LPT: Should you get a sub-par product, truly increase a grievance about it with the producer/provider
Sounds apparent however not sufficient folks appear to do that, typically corporations will likely be very happy to interchange, reship, refund or provide vouchers/freebies. I’ve had crates of beer (each bottle within the crate was flat), baggage of pet food (utterly powdered kibble), coupons/vouchers, all types. Most locations wish to maintain prospects joyful and if it is a real situation and you have got product codes and stuff they’re normally fairly first rate about it. Additionally sounds apparent however you possibly can increase the difficulty with the place you purchased it and the corporate that produced it for a possible double dip. It is easy to dismiss stuff like this however make some noise and also you may get a goodwill gesture out of it, simply be well mannered.
Comments ( 40 )
It works well with fast food corporations.
100% agree. And to add to this, if you buy on Amazon don’t raise the complaint with Amazon only. Usually the brand itself will be much more helpful and will try to rectify the situation (if they’re nice) rather than have you leave a 1 star review
One time I wrote subway to tell them that a store put too much water in their broccoli and cheese soup and it belongs on the drink menu. They wrote back pointing to something in their mission to provide the best *sandwiches*.
It was actually pretty funny because it was saying, yeah, well, don’t go to subway for soup you dingus. lol
Also do it because it makes it better for everyone else buying products. *Usually* something failed in the production or shipping chain and it’s not good for the company.
If they don’t fix it, leave that one star review so we’ll know.
This does not apply for Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
I don’t often get frustrated with off the shelf stuff, but I had bought 3 strawberry cheesecake pints at 3 different times only to find that they barely, if any had some gram cracker crumble, which is what really makes the product for me.
So I sent a light hearted complaint in, and they graciously sent me a coupon for $1 off a specific flavor of Icecream ( if you guessed strawberry cheesecake, you would be wrong) and a copy paste apology.
It’s been a while since I had any. I don’t anticipate quality has changed much.
Absolutely this.
American Standard toilet tank lid wasn’t fitting properly. Called them up, they sent me a new lid. That one didn’t fit as well. They are sending me a completely new toilet now, no charge.
Or they will ignore you entirely. Looking at you, Burt’s Bees.
I bought Kind brand ice cream bars once, a 6 pack sealed, that had 4 bars in it. I gave them the info on the box and they said they’d send a few coupons to make it even. This post reminded me that I never got them 🙁
I once did this with Chase bank, they issued a promotional offer that was super unclear and the language in the promotion made several “or” statements and not any “and” statements so I called them and said “I should be eligible for all of this money because I did one of the things on the promotion and you said all I needed to do was X OR Y OR Z and I did X.”
By the end of the call the manager and I were cutting up about it and I told him I didn’t really care to pursue the additional monies but that they should have legal review it.
Like two days later I get an automated email that went out to all the chase customers and they had fixed the language on it.
I complained after a roaster sent me 6-month-old coffee. They sent back an email several paragraphs long telling me I’m wrong and that mainstream information is ruining the customer’s perspective. So it’s not always the best track to take because sometimes you end up with assholes who don’t know what they’re talking about
My breakfast most days is Quaker instant oatmeal usually in the same handful of flavors and usually bought from the same two stores. One batch I got down to the last few packs in the box, but I happened to open one and prepare it and noticed something wrong. Something was moving inside the bowl.
There were ants that somehow got inside the packs, they weren’t moving very fast, they weren’t aggressive, and I don’t recall seeing any type of substance left over in the box indicating that there was a hole in a bag. Cuz even the smallest holes would allow some of the sugar and flavor mixture to shake out.
So I took a picture of it, went out back to dump it out, came back in to grab another bag, and this time I recorded myself opening it and dumping it into the bowl after shaking it at all four corners showing no leaks. So I start the recording, rip it open, dump it into the bowl, and there’s more ants. At that point I had one more bag left in the box, so I opened it as well, more ants!
I think they sent me enough coupons to get about 6 to 8 more boxes, it’s been a few years, can’t remember exactly. Definitely weren’t expired, no damage to the bags, no damage to the box, and no damage to me from possible ant ingestion.
I did this with a bad batch of Oreos and they gave me a form to fill out. I hope I get a free pack
Yep, I had a pair of boots that I wore daily for two years then the sole split right before the toe, sent a complaint about it and got a brand new pair. Second pair has lasted three years of daily wear (more like four and a half with time I was not out and about cause of covid). So I’ve effectively have gotten six years out of the price of a single set of boots.
I never got a refund when that guy treated me with contempt by putting copper ingots that were not good before my servant who walked through enemy territory to get them.
That doesn’t work with r/MintMobile. I’m out $600 for a phone that didn’t work.
This reminds me of the time that I got a can of Pringles and they were all broken. It was so sad. So I wrote to Pringles as a joke and was very sarcastic in it. But maybe looking back it didn’t come across as sarcasm.
But I got coupons for more Pringles. So I like that company a lot.
On a camping trip one time one of the guys got some beer. It tasted off and he called it in. Budweiser talked to him and determined that he had likely left the car of beer in the sun. Budweiser still hooked him up with a coupon for another car of beer and some freebies.
Recently I had a case of Monster energy drinks delivered with two damaged cans. Sam’s Club sent us another case. Essentially I got a case of energy drinks because two cans were damaged. Score!
I do this when I know the company generally has quality products and I know it’s a one-off or the shipping companies fault. They especially like to know if the shipper ruins something so they can track issues. If the delivery company is consistently giving them a bad name they’ll go with someone else.
