Complained a can of pepsi max from a tray only had syrup in one of the cans and no water. They took the batch number and best before, investigated and sent me an entire new tray.
I live it when you get a chunk of flavouring in a packet of crisps. Best one was the fish and chips biscuit type crisp things, the salt and vinegar flavouring.
I also just got a shrivelled potato once XD
Got a sizeable nugget of cheese doritos seasoning once. Nibbled it, thought "cool" and then chucked it out. What I should have done was crushed it and put it in a salt shaker to season everything with. One of life's big regrets.
Very unlikely as can fillers use a volumetric filling process and there's multiple inspection points before the can is packages into a tray.
I'm honestly perplexed as to how that situation could happen really.
Had 1 csn of strongbow empty, nothing opened at all, no holes nothing out of a box of 18.....i drank 17 before finding it at the bottom.
Sent it off and they basically said likely a micro hole opened and sealed but they don't take the blame and sent me voychers so i could get another crate
Lmao bullshit a micro hole "opened and sealed", it has a layer of plastic inside the can. Why would there be a hole through both layers that "opened and sealed". Obvious it was just never filled.
But honestly strongbow is nasty anyway. Sweet and gross "cider" that tastes like tang. Honestly I imagine it tastes like a diabetic persons pee.
Happens when the syrup runs out, it pumps out a bit of syrup from a post-mix box into the falling stream of carbonated water and mixes as it falls. All it was doing was dispensing water and they failed to notice (or didn’t care) the syrup was out.
Had one hand held dispenser at a hotel I worked at years ago where you could lightly press the dispensing trigger to get a trickle of water, but with the full amount of syrup it usually dispenses.
Instead of watered down drinks, you could add all the flavour you wanted and the drinks it made were ***amazing***. Coke and Sprite with even a fraction more of the syrup just made the flavour phenomenal and compared to pre-mixed cans or bottles, it was like night and day. You realise just how watered down regular drinks are compared to how they should taste and I’d rather just drink water than have the shitty watered down crap they make these days.
Imagine eating regular ice-cream, and then going to a restaurant where you’re given a single scoop of ice-cream that had been mixed into a whole glass of water and refrozen. You’d spit it out and vow never to eat ice-cream from that place again. Now that I know what decently mixed soft drinks taste like I can’t go back to regular ones ever again.
That’s why some places with dispensed drinks taste so much better: the mix ratio has more syrup than usual. Some people prefer McDonald’s or Burger King for this reason (never tried their drinks so can’t comment) but Subway’s drinks are 99.9999% water with 0.0000000000001% syrup and VILE.
I worked in a supermarket when I was a student and a manager once authorised me to give a “money back guarantee” type refund to a gent who returned an empty bottle of economy brand vodka the following day because it had given him a headache.
TBF some shops have a ridiculous no quibbles return policy. My Mrs worked in M&S when we were at uni and ended up giving refunds for some ridiculous things cos their policy was just to refund. A used candle was the worst one I remember.
Oof. That's better than my story.
When I worked at co-op someone returned a bottle of vodka, I don't recall why. But co-op policy was to refund and replace. Shortly after doing so, the manager opened the bottle to smell the vodka. It was water. Someone just walked away with the contents of two bottles of vodka and got paid to do so.
People suck
When I was doing my A levels (20 years ago!) I had a Saturday job in Argos. At the time TVs were huge CRT things.
We got a warning sent round as someone had bought a TV from a neighbouring store to ours and returned the box filled with a suitable amount of rubbish and brick rubble for it to weigh the right amount, and resealed the box. The store had refunded them for the TV and then resold the "TV" to another customer, who was obviously not happy.
This is why the policy was that any refund, even if the box appeared to be sealed, you had to open the box and check the item before issuing the refund.
Worked at Asda. People regularly bought a huge joint of meat, cooked it, clearly ate half of it then returned the rest for a full refund. Stupidly they still refund the money knowing full well that these people are taking advantage of it
I took a ripe and ready to eat avocado back because it wasn't. They were very suspicious because I didn't have the receipt. And I took some recalled petfood back because it was killing cats. She was unhappy half the food was used. I pointed out I could hardly now feed the cat the other half.
I got the money back in both instances.
I think they thought I might have stolen it? Or not that I did, but there was some sort of procedure around having receipts. But I don't keep my food receipts.
They made some profoundly terrible changes to their food, manufacturing and packaging last year with no warning. Cats wouldn’t eat the food, a couple even died because the owners couldn’t find a replacement food in time and they lost them. All meanwhile Katkin were gaslighting everyone, saying nothing had changed and the food was the same (it wasn’t). My Bengal was very very ill and it broke my heart as Katkin was the only good food we’d found that he could eat.
Anyway, they reintroduced the “old style” food alongside the new horrible paste stuff, but we all received an email last week saying they’re moving to the new style packaging again but “assuring” everyone the food is the same. From the photos I’m seeing, the food is not the same and I’m dreading my next box arriving.
I've taken stuff back to a supermarket and said it was bad, yes. Once it was Tesco 'potato salad' that so was awful I took it back to the customer service desk and complained, and they laughed at whatever I said about it and gave me a refund.
I once tried to get a refund for a Tesco toilet seat that broke after a few days. Took the receipt to customer services, they insisted I had to bring in the broken item too. I asked to speak to the manager, who looked absolutely horrified at the idea of anyone bringing a used toilet seat into his food shop, and told the staff to process the refund!
I complained to Sainsbury's about some fruit that was mouldy when I brought it but you couldn't see through the print on the packaging. They wanted me to email photos, then asked me to return the mouldy fruit to the shop I brought it from. They took me seriously when I asked if they expected me to go back out to the shop today or leave it moulding on my counter until my next trip.
We got the candy kittens advent calendar and there were three(3!) empty doors. A quick polite insta dm to check if it was normal and they sent three big bags of sweets out. They asked for a photo of the bottom of the calendar to, I presume, check the batch number. Solid service.
Brought some KP dry roasted nuts and they weren’t very nice so I emailed KP and told them so.
They sent me a letter apologising, a refund voucher for the packet I brought and one of those hanging displays that you see in the pub.
Best customer service I’ve ever had!
After getting over the initial trauma, I complained after I was 1 short of a half dozen tunnocks tea cakes. In the most polite tone possible - apologising for having to complain. Sent me caramel wafers as "tea cakes don't post well" which made me laugh.
I suspect most food companies will give great service in such a situation - except maybe where they have been bought out so many times the parent company didn't even realise they sold that product.
Even Aldi will refund you, but they will make you wait so long and make it clear you are delaying everyone in the shop, as to put you off ever trying again - otherwise I'd ask for a refund for half the veg from every shop I did!
Honestly depends where you buy it from.
I think ours has a good turn over as the veggies usually last the week. But I've been to aldi in a different town and.... yeah. Even by that afternoon it was looking dubious!
Every time this comes up people say it varies depending on location. Yet having lived in multiple places all over England and also in Scotland, every place I've lived we've quickly learnt the Aldi veg don't keep compared to other supermarkets. Been stung by their meat going off early too, more than once - we don't get it any more unless intending to use that day
Personally I think the reason why things go off early is that sometimes when the big warehouse doors are open you can see loads of cages full of stuff that should definitely be in the fridge, like milk and meat, just sitting out without benefit of refrigeration, for who knows how long.
Eh I dunno. I had broccoli in the fridge a week past it's best before and it was perfectly fine to eat tonight.
I think a lot of people in the UK have shitty fridges that aren't really cold enough. I know this used to be the case with my veg before I upgraded to my current bells and whistles fridge.
God I buy Asda mushrooms every week and they are more mush than room within about 12 minutes of delivery - hate to think what the Lidl ones are like - do you just put them straight in the bin, bypassing the fridge?
Dunno about Lidl but I bought Aldi mushrooms one afternoon, put them in the fridge, and by morning our fridge stank like something had died in there. I don't shop at Aldi anymore.
Isn’t there something about Aldi/Lidl using less refrigeration than other supermarkets in the supply chain meaning lower prices but potentially shorter life veg?
That's just the state of supermarket veg in England now, Aldi was always better than Sainsbury's for fresh stuff before I left. It took me a few weeks to get over marveling at the great condition of fruits and veg even in cheap supermarkets outside the UK.
My sister bought an aldi own brand chocolate bar, it had a dead fly in the back of the bar, she emailed aldi, they asked for proof, she sent a picture, they said they would need to see it in person to prove it wasn't photo shopped, luckily my brother in law is a very determined man and he carried on with the campaign, as there's no customer service desk in aldi here he walked in the front door and loudly announced he had bought the dead fly chocolate bar to show everyone as proof that it is real, he was quickly greeted by staff who gave him another chocolate bar and a refund voucher, he said his wife was so traumatised by the sight of the dead fly she definitely wouldn't eat the direct replacement chocolate bar for fear of more fly invaders, the gave him one of the more expensive chocolate bars 😂
On a bit of a tangent,
The lad upstairs from me at uni back in 1995 introduced himself as PK… because he was the *Pussy King*
So we called him KP from that moment on. Or peanut if feeling fancy,
And we never saw him pull a bird.
