Getting free stuff from complaining

[Deleted User]

Be Warned - we complained in a posh restaurant about my gf's steak. She ordered it medium well, it came back, in my opinion (i've had steaks at very posh places) medium rare. So.. we sent it back. It came back as an abomination of steaks, quite nasty looking. Complained again... 10 mins later the chef walks out of the kitchen with the uncooked meat, to give us a less. We walk out a few minutes after quickly paying the bill.. gf's mum has a massive barney with owners, gf storms off to the car...

Be careful who you complain to!

tsharp

We ordered a sofa and chair from a big department store near us, the delivery took ages, then they wrote to tell us it would take even longer than expected. I emailed, and hinted i would get something from somewhere else and cancel my order with them and even suggested i should be compensated (cheaky), and they wrote back and gave me £100 off! Wahoo!

lil'H

My two best ones were when I found mu lettuce was full of bugs, took it back, plopped in onto the customer service desk who offered me a refund of the whole shopping bill on the reciept, think she just wanted to get me away so she could dispose of the thing as soon as possible!

Other one wasn't so much a complaint, but I had an old palm held pc (when I say old it was the size of the mini laptops you get now, so pre true palm held options!) Anyway brought extended warrentey, item cost £200, adn when it broke down a few weeks before end of warentee sent it in. They sent me a refund for £200 as the product was no longer availible, fair enoguh. However by then palm helds were the size of large phones, and I'd brought mine as it had word, and a usuable sized keyboard, it literally opened up and looked just like a laptop, I simply couldn't get one that big by then. Explained so they sent me an extra £40 for a plug in keyboard, I rang them to ask if there was anyway they could trace the product or find a similar thing as I didn't want to carry around a plug in keyboard, so instead they decided to give me £900 refund to buy a proper laptop, as they couldn't find anything that would do the jobs I'd brought my original one for! Result!

Lil'H

Dolly_Smith

o_Looby_o wrote:

I go away with my partner once a month or so and stay in a hotel for the weekend - We live about 300 miles apart and we meet half way. It's the only time we get to see each other.

One time I had an awful time with the hotel when I checked out. I later found out they over charged me (charing me for 3 nights instead of 2). Since my partner and I had been going to this hotel every month for approx 2 years I felt really annoyed that they gave me so much hassle when checking out (it was prepaid before we stayed and they didnt beleive me when I told them this at check out) and then had the nerve to overcharge!

I called the hotel straight away and they apologised and refunded the extra nights payment they took out.

But... I decided to write to them - Complaining at the service and attitude of the receptionist when I checked out. Not expecting anything, but I was in a bad mood!

I got a letter back from the hotel manager apologising and offering my partner and I a free night with brekkie inc at the hotel.

Great! I thought.. we booked our next weekend away and were pleased we only had to pay for 1 night instead of 2. Well......

When I got there, they couldn't do enough for me! Had the manager show me to my room! my bags carried etc.. and when they opened the door to the room, I realised they had given us the BIGGEST suite in the hotel!!! I was very impressed.

It always pays to complain in hotels - they obviously have their team meetings in the morning and say 'you'd better look after this customer, they ruck!'

We got upgraded once because the evening entertainment was right outside our window and it was supposed to be a family hotel. Not to worry that it finished at 9pm every night, a good few hours before the darling teen was in bed!

Hootie19

I am a firm believer in complaining if things are not right. I don't do it in a rude way though - that, I think, is counterproductive.

I have always written letters of complaint but ALWAYS start with a compliment, even if it's only a second hand one, e.g. I chose to use your company/product as my friend/mother/boss/cat/dog etc have always told me that your product/service etc was the best they'd ever used/eaten/received etc.

However, I was very disappointed to find . . . . . . . . .

and usually end up reiterating how marvellous their company/product is . . . . .
"I know that a company with such a good reputation will be as shocked as I was by my dreadful experience, and will want to do their utmost to put right the dreadful wrong to maintain their strong position in the marketplace".

I've had loads of "stuff" and vouchers.

I also write on an ad hoc basis praising companies/products/services, not because I'm after something, but because I believe in give and take. Usually, though, although it's not solicited, they "give" me something in thanks, and I am delighted to "take" it ;-)

Lady_S

Oh gawd,I am going to rock the boat now. I work for a national company in the complaints department and one thing we can spot a mile off is someone who is ringing to get something.

If you genuinely have a complaint, were dead happy to speak to you, if your after a cheap quid and moaning about something which is obviously made up, it doesn't go down too well.

Oh, and a tip, don't shout. I actually have an unlimited budget to resolve things ( strange to beleive I know) but there is no way I am throwing money at someone who is vile. However, lovely lady I had on today had about £150 out of me in the end, just because she was nice.

mandy6979

Quite a few years ago (6 or 7), my husband bought a 10 bottle case of Budweiser beer from Asda which came in a cardboard pack with a carry handle on top. When he was carrying it into the house from the car, the handle broke, beers smashed onto the kitchen carpet with only 2 or 3 escaping unhurt! The kitchen smelt like a brewery! We used my mum's little green machine for cleaning carpets which sucked up all the soaked in beer and all were left with was the beery smell which soon disappeared.

Anyway, I wrote to Budweiser explaining what happened. Told them that my crawling daughter couldn't crawl on the kitchen carpet because it stunk of beer (i lied!!) and told them that i had to get a professional carpet cleaner in to give the carpet a good old clean (also a lie!!). They replied with a very apologetic letter and enclosed 10 x £5 money off vouchers for Budweiser beer! Needless to say, my other half wasted no time in going back to Asda and stocking up with £50 worth of beer!! :beer:

Mandy.

tsharp

The only problem being that Bud tastes like p!ss.

CFC

Mirtos wrote:

Oh, and this week, I opened a bag of tesco rice to find it full of maggots. MAGGOTS :eek: I sense another complaint coming on.

I hope you kept the evidence. That's one of the most disgusting things I have ever heard of.

You should ask for a large amount of compensation for that one - delicately hint that if you are not satisfied with their total response to your complaint, you will be going to the papers as well as trading standards.

Maybe you should go to trading standards anyway.

hula-hoops

I also deal with complaints in a well-known company and can spot a mile off when someone's trying it on. We rarely send vouchers/free stuff to people - especially those that send very strongly worded complaints as genuinely dissatisfied customers would consider that an insult. My mum once complained about a holiday she went on and even said in her complaint that she didn't want vouchers or a free holiday with them because she would feel insulted and she would never travel with them again so would have no use for the vouchers/holiday. It's amazing how many people with 'complaints' that they consider serious enough to involve the media and Trading Standards can be bought with a few freebies or vouchers.

I cannot stand sarcasm or rudeness in complaints. I recently had one that said 'I know you must be inundated with complaints of this nature' - she got nothing back except a generic response letter.