So the side panel on my bed broke (nothing sexy happened, I just sat on my bed and the lip where the slats sit snapped) and I got in touch with the website who sold me the bed. Never heard back. Did a load of sleuthing and found the same bed being sold on another website, so I gave them a call to ask if they had any spare parts – they didn’t actually stock the bed, but gave me the manufacturers number.
So I called the manufacturer to ask if they had any spare parts and he said he would ask his manager if he could open one of the boxes but said it’s unlikely as they’d lose a bed – entirely fair enough and I did say don’t worry if it means that.
He called back the next day and said that instead of sending a new panel, he was able to have the part picked up and fixed instead! Bear in mind I’m a third party who didn’t buy it off them! Chuffed. It cost £60 instead of somewhere between £300-400 for a new bed frame, it would have been such a shame to get rid of the one I have because of the inside of the side panel being broken! Also, it took me 3 weeks to find this bed because I had a very specific vision.
Super happy, left them an excellent review on Google and I hope the man who helped me is well and having a good day.
I wrote to a fishing app – because the $20 yearly subscription was supposed to come with a $20 gift card. Instead it gave you a code for $20 off an order of $100. So a coupon not a gift card. Customer service gave me a $50 actual gift card for a better supplier.
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Counterpoint: don’t be a Karen hoping for free stuff. If you have an egregious situation, yes complain. If it’s just not perfect or a little inconvenience, live with it. No one likes a whiner.
Had this happen recently. I’m a massage therapist and I’ve used a certain cream for almost a decade. The last batch I got was different. I was genuinely curious if the company changed the formula, so I emailed them directly. They sent me a replacement gallon and I sent them a sample of my weird batch.
Always let them know. Often times the issue is in the supply chain. And they want to know. Often times they will try to make it right with you.
True. in high school we learned how to write a business letter and I wrote to a pickle company to air my displeasure at the discontinuance of the ‘pickle elevator’ (a small strainer device with a stem that lifted the pickles out of the brine).
To my surprise they actually wrote back to explain that the original company had been bought out by another, and they hadn’t been aware of such a device. They also said they would take adding one under advisement. Enclosed were manufacturer’s coupons for free pickles! It was awesome.
Same for restaurants. They want you to be satisfied. No one is served by you being silently unhappy. Remaking a meal is much cheaper than bad google reviews or the loss of a potential repeat customer.
“Dear Company:
I am a long time customer of <product> and have enjoyed <using/eating/drinking> PRODUCT for many years and have always found it to be a quality product. That was why I was so surprised when X was <defected>. I would appreciate if your company could replace the item.
Thank you,
Name
How can I make a complaint to my mother without slapping me because she made an inferior product.
I got tired of buying expensive running shoes, only to have the seams blow out after a month. Wrote an email to the manufacturer- They sent me a new pair, and stated that they appreciated the feedback so they can pass the info on to the designers. I will stick with a company that backs their product like that
I think this goes double for startup/wmaller companies. I eat a snack bar that is starting to gain some steam (Bobos, they’re oat bars and they rock). I had ordered them a few times and I had one box where a few of the bars were super dry. I took a closer look and there was a tiny hole in the plastic packaging around the bar, so it clearly had trouble sealing and dried out. I reached out to their customer service being pretty clear I wasn’t trying ti fish for a refund, gave them the lot number on the package, and they gave me a refund anyway.
I feel like if a new customer had gotten that box, it would have given them a worse impression of the product and could have lost them a customer. You can do them a favor without demanding something from them and they’ll probably do the right thing anyway.
I just bought a grill and the top had some dents. I figured I could live with it. But then I thought it’s brand new and it wasn’t cheap maybe I should see if they can give me a discount or a new top. One polite phone call later and they sent me an entire second grill. JUST ASK that’s all it took.
And for the love of god, don’t threaten the person you speak to. Be kind. It’ll get you further.
This is actually an amazing LPT. I do this quite a bit for bad products or something that broke that had a “lifetime warranty”. My wife had a Melnor water hose sprayer that she had since before we were married. It was broken, and I knew they had a lifetime warranty. I went on their site and filed a claim. They sent a brand new one. All you gotta do is ask!
This has been true to me with most manufacturers. Not so much with Amazon orders because some products are just so bad/false advertising, etc. even if it has many good reviews. In those cases, I return the item. Amazon can take it up with the supplier after that.
We bought one of the aluminum roll top camping tables, and when it came, the top was scratched up and had a number of black marks on it. I contacted the retailer we bought it from – they sent a replacement and didn’t want the original back. I didn’t know my husband had contacted the manufacturer directly- they also sent a replacement and didn’t want the original back (they did ask for pictures though).
So we now have three roll top camp tables – all of which now have some scratches and marks on them (mostly because our friends can be idiots).
I did but comcast only changed there name to xfinity 🐱
By reporting issues, you can also help keep other customers safe by helping the company identify if something is going wrong with their processes. I called my grocery store after opening a frozen pizza because it was clear it had unthawed and then been refrozen at some point. They took down as much information as I could give them about the pizza I’d bought so they could figure out how that had happened and make sure none of their customers would accidentally eat food that hadn’t been transported safely. I got vouchers for two more pizzas after sending them the info.
To your point they can’t fix their product if they don’t know what’s wrong with shipments
If you find a foreign object in your [noun], it might have originated in your own domain. Case in point: While I was eating Breyer’s ice cream, I found a tiny mushroom-shaped bit of metal. I did not write to Breyer’s, but was going to. A day or 2 later, I found my ice cream scooper was missing a part. No need to let Breyers know.
it also allows a company to check to see who was working production and quality assurance the day the product was produced (if you provide the batch#) so they can retrain or address lapses in their product’s quality. They’ll usually send you a coupon or two for some free products to stay on your good side.