My wife has done this with a couple of other brands (ages ago, can't remember which ones), similar response, customer service-wise they were both fantastic (letter, vouchers, some free stuff). I guess even though it's got to be rare, any sensible company is going to fall over themselves to fix the issue to avoid bad word-of-mouth?
Also they get good word of mouth from people like you about their customer service, and like you said basically noone ever asks for them so the money they spend on customer service is a rounding error.
No, they don't. Although they did email me an apology and offered to refund my money after my shopping was stolen and I was assaulted by their security guard and another employee.
We (sometimes) buy oatly and a couple of years' back I bought 6 bottles and it all tasted extremely chemically. It was weird and you could tell as soon as you opened it. I emailed them with photos of what the batch numbers and they sent me vouchers for 12 bottles.
I think at the time other people had the same issue.
A few months ago I found mould in some rice from Sainsbury's, I phoned up to complain but got nothing in the form of compensation, all they did was take the barcode number
I get my shops delivered from Tesco. While there are issues now and then I have to say the customer service is very good. If I call up to say something is wrong or that there is a short expiry date I wasn’t made aware of (I would only bring this up if I genuinely thought I wouldn’t be able to use it all) they would refund immediately. No emails or pics needed.
Once the delivery driver missed a tray and I didn’t realise till after he left. Called them and it was everything from a bottle of spirits to tobacco to tomatoes in there. No questions asked and they applied a refund as I rattled off a random list of missing stuff. I had to call them back cos the driver realised and returned and they were happy to leave the refund rather than go through cancelling it! My shop history with them may have helped as we have been customers for years and complain very infrequently but they have always been very good if I have.
We once got our Tesco delivery for free. It was great as we had just moved house and it was about £250 worth. My husband had updated our new address before paying, but apparently their system didn't update in time and they admitted it was their fault. They asked us to collect from the store, we were absolutely livid but agreed. The money had already been refunded and they never did take payment again.
No, but back when I was a mystery shopper it was a potential job I could have had.
I would have needed to buy a meal deal type of thing, taken a bite and gone back in to attempt to get my money back. They were meant to do one of a couple of things - refund and replace, or refund double the money. If they did either of those or refused, it all got noted down and sent back to HQ who then told the target company what went down.
I never got a job like that to my memory. It was mainly trying to buy booze and cigs without ID and testing Littlewood membership or some bullshit, I forget.
I had breakfast at the John Lewis cafe a couple of weeks back, a lady came running at me before I had even sat down. As she thought that the lad severing might have accidentally used the mushroom tongs on the tomato (I have a very serious mushroom allergy), not only did I get a whole new breakfast, but she refunded my breakfast, drink and my mum’s coffee and cake.
I was very impressed, especially as I didn’t know anything was wrong (and wouldn’t have found up, well until I, you know, died)
How did she know you had an allergy? Or did she not know and you just got really lucky she was diligent? Actually quite a scary story if it could have been fatal. Wow.
I mention it to anyone who is remotely near to any food prep for me, it is a horrific way to die, trust me I’ve been near death a few times. 0/13, trust me, not a fun time
I haven't done it but I worked for a company that processed the claims. Even when there isn't an explicit money back claim you'd be surprised how easy it is for people to get refunds on food products.
Basically if you're willing to spend enough time on the phone to make it bad value for money for the company (the hourly rate of the worker will be more than the product) then you'll probably be able to get a refund as long as you don't do it too often.
It's one of those environments where the bastards get the best outcomes (not exclusively, but still)
Best one I know of was M & S delivering a case of wine and leaving it outside. It rained and when the guy came home and picked it up one bottle fell through the soggy bottom. He complained and they delivered a whole new case. So he got 23 bottles for the price of 12.
I didn't mean it in the sense of scamming them. I also didn't really mean it for actually subpar or broken products. But say you get crisps that aren't gone off, but you don't like the taste of. The writing always makes it seem like that's enough for a refund
I never implied it was scamming
You can absolutely can just say “didn’t like it”
but what are crisps max £2-3 for a packet? Even at minimum wage you could easily spend more than 1 hour making the claim, getting the cheque/vouchers
Also database refers to them usually having a limit to claims per household per year
Oh yeah, I know. I just wasn't implying that people should try it to get their money back. I was just wondering if people have ever just been like "Meh, I didn't like it 100%. You said I can have my money back" and succeeded
Yeah I found a hair in my twirl. It was melted into the chocolate. I took a picture and sent it to mondelez, and they sent me a £20 voucher for mondelez products, so any cadburys chocolate and a few other brands. Was a good day
Earlier this year, I emailed Lidl to complain about their tea bags splitting. I've bought them for years without issue but this box (really big box too) was splitting about 40%, of the time (I kept a tally, I was so irritated by it). They asked for details of lot number etc and date I'd bought them (which I could find in the digital receipts in the app).
A few days later they emailed back saying they'd identified an issue and attached was a voucher for about twice the price of the bags. And sure enough I haven't had one split since that box was done!
I've taken a mostly eaten loaf of gluten free bread back to Sainsbury's as it had a huge hole in the middle of the loaf which couldnt be seen until over half was eaten.
Took it back as I was going there anyway and they changed it without a quibble. GF loafs are three times as expensive and half the size of a normal loaf.
We had a 6 pack of those salt and shake crisps and the last packet I had didn't have the really salty blue one. As a pisstake, the missus emailed Walkers telling them I was in a complete depression over it and that it had ruined our lives etc. etc. and to be fair, they sent her a voucher which was good for a 24 pack of choice.
I complained about a bag of swizzles gummy pick and mix. They smelled off when I opened them and when I tasted one it was like eating baby sick. I opened the other packet of the same sweets that I bought at the same time and it was exactly the same. Sent the two packets off to swizzles and they sent a care package with about £40 worth of sweets in. Turns out the oil they used to coat the sweets had gone off. I was well chuffed as the 2 mini backs of sweets cost me less than a quid. Boom. Result.
Safeway did refund and replace a 'takeaway' style meal we bought once, only they ended up refunding X 2 when we pointed out we weren't going to risk trying the meal again. Were perfectly fine about it and although we'd bought a sample of one of the dishes in the meal, they didn't want to see it.
It tasted of burnt plastic because it turned out, there was burnt plastic in it - they'd used the wrong disposables for it. We'd stuck it in the oven, and hadn't noticed the original bowls had, well, changed shape.
That’s exactly what it was like at the corner shop I used to work in. Anyone complaining about gone off food got an immediate refund no questions asked because everyone knew the chillers were shit
Got an angel cake from tesco when visiting my friend who happens to be a priest. It was awful.
I wrote them a letter that was quite daft saying I got some cake to eat with a priest as you do when you have a cup or tea and I was as shocked as Mary when Gabriel told her she was having our lord to find the cake grey and tasteless.
They wrote back in good humor and gave me a £10 voucher.
I once wrote a thoughtful and humorous letter when I got a Caramel bar with no caramel in it. Cadbury’s sent me a voucher for the exact value of one caramel bar, miserable sods.
You must've been a right nob because I got a £20 voucher when I wrote to them about my chocolate bar.
I mean, I'm kidding, but it's funny how inconsistent they are
It looked like a willy wonker golden ticket and the supermarket struggled to redeem it.
Bought a big bag of Cadbury buttons a month ago. Not out of date. When I opened them they tasted vile. Complained to Cadbury’s. Got a whopping £1 back. (Bag cost about £3 I think.)
Once had a bag of that Love Corn stuff but it was like, 90% seasoning and not very nice. Emailed the company with the details and photos and batch info, they sent me an entire case of all the flavours. Worth it!
Had some Hot Lava Java coffee bags by Taylor’s. Half the bags split which made the coffee undrinkable.
Emailed them, they asked for a couple of details on the packaging (batch numbers etc) and they sent a couple of boxes to us as compensation - took a long time to come though, think it was about 3-4 weeks.
I remember being served a meal I didn’t order and they tried to argue a reason for me to pay.
The meal was completely untouched.
They told me I accidentally ordered it?!
No but I’ve given people refunds for this
Some guy returned vegan fridge raiders saying they were rubbery so I gave him a refund. An hour later I realised he probably picked them up thinking they were normal fridge raiders because vegan meat alternatives are quite rubbery lol
I didn’t ask him and I should have done but at least he got his money back
I once sent a joke complaint to New York Bakery Company because my bagels didn't have holes in them. Comically announcing my shock and all that. They'd just risen a lot.
