Complaint Letter Successes

ikkle87

I complained to Lovefilm last week as I signed up through pigsback for the points but then wanted to cancel so I was just taking the free trial, but Lovefilm decided that they were going to take the payment after 6 days not after the 14 as advertised the girl on the phones was no help so I emailed saying if any money was taken and not returned immediately I would be reporting them to the advertising standards authority as they were giving incorrect info they emailed back saying they were sorry no money was being taken and that i could have an extra 2 rentals free of charge.


I want to complain to Empire stores/Sony Ericsson as i got a phone which arrived 16/2/08 and 4 of the buttons have cracked and one button has dropped off completely.

Cerenia

MummyHol wrote: »

I've had the exact same problem with these!!!

Me too! The first shave I did was awful, had to use gel as well, wasn't shaving properly, went to use it second time, both soap strips fell off.

ikkle87

ikkle87 wrote: »

I complained to Lovefilm last week as I signed up through pigsback for the points but then wanted to cancel so I was just taking the free trial, but Lovefilm decided that they were going to take the payment after 6 days not after the 14 as advertised the girl on the phones was no help so I emailed saying if any money was taken and not returned immediately I would be reporting them to the advertising standards authority as they were giving incorrect info they emailed back saying they were sorry no money was being taken and that i could have an extra 2 rentals free of charge.


I want to complain to Empire stores/Sony Ericsson as i got a phone which arrived 16/2/08 and 4 of the buttons have cracked and one button has dropped off completely.

Update: Sony Ericsson have offered to repair the phone for me and Empire are going to give me all of my money back.

Caveat_Emptor_4

No

I have found this thread very interesting indeed. I have worked in the Consumer industry for nearly 20 years; mainly in the customer service arena. Having read some of the posts here I wanted to give some input from "the other side", which I hope the readers will find useful.

1. Firstly I am very impressed by the majority of the posts here, which relate to legitimate complaints. My organization succeeds solely on customer longevity. It is therefore much better for us to know you have a problem and get an opportunity to resolve it than you walking away in disgust. Please keep reporting the real problems – good companies value this input and a chance to make things right with their loyal customers.
2. I am slightly worried to see the rapid complaint escalation used by some posters. If everyone immediately writes to the MD, then rather the MD will forward the stack of letters to their customer services to answer on their behalf rather than read them. I know this to be true, as once by mistake I allowed my name to be published on a forum and suddenly nearly a quarter of all customer letters started being sent directly to me, rather than our customer team (total letter volume overall remained the same – just more ended up on my desk). My recommendation would be to follow an escalation process as follows. First call or write to the Customer Service Team. If this fails to get the response you require then call and ask to speak to the head of customer services. If they also fail to resolve your problem then (and only then) contact a Board Director (Managing Director or Chairman the best). In this last letter make clear you have already contacted Customer Services and the Customer Service Manager. When such a letter reaches my desk (now thankfully very rarely) it gets my undivided attention and I will often personally review how the complaint has been handled by Customer Services in addition to resolving the problem itself.
3. I am very happy to see your strong stance against fraudulent complaints. There are several good reasons for this. Firstly, whilst there is no “Big Brother” website holding a list of fraudulent complainers that I know of – your customer account or records will list out your previous history. People whose records show they are “trying it on” do not get taken seriously for very long. Secondly, as the name suggests it is fraudulent. Companies can file a report with the Police. In one extreme case I have done exactly this and the fraudster involved ended up being interviewed under caution by the police. Not something they enjoyed especially as they were still living with their parents.
4. There is a real rise in a compensation culture in the UK and elsewhere. This is leading to increasing cynicism from companies who are being bombarded by claims for unreasonable levels of compensation. Please be realistic when writing a complaint. If you have a damaged packet of biscuits and you had to wait 5 minutes on the phone to speak to someone about it, then it is fine to ask for a full refund plus a reimbursement for your phone bill and your time. On the other hand, some customers are now asking for the above plus hundreds of pounds compensation for the emotional distress caused by the problem. I wish I was joking about this, but I a not. If you wish a complaint to be taken seriously then my advice is to in turn be reasonable in terms of what you expect. The phrase “Emotional Distress” in a letter or a call will ring alarm bells in most customer services departments, severely reducing the chance of your compensation request being taken seriously

I hope the above thoughts help people when speaking to companies about problems with products and services. Please keep complaining – it is the only way we can improve our service to you.

PS Before anyone asks, no I will not say which company I manage, nor will I give my name – please see point 2 for the reason why!

bunn

No

i got a 4 pound gift card from asda because of the cat food which just had jelly in and no meat!!!!!

CheeseCat

bunn wrote: »

i got a 4 pound gift card from asda because of the cat food which just had jelly in and no meat!!!!!

Although its not ideal, my lot would have loved that :rotfl:

I have recently complained to ASDA over some french rolls I bought from the bakery that had a hair BAKED into one of them :eek: I couldn't eat my lunch after I found it - I actually put the roll in my mouth before I found it... yuk

I wrote to them and enclosed the offending item as it made me so disgusted that I wanted them to see it too! I had no reply so on Sunday I emailed because I was annoyed at being ignored (I had sent the letter over a month before I wrote the email)

I got a reply yesterday from their customer service - the lady told me she would feel the same about not wanting to eat the rolls again and is sending me a "goodwill gesture" (hopefully not bread rolls!)

She didn't mention anything about the store being reprimanded - any idea if they would be? (I did name and shame the store in question) I said in my email that I hope they would be told to wear hairnets/hats like I had to when I worked in a bakery.

MummyHol

No

Further to my letter telling London Zoo what a great day out we all had on DS's 1st birthday- i got a package delivered with a giraffe mask and writing set for when DS is a bit bigger.

AND... yesterday a lovely lady called to make sure we got it and to say that she'd spoken to the director who was going to arrange it so that DS can feed the giraffes next time we go!! How brilliant is that?!

I'm well chuffed xxx

:T yay London Zoo xx

pennyocs

No

i had hagen daz ice cream that mut have defrosted and was all grainy and horrible so i emailed them and forgot all about it until about 2 months later i got 3 £4 vouchers which i then used to buy more hagen daz when it was half price in morrisons

ladsmadd

i sent nivea a email regarding some suncream, which had gone funny.Had a nice letter back saying sorry with £15 to replace the suncream.

AdeleBird

No

Recently emailed Quorn about a missing rasher in my pack of bacon! They posted me £5 of vouchers within about 2 days but the covering ltr stated there was also a £3 cheque but there wasn't ....

Do you think I should email and tell them to get my cheque or does this seem a bit moneygrabbing as already got £5 worth of vouchers which i WILL use!