It Pays to Complain

Over the last few weeks, I have shopped places or used services that I have been unhappy with. So, I complained to the management or customer service rep.

First was Victoria's Secret. They discontinued my bras. That is bad enough, so when they were clearing the old style out, I bought 10 of them. They were half price. You can't go wrong at that price. About a month later the underwire of one of them pops out while I am camping. I sent it back and followed up with an email to their customer service about how disappointed I was that they discontinued the style and that the wire popped out. They credited my account for the bra. Earlier this week, I got a 25$ gift card from the for my trouble.

Back in late Sept. our land line phone was all messed up. I figured that it had something to do with all the rain we had the previous couple of weeks. When I called to get service out here, the first time they said it would be a few days. I checked online a couple of days later and now it was a week to 10 days later. I called them and talked to someone. They said they would have someone out the next day. They did and it was fixed. When I got my phone bill this month, they credited my account 79.14 for being without service for almost a week. That is over 2 months worth of service.

About 2 weeks ago, I went grocery shopping. I buy bagged salad mix for a salad lunch each day. I bought the salad mix on 10/5. By 10/8, when I went to go make my lunch I open up the crisper drawer and pull out the salad mix and it is gross. It was guaranteed to be fresh until 10/10. All soggy, rusty looking and nasty. I called the maker and they sent me coupons for 2 free salad mixes and a handful of 55 cent off coupons. I then also take it back to the store and they replace it for me. Double winner.

These acts of treating the customer well has earned these companies my loyalty. It nice and refreshing to see people go out of their way to do something nice. None of the places had any obligation to do anything.... well, the phone company may have a service level agreement, but who knows.

In each case I was never rude or obnoxious. I was always polite and stuck to the facts. Kindness pays.