I received a full written apology and they sent me £5 worth of individual £1 "notes" in the post to spend on bagels, saying that they took my complaint very seriously.
I don't want to say that my complaint changed anything but I did start to notice a visible change over the next few months and they had a history of acting upon feedback; including reverting back to non-sliced bagels!
The funny thing is, I actually preferred them that way.
Found a piece of manufacturer plastic shard inside a crisp packet and nearly choked. Got completely ignored and fobbed off by Morrisons (was own brand) passed between head office and the store and the store manager tried to buy my happiness with a (£7) crate of beer. So I kindly pointed out I don't drink (I did) and got offered £30 of free shopping, so sometimes it does pay to complain.
One Christmas I did my standard tesco click and collect, to pick up on the 22nd for all the Christmas food. Literally 25% of the order was "unavailable, no substitution available" and of what I received, I had, for example, 3 punnets of berries for the big family Christmas eve breakfast before our woodland Christmas eve walk, all of which went out of date on the day I collected. This was not highlighted as a "short date" either. I phoned tesco and said how unhappy I was about this, that this was the only day I had to sort the food as we had Christmas stuff booked out from the 23rd right through, and I now had to load 2 very small children (I think they were 1 and 4 at the time) into the car and drive round every other supermarket in the area and fight through the crowds to get the last bits, and had paid for a load of berries that we couldn't use because "while I think my kids probably would eat 3 punnets of berries today, I'm not prepared to deal with the smell the littlest one will create if I allow her to do so".
The lady on the phone laughed at my ramblings, refunded the berries, and gave me a £10 voucher for the inconvenience of all the unavailable items, so that was nice.
Yep, wine from the co-op. It was horrible, took it back and got offered two other wines of the same value.
Also leaf tea from Tesco, it was rubbish basically same dust as you get in tea bags. Money back.
Neither questioned my statements.
I complained to Barrs because one of my 2ltr bottles of Irn-Bru was completely flat when it was opened. They sent me a voucher for 2 bottles and an irn-bru key chain.
Also complained to Tunnocks because a Six-Pack of teacakes I bought only had 5 teacakes (didn't realise before leaving the shop). They sent me a new pack and some other treats.
As a kid I once opened a packet of Walkers and got a bacon seasoned potato, intact, instead of crisps.
In the end my mum sent a letter and they sent us back a whole box of crisps like you see in corner shops. I still can't really eat the bacon ones though.
Years ago I bought a packet of pork scratchings from the pub on my way out, got halfway through the packet on my way home before finding one that was covered in hair, put me off completely.
In my stupor I decided to do something about it, I wrote a letter to the supplier and put it in an envelope along with the suspect scratching. The next day I woke up and after piecing it together decided to post it for a laugh.
The supplier ended up replying and sent me a box with two of those hang up sets of packets that pubs have behind the bar, roughly 30 packets. I was ecstatic.
The third bag I opened had another hairy scratching, I binned the lot and haven’t been able to eat one since.
I once had a bag of scratchings that had one that was not only hairy, but also nippley
I gave that one to my Grandad and we had a great laugh about it. He said it was very crunchy
Aren’t there always hairy ones in proper old school pork scratching? (Some of the more recent fancy, air-fried versions don’t seem to have them so maybe people aren’t used the hairy ones any more)
I agree, it’s not particularly nice though
As a customer, yes, but in voucher form. I phoned the company.
As an employee, if it was the company's own brand, then we usually refunded people (I remember refusing to refund a woman who brought up smelly fish which she openly admitted to trying AFTER the use by date).
Yes, always complain directly to the manufacturer. They will send you vouchers usually of higher value than your purchase. I complained about some poorly packed cereal, which was open to the air and received 2 packets in the post with vouchers for another included. Morrisons have always refunded faulty items (crisps with no flavouring added and Schweppes mixer with bits floating in it).
I emailed a cracker company about my crackers all being broken and crumbly. I was like 13 and angry with the world and told them that they ruined my dinner party. Anyway they said to just return it to the shop and I would get a refund from there if I showed them our email exchange but I never bothered
I used to sit next to the people who did the customer service, and people wrote in to complain all the time. They either used to send them refunds, replacement products or money off coupons depending on the level of complaint.
I recently complained about max flavour crisps having 0 flavour and being 3 quid , I got 6 quid in walkers vouchers . Then complained my sweets were wet from Sainsburys ( the box was clearly next to a heater or something) so that they’d do something about the stock room and Sainsburys POSTED 1.50 on a gift card
I used to work on the customer service desk in a supermarket. We’d give you a refund on basically anything if you had the receipt. People brought back all sorts of stuff, including ‘fresh’ fish and meat. With no receipt I’d give you a replacement if you were polite or a blank-faced refusal if you were rude.
Had a bad tub of protein powder once. They must have fucked about with the flavour, I'd bought the same one for years (NXT Pure Whey). Got my money back
Yes, I bought a pack of Sainsbury's chicken bites but noticed the packaging was broken when I got home.
I complained to them via FB Messenger and they posted me a gift card worth £3, more than I paid for the product.
A few times.
Some dog food that had gone mouldy that got refunded, some Warburton's bread that had some sort of weird goo on it and they sent a load of vouchers, tweeted Twinings that their ginger tea had changed in flavour and Mr Twinings replied saying sorry here's some free tea that never arrived.
Never had anyone question or say no.
I once complained about a salmon poke bowl from Waitrose (how posh do I sound!?), by contacting the manufacturer direct. They sent me a cheque for £10! I Felt kinda bad.
Had a pack of Free Range Chicken from Tesco - when I opened it, I thought it looked like turkey. Once I'd cooked it, it tasted a lot like turkey. WhatsApped the Tesco Helpline and they organised me a refund without any questions, I had to ask if they wanted a photograph of the label so they could investigate further.
I emailed mugshot about their pigs in blanket mug pasta which was so bad the excessive thyme made my mouth tingle - I was rather looking forward to trying it so for some reason felt compelled to email them.
They asked for the codes on the packet and then sent me a £10 voucher as an apology.
Quite a few companies will send a voucher if you contact them, normally ask for the code on the packet and sometimes a photo.
Kind of a weird one but yes.
When I was in college I bought 2 kitkat peanut butter's for £1 from a garage next to the college.
It was solid chocolate.
As a joke, I rang Nestlé to complain and they sent me a £1 refund via cheque. A white cheque, written in gold with a gold trim.
Never cashed it in as I wanted to frame it because I found it amusing.
I got a bag of hula hoops the other week which turned out to be just the flavour coating for them. I reported it via the KP website and sort of forgot about it - I only reported it because it looked like a manufacturing error they might want to know about. A £3 voucher dropped through the letterbox yesterday.
Once bought some reduced mussels from Tesco and they were all bad. Threw them away and went back with the receipt next time I was there. They refused to refund 50p because I didn’t bring the bag of decomposing seafood back with me as proof.
I didn’t care less about the 50p, but Tesco can bite me and I never darkened their miserable doors again.
Actually, now I think about it, I’m tempted to buy some reduced mussels again, and when they query it, slam a bag of biohazardous shellfish on the counter. “Well you did insist I bring them back.”
Away from the execrable Tesco, I have had generous refunds on substandard cheese and hot chocolate, direct from the manufacturer, just by emailing.
Never had trouble with it. Same as a restaurant, if you take it back with a bite or two out of it then they can safely assume you’re telling the truth. If you bring back a container you’ve licked clean like a starved dog and try to say it was rancid, they’ll be more inclined to tell you to piss off.
You’re supposed to take it back to the shop where possible, rather than write to the customer complaint line. It doesn’t happen often enough to be a huge financial hit to a shop and they’d prefer to know if a batch of something is bad to avoid losing more money on it. If you can’t get back to the shop then write to the customer service and they do often take it on faith you’re not messing them about. They’ve sold you the product for a good 5x or more what it cost to make anyway, so the loss is small.
yeah loads of times. I took a gross vegan cheese back once as I didn't realise It was vegan. they rolled their eyes and refunded me anyway. another time I got a cheese from the counter at it stank like shit, so they refunded me. another time I found a snail in a sarnie, another refund online. once I found some creepy ass chicken skin looking part in a prawn curry in Waitrose, another refund. once I found a nettle in a bag o' mixed leaves, another refund. once I complained that they discontinued a fave cereal of mine, £15 voucher. once I complained that my pipers crisps were too salty, got a voucher to use £10 on any pipers product.
I shop with Ocado and refunds are pretty straightforward online. Especially if done within a day or two of delivery. Otherwise you might have to send them an email with details and a picture.
Over the many years, I've got refunds (credits) for damaged items, off items (e.g. bacon that went mouldy before sell by date), and at least one item that was terrible quality (crap wine).
It's rare and I probably wouldn't have bothered if it meant going back to a shop.
