Best complaints....

[NikB]

Not sure if this has been done before, but let's have some of your best complaints. I'll start the ball rolling with a complaint I had to make to a duty manager of a hotel after some awful service....

Me: 'Can you remind me how many stars this hotel has?'
DM: 'Four stars sir'
ME: 'Well, I would have expected better service than this from someone at Macdonalds with 4 stars on their badge'

Cheers

Nik

[Fer]

Me : I want to talk to XXX department.

Vodafone Customer Services : I am sorry, that department does not accept phone calls, you will have to write to them.

Me: Why not, I want to talk to them. You are called Vodafone not Vodaletter!

(They eventually resolved the issue once the point was pushed home far enough)

[Marcos maniac]

Shopping at the weekend with Mrs m

In a large Household retailers (no naming and shaming) Mrs m wants a double oven and extractor

we find one on offer - oven, hood and backplate, for the sum of £1,270.00, reading the big bold price tag the model on display is Dual fuel, but also available in gas and colour choice - green, cream, silver etc

Find a member of staff;

me: "we want one of those in green, and all gas"
staff: "certainly sir" tap, tap, tap on her computer "that will be £1,550.00, would you like to extend the warranty, insurance etc"
me: "the price tag says £1,270.00"
staff: "thats for the dual fuel model, in the display colour"
me: "thats not what the label says"
staff: "sorry sir, but thats the price for the display model"
me: "Is your manager around, I would like a word"

Down comes the manager, and the staff member explains my problem

manager; "sorry sir, but the label might be a bit misleading and there is an extra charge for change of fuel and colour"

me: "a bit misleading, now theres a major understatement if I have ever heard one, im thinking more along the lines of false advertising, im sure trading standards and the local newspapers will have a field day with this"

Mrs M is cringing, and marcos junior is wrecking the place, I fish my digi cam out of my pocket and snap the price tag.

me; "are you going to let me have the goods I want at the advertised price or not?"

The manager is mortified and quickly takes the sign down "there is no need to be unreasonable sir"

me: "whats the phone number of your head office and your name"
Manager: "okay, okay you can have it at that price, however someone has made a slight mistake with the price label"
Me: "thankyou"

staff: would you like to extend the warranty/insurance"
me; "how much is it"
staff: £xxx for 3 years or £xxx for 5 years
Me; "i think I should get 5 years for the price of 3 years after all this inconvenience"

staff member looks at manager who sighs and nods agreement

Complain, create, and Complain the only way forward.


>> Edited because I cant spell today

>> Edited by Marcos maniac on Tuesday 7th January 11:53

[Mrs Fish]

Good on you, too many other people would have let it lie.

[MR DVD]

Best complaint that I heard about was the celeb that was trying to jump the checking in queue at an airport making a general fuss and asking the qustion " have you any idea who I am ?? " peeved stewardess then gets on the tanoy and asks everybody in four lounges if they know who he is because he has obviously forgotten !!!!

[incorrigible]

From another thread, but I bought a new computer game a the weekend for £25 (priced incorrectly)

Maybe my face is different from Mr Marcos, but the sales assistant looked at me, then the cd, then at me again, turned round to (I guess) the chap in charge said "Some idiot's put the wrong price on this", then turned back at me and said, £25 please sir so it's not just the net where you can get bargain games

[pdv6]

Nice one Marcos. And well within your legal rights.

[Mr E]

MR DVD said:
Best complaint that I heard about was the celeb that was trying to jump the checking in queue at an airport making a general fuss and asking the qustion " have you any idea who I am ?? " peeved stewardess then gets on the tanoy and asks everybody in four lounges if they know who he is because he has obviously forgotten !!!!

Sheer brillance....


I once landed at Munich to discover that the connecting flight to Nurnberg had left early.

They asked me to wait 3 hours for the next one. Nurnberg is 130km up the autobahn (about 45mins). I asked for a car so I could drive it. They refused.

I demanded a car so I could drive it. They eventually rented me a 1.2 corsa. For five people (two yanks). With big suitcases.

I upgraded it to a Merc E-Class estate and made Nurnberg in not very long. The two Germans chatted the whole way. The two yanks were white with fear all the way. Autobahn virgins.

[granville]

Marcos M - is that a true tale?

[mervynP]

MR DVD said:
Best complaint that I heard about was the celeb that was trying to jump the checking in queue at an airport making a general fuss and asking the qustion " have you any idea who I am ?? " peeved stewardess then gets on the tanoy and asks everybody in four lounges if they know who he is because he has obviously forgotten !!!!

The earliest version of this I have heard of comes, perhaps obviously, from the lips of Peter Cook in the sixties. In this version he was waiting in line to get into a playboy club and a rather irate and large gent used exactly the same line on the bunny girl at the entrance. At this Peter Cook asked in a load voice if anybody knew who he was, as he seemed to have forgotten. Not liking this too much the guy turned his fury on the bunny girl and said "well, you", to which Cook replied "I think you'll find that there is a queue for that as well"

Further proof that Peter Cook was indeed the funniest man ever.

[mel]

pdv6 said: Nice one Marcos. And well within your legal rights.

I always thought that legally any price label was purely "an invitation to treat" rather than an "offer". For a contract to complete and hence be legally enforcable the "offer" needs to be "accepted" Hence when you go into a shop and see a car priced £9.99 or something else stupid you cannot insist they sell it to you for that price, you need to offer them £9.99 and they then need to accept.

[icamm]

mel said:

pdv6 said: Nice one Marcos. And well within your legal rights.

