated and tight airline connections

As a 'professional' complainer I bring in around £600 a month from complaints.