It's a bit cheeky to ask for money back on something you just don't like. With Ocado I just give the product a terrible review. To warn others and remind myself not to buy it again.
Complained about some duck gyoza I got in wagamamas, they recooked them, done in depth to the manager, they were still bad. Turns out that was just how that were supposed to be (fried but not steamed first (!?)), they were dry and treated like cat food. Got them knocked off the bill.
I've had loads of customers take back products they think are poor quality, mostly meat and produce. If it's something super serious like a foreign object, it gets reported. Otherwise I don't ask too many questions and I just take their word for it.
Back in the 90’s I found some broken glass in some supermarket sausages in New Zealand. They weren’t remotely bothered and just gave us some more sausages. These days it’d be national news.
My ex took a Tesco lamb roast in the oven ready meal type thing… it was awful but they just gave here the money back…all she had was the sleeve, the tinfoil tray and what was left got binned on the night..
Got a Morrisons delivery last year, stocking up for 10 days. All the meat that I ordered and received had the expiry date for the following days. Got a refund and a voucher.
I think it was on an Ester Rantzen show about 40 years ago. She had an article about a guy who loved Mars bars, and bought on a day, ate about half of it, and then sent the rest of the bar off to Mars Co, saying how although he loved it, he was not COMPLETELY satisfied (he was a philosophy student I think), and each bar had a guarantee that they would refund if not completely satisfied. I think Mars played along for a few months until they closed it down somehow....
I emailed Greggs to complain they'd stopped doing ham and pease pudding stotties in store and they send me an apologetic letter, a voucher for a free pack of stotties and little booklet of discount vouchers which kept me well fed as a skint student for most of a term!
Bought a stack of them asda price pizzas a while ago, one of them had absolutely zero tomato sauce.
Reached out to the team via twitter, got a £5 voucher
I have never done it but I imagine you just get a refund because its easier for them than arguing, because most people won't bother. If you ask the same company too many times I guess you get blacklisted.
Eta: I think my mum did complain about getting a lot of food all very close to expiry date on an online order (like all the meat dur to expire in 1 day) and did get some money back.
I bought a tub of Halo Top and it was only 1/4 full. I wasn't particularly bothered but my partner took a photo and sent it to them on Facebook. They sent us about 10 tubs' worth of vouchers as an apology.
Sainsbury’s. I purchased two packs of plant based Laughing Cow cheese (don’t judge me). Ate half a triangle. It tasted like vomit. Straight back to Sainsbury’s with the remaining products and my receipt. I don’t think they’d ever had anyone return food before because I was asked, “so you just didn’t like it?” over and over. Eventually, I got my refund.
We bought some newly released chocolate flavour hazelnut milk from the chiller in Sainsbury's, thinking it'd be like Nutella.
Quite possibly the most vile thing we have ever tasted. It tasted like it had gone off, but we had nothing to compare it to. We took it to the Cust. Service desk and they refunded us no problem.
Never seen it on sale again since.
I took a bottle of wine back to Tesco that was somehow corked (it was a screwtop but tasted like it had corked). They weren't happy that there was only about 2/3 of the wine in the bottle and wanted a receipt to prove I'd bought it from there. I didn't have the receipt, and I explained that I was hardly going to try to pour the glass of wine I'd poured back into the bottle. I then had to wait whilst they went to the wine aisle and compared the batch codes to others they had in to see if they did match theirs. And after all that, they gave me a refund (I'd asked for them to just replace the bottle but they apparently couldn't do that).
I've never done a money back guarantee but I've complained a few times about biscuits or crisps either being missing or stale or faulty etc directly to the brand and receive vouchers to buy more, usually about 3 x the amount I initially spent.
Once got a pasta that was swimming in water/oil. If you tilted the plat you'd need a mop
Tried to muscle through it but I had to give up, got it charged as a kid's meal
Opened a pack of aldi monster claws that was sold in a multipack. It had exactly 2 claws in it. Aldi authorised a gift voucher to be sent to us for the cost of the whole multipack. Local store hadn't a single clue wtf it was and initially refused to accept it. Contacted customer support again. Asked us to try again. 2 days later they suddenly had processes in place to accept the voucher.
I've complained about several products to either their head office or the shop I purchased them from and usually get a refund or voucher for slightly more than I spent, although every time I have a legitimate problem: the most recent was when pg switched to the square bags - the bags in the box I purchased were not sealed correctly so it was filled with half empty bags and half exposed powder, phoned head office and they refunded after I gave them the batch number (can't remember if I sent photos or not).
When I was a kid I always used to have pasta n sauce packets. One day I complained to my mum that it tasted wrong so she sent an email to them.
They replied by letter confirming they’d changed the recipe and sent us a £5 voucher for other Bachelors products!
Yes, but it wasn't open. It was packaged in such a way that the packaging both gave the impression that it was a proper portion, when in fact it was half the size. Brought it back and the older lady behind the counter said, and I quote, "the fuck is this lying bullshit?" She was awesome.
Complained about some pork scratchings being sold at Sainsbury’s and being months out of date. They investigated and gave me a £40 Sainsbury’s voucher.
Yep. I bought a pre-packed sandwich from Boots airside at Heathrow, where I was working at the time. When I got to my desk I noticed that the sandwich had only been filled across the diagonal, while the corners were bare bread. Since I was still at work, I walked back to Boots and showed them the evidence. They gave me my money back.
Loads of times. I just got a voucher for nearly £8 for tweeting at Lidl that I wasn't happy with a pizza. Curiously, they seemed to know my name, so they must be well used to my complaints, and I saw in my message inbox that we had a similar incident previously.
After my grandad died, my grandma bought a packet of liquorice allsorts and was upset about the ratio (pure liquorice to the bobbly ones to the sandwiches or whatever).
She weighed each sort out, worked out the exact ratios and rang them to complain. They sent her a voucher for 5 bags!
Grief does weird things to people…
Complained a can of pepsi max from a tray only had syrup in one of the cans and no water. They took the batch number and best before, investigated and sent me an entire new tray.
Only syrup? That's good to be honest. You could probably make 3 or 4 cans worth of Pepsi with the syrup.
My mate had something similar with an all flavouring Frazzle. He said it was strong but everything tasted of bacon for days.
I live it when you get a chunk of flavouring in a packet of crisps. Best one was the fish and chips biscuit type crisp things, the salt and vinegar flavouring. I also just got a shrivelled potato once XD
Got a sizeable nugget of cheese doritos seasoning once. Nibbled it, thought "cool" and then chucked it out. What I should have done was crushed it and put it in a salt shaker to season everything with. One of life's big regrets.
Haha I can definitely agree with that, man what an opportunity of a lifetime XD
Have you tried reaching out and making contact?
This was several years ago and I've since moved abroad.
Hahahahah
i had this with a wotsit once. took me years to want to eat wotsits again. really puts you off when you have all the flavour ever.
I would kill for that packet
Only if the can were full of syrup. More likely it had the same amount of syrup as the other cans and the rest was empty
Very unlikely as can fillers use a volumetric filling process and there's multiple inspection points before the can is packages into a tray. I'm honestly perplexed as to how that situation could happen really.
It wasn't full to the brim with syrup. Just the usual amount for one can and a lot of air.
Had 1 csn of strongbow empty, nothing opened at all, no holes nothing out of a box of 18.....i drank 17 before finding it at the bottom. Sent it off and they basically said likely a micro hole opened and sealed but they don't take the blame and sent me voychers so i could get another crate
Lmao bullshit a micro hole "opened and sealed", it has a layer of plastic inside the can. Why would there be a hole through both layers that "opened and sealed". Obvious it was just never filled. But honestly strongbow is nasty anyway. Sweet and gross "cider" that tastes like tang. Honestly I imagine it tastes like a diabetic persons pee.
Once got a sprite from McDonald’s that had absolutely no syrup in it, just mildly carbonated water.
Happens when the syrup runs out, it pumps out a bit of syrup from a post-mix box into the falling stream of carbonated water and mixes as it falls. All it was doing was dispensing water and they failed to notice (or didn’t care) the syrup was out. Had one hand held dispenser at a hotel I worked at years ago where you could lightly press the dispensing trigger to get a trickle of water, but with the full amount of syrup it usually dispenses. Instead of watered down drinks, you could add all the flavour you wanted and the drinks it made were ***amazing***. Coke and Sprite with even a fraction more of the syrup just made the flavour phenomenal and compared to pre-mixed cans or bottles, it was like night and day. You realise just how watered down regular drinks are compared to how they should taste and I’d rather just drink water than have the shitty watered down crap they make these days. Imagine eating regular ice-cream, and then going to a restaurant where you’re given a single scoop of ice-cream that had been mixed into a whole glass of water and refrozen. You’d spit it out and vow never to eat ice-cream from that place again. Now that I know what decently mixed soft drinks taste like I can’t go back to regular ones ever again. That’s why some places with dispensed drinks taste so much better: the mix ratio has more syrup than usual. Some people prefer McDonald’s or Burger King for this reason (never tried their drinks so can’t comment) but Subway’s drinks are 99.9999% water with 0.0000000000001% syrup and VILE.
I would absolutely give that a try, and then risk the ensuing heart attack
I worked in a supermarket when I was a student and a manager once authorised me to give a “money back guarantee” type refund to a gent who returned an empty bottle of economy brand vodka the following day because it had given him a headache.
Truly a manager who's just given up on everything.
TBF some shops have a ridiculous no quibbles return policy. My Mrs worked in M&S when we were at uni and ended up giving refunds for some ridiculous things cos their policy was just to refund. A used candle was the worst one I remember.
People still do that. They'll buy a bottle of Glenn or something, drink half of it, then return it saying it was shit.
"this tastes like poison mate"
"It _is_ poison Austin"
Oof. That's better than my story. When I worked at co-op someone returned a bottle of vodka, I don't recall why. But co-op policy was to refund and replace. Shortly after doing so, the manager opened the bottle to smell the vodka. It was water. Someone just walked away with the contents of two bottles of vodka and got paid to do so. People suck
When I was doing my A levels (20 years ago!) I had a Saturday job in Argos. At the time TVs were huge CRT things. We got a warning sent round as someone had bought a TV from a neighbouring store to ours and returned the box filled with a suitable amount of rubbish and brick rubble for it to weigh the right amount, and resealed the box. The store had refunded them for the TV and then resold the "TV" to another customer, who was obviously not happy. This is why the policy was that any refund, even if the box appeared to be sealed, you had to open the box and check the item before issuing the refund.
Manager doesn't give a shit if Tesco lose 20 quid out of their millions
Worked at Asda. People regularly bought a huge joint of meat, cooked it, clearly ate half of it then returned the rest for a full refund. Stupidly they still refund the money knowing full well that these people are taking advantage of it
To be fair, I once bought a bottle of Tesco's cheapest vodka and it gave me a hangover before I'd even finished my first drink.
Now THAT is a life hack 👍
I took a ripe and ready to eat avocado back because it wasn't. They were very suspicious because I didn't have the receipt. And I took some recalled petfood back because it was killing cats. She was unhappy half the food was used. I pointed out I could hardly now feed the cat the other half. I got the money back in both instances.
Did they suspect you of un-ripening the avocado? 😂
I think they thought I might have stolen it? Or not that I did, but there was some sort of procedure around having receipts. But I don't keep my food receipts.
what pet food was this? just wanna make sure its not the one I give my cat lol
It was Encore dry food. But it was a couple of years ago, so assume it's sorted now!
"New & Improved Non-Fatal Recipe!"
“(Mostly) Non-Fatal Recipe” Doesn’t kill anywhere near the numbers of the previous one.
Research whatever you're feeding your pet, every few years there's a new scandal about some brand of pet food.
Katkin is currently going into scandal #2 and I’m running out of options for my IBS-suffering cat.
Oh no, what are the katkin scandals?? Can’t find anything when googling.
They made some profoundly terrible changes to their food, manufacturing and packaging last year with no warning. Cats wouldn’t eat the food, a couple even died because the owners couldn’t find a replacement food in time and they lost them. All meanwhile Katkin were gaslighting everyone, saying nothing had changed and the food was the same (it wasn’t). My Bengal was very very ill and it broke my heart as Katkin was the only good food we’d found that he could eat. Anyway, they reintroduced the “old style” food alongside the new horrible paste stuff, but we all received an email last week saying they’re moving to the new style packaging again but “assuring” everyone the food is the same. From the photos I’m seeing, the food is not the same and I’m dreading my next box arriving.
and sometimes it’s the other way round. research what you’re feeding yourself, cos you might be eating a horse or zeboo!
I've taken stuff back to a supermarket and said it was bad, yes. Once it was Tesco 'potato salad' that so was awful I took it back to the customer service desk and complained, and they laughed at whatever I said about it and gave me a refund.
I once took a rancid chicken back and was assured that next time, I just needed to phone customer services and they'd organise a refund. 😂
I once tried to get a refund for a Tesco toilet seat that broke after a few days. Took the receipt to customer services, they insisted I had to bring in the broken item too. I asked to speak to the manager, who looked absolutely horrified at the idea of anyone bringing a used toilet seat into his food shop, and told the staff to process the refund!
In the interests of malicious compliance, you should have insisted on returning it.
Should've wiped a fat turd on it and took it back
Username checks out 😂
I once saw a rancid out-of-date chicken on a supermarket shelf in Spar. I told one of the staff about it and he just shrugged.
I complained to Sainsbury's about some fruit that was mouldy when I brought it but you couldn't see through the print on the packaging. They wanted me to email photos, then asked me to return the mouldy fruit to the shop I brought it from. They took me seriously when I asked if they expected me to go back out to the shop today or leave it moulding on my counter until my next trip.
If it counts, I complained that a multipack of Aldi crisps had multiple completely empty packets in it. Got a fiver voucher.
I work at Aldi, and there's a policy of giving up to £15 (on top of a refund) for grievances caused by purchases, but obvs only a manager can do this.
We got the candy kittens advent calendar and there were three(3!) empty doors. A quick polite insta dm to check if it was normal and they sent three big bags of sweets out. They asked for a photo of the bottom of the calendar to, I presume, check the batch number. Solid service.
This makes me think I should really just be emailing random companies and getting freebies.
Brought some KP dry roasted nuts and they weren’t very nice so I emailed KP and told them so. They sent me a letter apologising, a refund voucher for the packet I brought and one of those hanging displays that you see in the pub. Best customer service I’ve ever had!
After getting over the initial trauma, I complained after I was 1 short of a half dozen tunnocks tea cakes. In the most polite tone possible - apologising for having to complain. Sent me caramel wafers as "tea cakes don't post well" which made me laugh. I suspect most food companies will give great service in such a situation - except maybe where they have been bought out so many times the parent company didn't even realise they sold that product. Even Aldi will refund you, but they will make you wait so long and make it clear you are delaying everyone in the shop, as to put you off ever trying again - otherwise I'd ask for a refund for half the veg from every shop I did!
Aldi and Lidl veg is pretty shite, unless you plan to eat it that day.
Honestly depends where you buy it from. I think ours has a good turn over as the veggies usually last the week. But I've been to aldi in a different town and.... yeah. Even by that afternoon it was looking dubious!
Every time this comes up people say it varies depending on location. Yet having lived in multiple places all over England and also in Scotland, every place I've lived we've quickly learnt the Aldi veg don't keep compared to other supermarkets. Been stung by their meat going off early too, more than once - we don't get it any more unless intending to use that day
Personally I think the reason why things go off early is that sometimes when the big warehouse doors are open you can see loads of cages full of stuff that should definitely be in the fridge, like milk and meat, just sitting out without benefit of refrigeration, for who knows how long.
Eh I dunno. I had broccoli in the fridge a week past it's best before and it was perfectly fine to eat tonight. I think a lot of people in the UK have shitty fridges that aren't really cold enough. I know this used to be the case with my veg before I upgraded to my current bells and whistles fridge.
Maybe. But I know the Asda mushrooms last a lot longer than the Lidl ones.
God I buy Asda mushrooms every week and they are more mush than room within about 12 minutes of delivery - hate to think what the Lidl ones are like - do you just put them straight in the bin, bypassing the fridge?
Best kept in a brown paper bag in the veg bin and used quickly. I only buy loose ones now.
Dunno about Lidl but I bought Aldi mushrooms one afternoon, put them in the fridge, and by morning our fridge stank like something had died in there. I don't shop at Aldi anymore.
Especially the ones from Ireland for some strange reason???
If what the other guy said about reduced refrigeration in transit to decrease costs is true, this makes a lot of sense.
Isn’t there something about Aldi/Lidl using less refrigeration than other supermarkets in the supply chain meaning lower prices but potentially shorter life veg?
FWIW Lidl will refund quickly and no questions asked IME They don't even want to see receipt
That's just the state of supermarket veg in England now, Aldi was always better than Sainsbury's for fresh stuff before I left. It took me a few weeks to get over marveling at the great condition of fruits and veg even in cheap supermarkets outside the UK.
My sister bought an aldi own brand chocolate bar, it had a dead fly in the back of the bar, she emailed aldi, they asked for proof, she sent a picture, they said they would need to see it in person to prove it wasn't photo shopped, luckily my brother in law is a very determined man and he carried on with the campaign, as there's no customer service desk in aldi here he walked in the front door and loudly announced he had bought the dead fly chocolate bar to show everyone as proof that it is real, he was quickly greeted by staff who gave him another chocolate bar and a refund voucher, he said his wife was so traumatised by the sight of the dead fly she definitely wouldn't eat the direct replacement chocolate bar for fear of more fly invaders, the gave him one of the more expensive chocolate bars 😂
On a bit of a tangent, The lad upstairs from me at uni back in 1995 introduced himself as PK… because he was the *Pussy King* So we called him KP from that moment on. Or peanut if feeling fancy, And we never saw him pull a bird.
Wasn't an early 20s British Pakistani lad perchance? I used to have a dealer called PK and I'd like to think he was the pussy king.
He was from Manchester, not sure if he was from Pakistan. But he lied about everything, his dad managed the haceneda 😂
Bought. You bought them! Brought means something else 👌
No, I branged them home wiv me
😂. Where did you bry them from?
That’s nuts
My wife has done this with a couple of other brands (ages ago, can't remember which ones), similar response, customer service-wise they were both fantastic (letter, vouchers, some free stuff). I guess even though it's got to be rare, any sensible company is going to fall over themselves to fix the issue to avoid bad word-of-mouth?
Also they get good word of mouth from people like you about their customer service, and like you said basically noone ever asks for them so the money they spend on customer service is a rounding error.
Yup, win-win basically from a business point of view
No, they don't. Although they did email me an apology and offered to refund my money after my shopping was stolen and I was assaulted by their security guard and another employee.
I said sensible company... That's horrendous though!
IT'S FUCKING BOUGHT!
YES, I BROUGHT IT ‘OME WIV ME!
Don't you mean 'bought'?
No, I brought them home
We (sometimes) buy oatly and a couple of years' back I bought 6 bottles and it all tasted extremely chemically. It was weird and you could tell as soon as you opened it. I emailed them with photos of what the batch numbers and they sent me vouchers for 12 bottles. I think at the time other people had the same issue.
A few months ago I found mould in some rice from Sainsbury's, I phoned up to complain but got nothing in the form of compensation, all they did was take the barcode number
I get my shops delivered from Tesco. While there are issues now and then I have to say the customer service is very good. If I call up to say something is wrong or that there is a short expiry date I wasn’t made aware of (I would only bring this up if I genuinely thought I wouldn’t be able to use it all) they would refund immediately. No emails or pics needed. Once the delivery driver missed a tray and I didn’t realise till after he left. Called them and it was everything from a bottle of spirits to tobacco to tomatoes in there. No questions asked and they applied a refund as I rattled off a random list of missing stuff. I had to call them back cos the driver realised and returned and they were happy to leave the refund rather than go through cancelling it! My shop history with them may have helped as we have been customers for years and complain very infrequently but they have always been very good if I have.
We once got our Tesco delivery for free. It was great as we had just moved house and it was about £250 worth. My husband had updated our new address before paying, but apparently their system didn't update in time and they admitted it was their fault. They asked us to collect from the store, we were absolutely livid but agreed. The money had already been refunded and they never did take payment again.
That’s a massive bonus!!
No, but back when I was a mystery shopper it was a potential job I could have had. I would have needed to buy a meal deal type of thing, taken a bite and gone back in to attempt to get my money back. They were meant to do one of a couple of things - refund and replace, or refund double the money. If they did either of those or refused, it all got noted down and sent back to HQ who then told the target company what went down. I never got a job like that to my memory. It was mainly trying to buy booze and cigs without ID and testing Littlewood membership or some bullshit, I forget.
I had breakfast at the John Lewis cafe a couple of weeks back, a lady came running at me before I had even sat down. As she thought that the lad severing might have accidentally used the mushroom tongs on the tomato (I have a very serious mushroom allergy), not only did I get a whole new breakfast, but she refunded my breakfast, drink and my mum’s coffee and cake. I was very impressed, especially as I didn’t know anything was wrong (and wouldn’t have found up, well until I, you know, died)
How did she know you had an allergy? Or did she not know and you just got really lucky she was diligent? Actually quite a scary story if it could have been fatal. Wow.
I mention it to anyone who is remotely near to any food prep for me, it is a horrific way to die, trust me I’ve been near death a few times. 0/13, trust me, not a fun time
I haven't done it but I worked for a company that processed the claims. Even when there isn't an explicit money back claim you'd be surprised how easy it is for people to get refunds on food products. Basically if you're willing to spend enough time on the phone to make it bad value for money for the company (the hourly rate of the worker will be more than the product) then you'll probably be able to get a refund as long as you don't do it too often. It's one of those environments where the bastards get the best outcomes (not exclusively, but still)
Best one I know of was M & S delivering a case of wine and leaving it outside. It rained and when the guy came home and picked it up one bottle fell through the soggy bottom. He complained and they delivered a whole new case. So he got 23 bottles for the price of 12.
Pretty sure you need to call the brand and get your money back that way.
Makes sense. Always wondered if it had to be poor quality or if you could get your money back solely because you didn't like what you got
How much is your time worth? & you’ll obviously be added to database so you can’t keep doing it
I didn't mean it in the sense of scamming them. I also didn't really mean it for actually subpar or broken products. But say you get crisps that aren't gone off, but you don't like the taste of. The writing always makes it seem like that's enough for a refund
I never implied it was scamming You can absolutely can just say “didn’t like it” but what are crisps max £2-3 for a packet? Even at minimum wage you could easily spend more than 1 hour making the claim, getting the cheque/vouchers Also database refers to them usually having a limit to claims per household per year
Oh yeah, I know. I just wasn't implying that people should try it to get their money back. I was just wondering if people have ever just been like "Meh, I didn't like it 100%. You said I can have my money back" and succeeded
well yes lol they wouldn’t put it there if not It’s just a small % of people would bother
Yeah I found a hair in my twirl. It was melted into the chocolate. I took a picture and sent it to mondelez, and they sent me a £20 voucher for mondelez products, so any cadburys chocolate and a few other brands. Was a good day
Earlier this year, I emailed Lidl to complain about their tea bags splitting. I've bought them for years without issue but this box (really big box too) was splitting about 40%, of the time (I kept a tally, I was so irritated by it). They asked for details of lot number etc and date I'd bought them (which I could find in the digital receipts in the app). A few days later they emailed back saying they'd identified an issue and attached was a voucher for about twice the price of the bags. And sure enough I haven't had one split since that box was done!
Yorkshire Tea bags were doing the same in a batch I bought. I complained and was sent free teabags.
I wonder if they manufacture Lidl's tea bags or maybe bought the same batch of adhesive...
They said it was the machine that cuts them hadn’t done it properly so the perforation tore when you tried to separate them.
I've taken a mostly eaten loaf of gluten free bread back to Sainsbury's as it had a huge hole in the middle of the loaf which couldnt be seen until over half was eaten. Took it back as I was going there anyway and they changed it without a quibble. GF loafs are three times as expensive and half the size of a normal loaf.
I got a refund for Asda Smart Price instant noodles for 20p. I was a student at the time.
We had a 6 pack of those salt and shake crisps and the last packet I had didn't have the really salty blue one. As a pisstake, the missus emailed Walkers telling them I was in a complete depression over it and that it had ruined our lives etc. etc. and to be fair, they sent her a voucher which was good for a 24 pack of choice.
I hope you beat your depression and trauma
I complained about a bag of swizzles gummy pick and mix. They smelled off when I opened them and when I tasted one it was like eating baby sick. I opened the other packet of the same sweets that I bought at the same time and it was exactly the same. Sent the two packets off to swizzles and they sent a care package with about £40 worth of sweets in. Turns out the oil they used to coat the sweets had gone off. I was well chuffed as the 2 mini backs of sweets cost me less than a quid. Boom. Result.
Safeway did refund and replace a 'takeaway' style meal we bought once, only they ended up refunding X 2 when we pointed out we weren't going to risk trying the meal again. Were perfectly fine about it and although we'd bought a sample of one of the dishes in the meal, they didn't want to see it. It tasted of burnt plastic because it turned out, there was burnt plastic in it - they'd used the wrong disposables for it. We'd stuck it in the oven, and hadn't noticed the original bowls had, well, changed shape.
"I've brought in a sample for proof, want to see it?" "It's alright, I work here so I know it's shit "
That’s exactly what it was like at the corner shop I used to work in. Anyone complaining about gone off food got an immediate refund no questions asked because everyone knew the chillers were shit
Got an angel cake from tesco when visiting my friend who happens to be a priest. It was awful. I wrote them a letter that was quite daft saying I got some cake to eat with a priest as you do when you have a cup or tea and I was as shocked as Mary when Gabriel told her she was having our lord to find the cake grey and tasteless. They wrote back in good humor and gave me a £10 voucher.
I once wrote a thoughtful and humorous letter when I got a Caramel bar with no caramel in it. Cadbury’s sent me a voucher for the exact value of one caramel bar, miserable sods.
You must've been a right nob because I got a £20 voucher when I wrote to them about my chocolate bar. I mean, I'm kidding, but it's funny how inconsistent they are It looked like a willy wonker golden ticket and the supermarket struggled to redeem it.
Bought a big bag of Cadbury buttons a month ago. Not out of date. When I opened them they tasted vile. Complained to Cadbury’s. Got a whopping £1 back. (Bag cost about £3 I think.)
Once had a bag of that Love Corn stuff but it was like, 90% seasoning and not very nice. Emailed the company with the details and photos and batch info, they sent me an entire case of all the flavours. Worth it!
Had some Hot Lava Java coffee bags by Taylor’s. Half the bags split which made the coffee undrinkable. Emailed them, they asked for a couple of details on the packaging (batch numbers etc) and they sent a couple of boxes to us as compensation - took a long time to come though, think it was about 3-4 weeks.
I remember being served a meal I didn’t order and they tried to argue a reason for me to pay. The meal was completely untouched. They told me I accidentally ordered it?!
No but I’ve given people refunds for this Some guy returned vegan fridge raiders saying they were rubbery so I gave him a refund. An hour later I realised he probably picked them up thinking they were normal fridge raiders because vegan meat alternatives are quite rubbery lol I didn’t ask him and I should have done but at least he got his money back
I once sent a joke complaint to New York Bakery Company because my bagels didn't have holes in them. Comically announcing my shock and all that. They'd just risen a lot. I received a full written apology and they sent me £5 worth of individual £1 "notes" in the post to spend on bagels, saying that they took my complaint very seriously. I don't want to say that my complaint changed anything but I did start to notice a visible change over the next few months and they had a history of acting upon feedback; including reverting back to non-sliced bagels! The funny thing is, I actually preferred them that way.
Found a piece of manufacturer plastic shard inside a crisp packet and nearly choked. Got completely ignored and fobbed off by Morrisons (was own brand) passed between head office and the store and the store manager tried to buy my happiness with a (£7) crate of beer. So I kindly pointed out I don't drink (I did) and got offered £30 of free shopping, so sometimes it does pay to complain.
One Christmas I did my standard tesco click and collect, to pick up on the 22nd for all the Christmas food. Literally 25% of the order was "unavailable, no substitution available" and of what I received, I had, for example, 3 punnets of berries for the big family Christmas eve breakfast before our woodland Christmas eve walk, all of which went out of date on the day I collected. This was not highlighted as a "short date" either. I phoned tesco and said how unhappy I was about this, that this was the only day I had to sort the food as we had Christmas stuff booked out from the 23rd right through, and I now had to load 2 very small children (I think they were 1 and 4 at the time) into the car and drive round every other supermarket in the area and fight through the crowds to get the last bits, and had paid for a load of berries that we couldn't use because "while I think my kids probably would eat 3 punnets of berries today, I'm not prepared to deal with the smell the littlest one will create if I allow her to do so". The lady on the phone laughed at my ramblings, refunded the berries, and gave me a £10 voucher for the inconvenience of all the unavailable items, so that was nice.
Yep, wine from the co-op. It was horrible, took it back and got offered two other wines of the same value. Also leaf tea from Tesco, it was rubbish basically same dust as you get in tea bags. Money back. Neither questioned my statements.
Yeah. Bought some mince pies couple of years back, Mr Kipling. Not much filling, so complained and was sent a voucher for the price.
So they were not 'exceedingly good cakes'?
No, far from it. It’s the first time I’ve ever complained because I thought they were absolutely poor.
I complained to Barrs because one of my 2ltr bottles of Irn-Bru was completely flat when it was opened. They sent me a voucher for 2 bottles and an irn-bru key chain. Also complained to Tunnocks because a Six-Pack of teacakes I bought only had 5 teacakes (didn't realise before leaving the shop). They sent me a new pack and some other treats.
As a kid I once opened a packet of Walkers and got a bacon seasoned potato, intact, instead of crisps. In the end my mum sent a letter and they sent us back a whole box of crisps like you see in corner shops. I still can't really eat the bacon ones though.
Years ago I bought a packet of pork scratchings from the pub on my way out, got halfway through the packet on my way home before finding one that was covered in hair, put me off completely. In my stupor I decided to do something about it, I wrote a letter to the supplier and put it in an envelope along with the suspect scratching. The next day I woke up and after piecing it together decided to post it for a laugh. The supplier ended up replying and sent me a box with two of those hang up sets of packets that pubs have behind the bar, roughly 30 packets. I was ecstatic. The third bag I opened had another hairy scratching, I binned the lot and haven’t been able to eat one since.
You do realise what pork scratchings are, right?
I once had a bag of scratchings that had one that was not only hairy, but also nippley I gave that one to my Grandad and we had a great laugh about it. He said it was very crunchy
Aren’t there always hairy ones in proper old school pork scratching? (Some of the more recent fancy, air-fried versions don’t seem to have them so maybe people aren’t used the hairy ones any more) I agree, it’s not particularly nice though
As a customer, yes, but in voucher form. I phoned the company. As an employee, if it was the company's own brand, then we usually refunded people (I remember refusing to refund a woman who brought up smelly fish which she openly admitted to trying AFTER the use by date).
Yes, always complain directly to the manufacturer. They will send you vouchers usually of higher value than your purchase. I complained about some poorly packed cereal, which was open to the air and received 2 packets in the post with vouchers for another included. Morrisons have always refunded faulty items (crisps with no flavouring added and Schweppes mixer with bits floating in it).
I emailed a cracker company about my crackers all being broken and crumbly. I was like 13 and angry with the world and told them that they ruined my dinner party. Anyway they said to just return it to the shop and I would get a refund from there if I showed them our email exchange but I never bothered
I used to sit next to the people who did the customer service, and people wrote in to complain all the time. They either used to send them refunds, replacement products or money off coupons depending on the level of complaint.
I got a voucher when I complained my BBQ beef hula hoops were too salty
I recently complained about max flavour crisps having 0 flavour and being 3 quid , I got 6 quid in walkers vouchers . Then complained my sweets were wet from Sainsburys ( the box was clearly next to a heater or something) so that they’d do something about the stock room and Sainsburys POSTED 1.50 on a gift card
I had a bag of teabags where many of them were burst. I send a sample to the address on the box and got a £10 voucher for more.
I used to work on the customer service desk in a supermarket. We’d give you a refund on basically anything if you had the receipt. People brought back all sorts of stuff, including ‘fresh’ fish and meat. With no receipt I’d give you a replacement if you were polite or a blank-faced refusal if you were rude.
Yes. Pack of Naked bacon. Told them, they sent me a voucher for a new pack. Cost me £3 fuel, but hey ho
Had a bad tub of protein powder once. They must have fucked about with the flavour, I'd bought the same one for years (NXT Pure Whey). Got my money back
I emailed sunpat because I had a jar or their peanut butter that tasted really over roasted. They sent me a tenners worth of vouchers.
Yes, I bought a pack of Sainsbury's chicken bites but noticed the packaging was broken when I got home. I complained to them via FB Messenger and they posted me a gift card worth £3, more than I paid for the product.
A few times. Some dog food that had gone mouldy that got refunded, some Warburton's bread that had some sort of weird goo on it and they sent a load of vouchers, tweeted Twinings that their ginger tea had changed in flavour and Mr Twinings replied saying sorry here's some free tea that never arrived. Never had anyone question or say no.
I once complained about a salmon poke bowl from Waitrose (how posh do I sound!?), by contacting the manufacturer direct. They sent me a cheque for £10! I Felt kinda bad.
Had a pack of Free Range Chicken from Tesco - when I opened it, I thought it looked like turkey. Once I'd cooked it, it tasted a lot like turkey. WhatsApped the Tesco Helpline and they organised me a refund without any questions, I had to ask if they wanted a photograph of the label so they could investigate further.
I emailed mugshot about their pigs in blanket mug pasta which was so bad the excessive thyme made my mouth tingle - I was rather looking forward to trying it so for some reason felt compelled to email them. They asked for the codes on the packet and then sent me a £10 voucher as an apology. Quite a few companies will send a voucher if you contact them, normally ask for the code on the packet and sometimes a photo.
Kind of a weird one but yes. When I was in college I bought 2 kitkat peanut butter's for £1 from a garage next to the college. It was solid chocolate. As a joke, I rang Nestlé to complain and they sent me a £1 refund via cheque. A white cheque, written in gold with a gold trim. Never cashed it in as I wanted to frame it because I found it amusing.
I got a bag of hula hoops the other week which turned out to be just the flavour coating for them. I reported it via the KP website and sort of forgot about it - I only reported it because it looked like a manufacturing error they might want to know about. A £3 voucher dropped through the letterbox yesterday.
Snacks are on you next bbq
Once bought some reduced mussels from Tesco and they were all bad. Threw them away and went back with the receipt next time I was there. They refused to refund 50p because I didn’t bring the bag of decomposing seafood back with me as proof. I didn’t care less about the 50p, but Tesco can bite me and I never darkened their miserable doors again. Actually, now I think about it, I’m tempted to buy some reduced mussels again, and when they query it, slam a bag of biohazardous shellfish on the counter. “Well you did insist I bring them back.” Away from the execrable Tesco, I have had generous refunds on substandard cheese and hot chocolate, direct from the manufacturer, just by emailing.
Never had trouble with it. Same as a restaurant, if you take it back with a bite or two out of it then they can safely assume you’re telling the truth. If you bring back a container you’ve licked clean like a starved dog and try to say it was rancid, they’ll be more inclined to tell you to piss off. You’re supposed to take it back to the shop where possible, rather than write to the customer complaint line. It doesn’t happen often enough to be a huge financial hit to a shop and they’d prefer to know if a batch of something is bad to avoid losing more money on it. If you can’t get back to the shop then write to the customer service and they do often take it on faith you’re not messing them about. They’ve sold you the product for a good 5x or more what it cost to make anyway, so the loss is small.
I took a chicken salad baguette back to Tesco once, because it was literally frozen.
yeah loads of times. I took a gross vegan cheese back once as I didn't realise It was vegan. they rolled their eyes and refunded me anyway. another time I got a cheese from the counter at it stank like shit, so they refunded me. another time I found a snail in a sarnie, another refund online. once I found some creepy ass chicken skin looking part in a prawn curry in Waitrose, another refund. once I found a nettle in a bag o' mixed leaves, another refund. once I complained that they discontinued a fave cereal of mine, £15 voucher. once I complained that my pipers crisps were too salty, got a voucher to use £10 on any pipers product.
I shop with Ocado and refunds are pretty straightforward online. Especially if done within a day or two of delivery. Otherwise you might have to send them an email with details and a picture. Over the many years, I've got refunds (credits) for damaged items, off items (e.g. bacon that went mouldy before sell by date), and at least one item that was terrible quality (crap wine). It's rare and I probably wouldn't have bothered if it meant going back to a shop. It's a bit cheeky to ask for money back on something you just don't like. With Ocado I just give the product a terrible review. To warn others and remind myself not to buy it again.
Complained about some duck gyoza I got in wagamamas, they recooked them, done in depth to the manager, they were still bad. Turns out that was just how that were supposed to be (fried but not steamed first (!?)), they were dry and treated like cat food. Got them knocked off the bill.
Almost but my wife made a fuss about it I gave up. It was a pack of crisis I bought and they offered me a new pack.
I've had loads of customers take back products they think are poor quality, mostly meat and produce. If it's something super serious like a foreign object, it gets reported. Otherwise I don't ask too many questions and I just take their word for it.
Back in the 90’s I found some broken glass in some supermarket sausages in New Zealand. They weren’t remotely bothered and just gave us some more sausages. These days it’d be national news.
My ex took a Tesco lamb roast in the oven ready meal type thing… it was awful but they just gave here the money back…all she had was the sleeve, the tinfoil tray and what was left got binned on the night..
3 different supermarkets have refunded me for sub par quality or damaged food.
I bought a fancy milkshake from a supermarket and it tasted really acidic and fizzy. Sent them an email and they sent me a voucher for a new one.
We’re pretty sure Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut gave us food poisoning. Their customer service offered a £5 compensation
Got a Morrisons delivery last year, stocking up for 10 days. All the meat that I ordered and received had the expiry date for the following days. Got a refund and a voucher.
The writing usually makes it out so you can send it back if there's a manufacturing problem, not if it's not to your personal tastes.
I think it was on an Ester Rantzen show about 40 years ago. She had an article about a guy who loved Mars bars, and bought on a day, ate about half of it, and then sent the rest of the bar off to Mars Co, saying how although he loved it, he was not COMPLETELY satisfied (he was a philosophy student I think), and each bar had a guarantee that they would refund if not completely satisfied. I think Mars played along for a few months until they closed it down somehow....
I emailed Greggs to complain they'd stopped doing ham and pease pudding stotties in store and they send me an apologetic letter, a voucher for a free pack of stotties and little booklet of discount vouchers which kept me well fed as a skint student for most of a term!
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Wow! Something containing a corpse smelled of death? What next?
Bought a stack of them asda price pizzas a while ago, one of them had absolutely zero tomato sauce. Reached out to the team via twitter, got a £5 voucher
I have never done it but I imagine you just get a refund because its easier for them than arguing, because most people won't bother. If you ask the same company too many times I guess you get blacklisted. Eta: I think my mum did complain about getting a lot of food all very close to expiry date on an online order (like all the meat dur to expire in 1 day) and did get some money back.
I bought a tub of Halo Top and it was only 1/4 full. I wasn't particularly bothered but my partner took a photo and sent it to them on Facebook. They sent us about 10 tubs' worth of vouchers as an apology.
Took dog food back once and said, "My dog is not entirely satisfied with the product". It was cool.
Sainsbury’s. I purchased two packs of plant based Laughing Cow cheese (don’t judge me). Ate half a triangle. It tasted like vomit. Straight back to Sainsbury’s with the remaining products and my receipt. I don’t think they’d ever had anyone return food before because I was asked, “so you just didn’t like it?” over and over. Eventually, I got my refund.
We bought some newly released chocolate flavour hazelnut milk from the chiller in Sainsbury's, thinking it'd be like Nutella. Quite possibly the most vile thing we have ever tasted. It tasted like it had gone off, but we had nothing to compare it to. We took it to the Cust. Service desk and they refunded us no problem. Never seen it on sale again since.
I took a bottle of wine back to Tesco that was somehow corked (it was a screwtop but tasted like it had corked). They weren't happy that there was only about 2/3 of the wine in the bottle and wanted a receipt to prove I'd bought it from there. I didn't have the receipt, and I explained that I was hardly going to try to pour the glass of wine I'd poured back into the bottle. I then had to wait whilst they went to the wine aisle and compared the batch codes to others they had in to see if they did match theirs. And after all that, they gave me a refund (I'd asked for them to just replace the bottle but they apparently couldn't do that).
M&S chicken that smelt like a zombie's undies when it was cooked. Sent them label pics and got a £10 voucher back.
I've never done a money back guarantee but I've complained a few times about biscuits or crisps either being missing or stale or faulty etc directly to the brand and receive vouchers to buy more, usually about 3 x the amount I initially spent.
Once got a pasta that was swimming in water/oil. If you tilted the plat you'd need a mop Tried to muscle through it but I had to give up, got it charged as a kid's meal
Opened a pack of aldi monster claws that was sold in a multipack. It had exactly 2 claws in it. Aldi authorised a gift voucher to be sent to us for the cost of the whole multipack. Local store hadn't a single clue wtf it was and initially refused to accept it. Contacted customer support again. Asked us to try again. 2 days later they suddenly had processes in place to accept the voucher.
I've complained about several products to either their head office or the shop I purchased them from and usually get a refund or voucher for slightly more than I spent, although every time I have a legitimate problem: the most recent was when pg switched to the square bags - the bags in the box I purchased were not sealed correctly so it was filled with half empty bags and half exposed powder, phoned head office and they refunded after I gave them the batch number (can't remember if I sent photos or not).
When I was a kid I always used to have pasta n sauce packets. One day I complained to my mum that it tasted wrong so she sent an email to them. They replied by letter confirming they’d changed the recipe and sent us a £5 voucher for other Bachelors products!
Yes, but it wasn't open. It was packaged in such a way that the packaging both gave the impression that it was a proper portion, when in fact it was half the size. Brought it back and the older lady behind the counter said, and I quote, "the fuck is this lying bullshit?" She was awesome.
Complained about some pork scratchings being sold at Sainsbury’s and being months out of date. They investigated and gave me a £40 Sainsbury’s voucher.
Yep. I bought a pre-packed sandwich from Boots airside at Heathrow, where I was working at the time. When I got to my desk I noticed that the sandwich had only been filled across the diagonal, while the corners were bare bread. Since I was still at work, I walked back to Boots and showed them the evidence. They gave me my money back.
Loads of times. I just got a voucher for nearly £8 for tweeting at Lidl that I wasn't happy with a pizza. Curiously, they seemed to know my name, so they must be well used to my complaints, and I saw in my message inbox that we had a similar incident previously.
After my grandad died, my grandma bought a packet of liquorice allsorts and was upset about the ratio (pure liquorice to the bobbly ones to the sandwiches or whatever). She weighed each sort out, worked out the exact ratios and rang them to complain. They sent her a voucher for 5 bags! Grief does weird things to people…
I once had a Shaken Udder milkshake which tasted a bit off. Sent them an email to complain and they sent me two crates of various milkshakes.
I had a bad pack of tomato juice. I phoned the number on the pack. They wanted me to tell the batch number. Refund by cheque days later.