I always thought that legally any price label was purely "an invitation to treat" rather than an "offer". For a contract to complete and hence be legally enforcable the "offer" needs to be "accepted" Hence when you go into a shop and see a car priced £9.99 or something else stupid you cannot insist they sell it to you for that price, you need to offer them £9.99 and they then need to accept.

I'm not sure about the "legal" terms but I think you are correct. As long as the shop notices that the item is priced incorrectly and informs you. They can then refuse to sell you the goods at the lower price. It's not good for business, especially if you kick up a stink, but I'm sure they can. It's better to sell one off cheap and then correct the pricing than it is to have a customer stood there arguing you are trying to rip them off.

There have been cases of this on the internet. The "Kodak" case being the one I remember. Kodak eventually stop fighting as they had sent acknowledgement emails out so had effectively accepted the "offer to buy". See www.ed-u.com/kodak.htm for more details of the case which includes the law they tried to use to get out of the cockup.

[igg]

Marcos - always worth complaining, but Mel is right - price in a shop is merely an invitation to treat the shop to an offer (at the price on the label if you feel like playing the game), which they can accept or turndown at their option.
All dates (about late 1800's I think)from when Boots the Chemists first sold drugs in shops and the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain took them to court as they didn't want drugs being sold via Boots - anyway, you get the idea.

Yawn, yawn - sorry!

Igg

[Size Nine Elm]

mel said:I always thought that legally any price label was purely "an invitation to treat" rather than an "offer". For a contract to complete and hence be legally enforcable the "offer" needs to be "accepted" Hence when you go into a shop and see a car priced £9.99 or something else stupid you cannot insist they sell it to you for that price, you need to offer them £9.99 and they then need to accept.

I think the price tag can be regarded as an offer of sale, and if you accept there is a contract.
I think there was one retailer who argued that the price tag was indeed an invitation to treat rather than an offer, and hence was not enforceable. Can't remember the outcome.

[jeff m]

I had just flown from Manila to L.A. I managed to "get into it" with the Immigration Guy who sent me to a particular Customs Guy. He ask me whether I had any food, three times, the first two times I answered no the third I asked him if he was hungry. Veins pulsed a bit in the neck, he was really pissed, but the laughter from the people behind me saved me I think.
The other was actually a complaint, British Airways
London H.K. I think. Put on my call light for a cup of coffee as I had been drinking with this courier chap. No response all the cabin staff sleeping or hiding, eventually a hostess appeared, "can I help you" "a coffee please" "have you been waiting long as we had an emergency in another section" "about five hundred miles" Got two coffees and two bottles of champers for best complaint.
Jeff

[Marcos maniac]

derestrictor said: Marcos M - is that a true tale?

Yes certainly is

[granville]

Marcos maniac said:

derestrictor said: Marcos M - is that a true tale?

Yes certainly is

Sorry boss; although I applaude you for kicking off where truly sh1te service abounds (if you're so predisposed, I guess!), I simply fail to grasp why you felt the need to give these (presumably?) reasonably innoffensive employees like those you mentioned such a battering?

If they were the usual, oily tykes as per your typical retail establishment, then fair dinkum - but department store personnel are usually quite pleasant, obliging characters.

If you have a gripe with something, why descend into a fracas when you could simply exercise your real economic power by shopping elsewhere?

They probably weren't ripping anyone off, although it sounds like it was a case of simple human error which was explained. That one may take umbrage at so inconsequential a matter seems to me to be a shame; forgive me, Marcos but isn't this kind of thing a tad compensatoral in inspiration?

I don't want to sound like an antagonistic sod but I really don't care for the American approach in this regard.*


* I remember grabbing a mid afternoon quarter w/cheese at McD's when staying on the west coast of Florida a few years back.

The joint was dead so staff numbers were logically skeletal . Indeed, it was split between drive thru' and counter service but it really didn't matter.

At one point, a car pulled up to the drive thru' just as I came through the door. Young Shane went off serving Mr Winkleburger in his 'Vette and yours truly hung back for the minute or three it would take...

Meanwhile, Fat Sam and his dreadful little protege came wobbling in, all hot and flustered.

Within 10 SECONDS this gimp was screaming all the usual claptrap that one could possibly imagine. He was complaining about absolutely nothing, other than that HIS immediate needs be satiated there and then; not even allowing a paltry 60 - 90 seconds.

There's much to be admired and cheered in good service but I fear nothing would keep some of it's latter day recipients happy, short of putting straw on the floor...



Coat grabbing has begun, Marcos!

[JonRB]

True, but MM did save himself £280. Respect.

[Pies]

Size Nine Elm said:

mel said:I always thought that legally any price label was purely "an invitation to treat" rather than an "offer". For a contract to complete and hence be legally enforcable the "offer" needs to be "accepted" Hence when you go into a shop and see a car priced £9.99 or something else stupid you cannot insist they sell it to you for that price, you need to offer them £9.99 and they then need to accept.

I think the price tag can be regarded as an offer of sale, and if you accept there is a contract.
I think there was one retailer who argued that the price tag was indeed an invitation to treat rather than an offer, and hence was not enforceable. Can't remember the outcome.

they won

[Plotloss]

My mother, bless her cotton socks, went to M&S to get the pre-ordered Turkey at 10.30 on the 23rd December (Christ, this is sounding like a charge sheet!).

When she arrived at the food department in the largest damn M&S you have ever seen they didnt have anything at all on the shelves, yet a store full of people!

So off she goes, full consumer terrorism mode on looking for a fight with the manager. He saunters over assuring her that they had ordered 25% more yet demand had outstipped supply and there had been a dreadful mistake with her turkey. They then assured her that there was a delivery in 2 hours and she was welcome to wait.

So she did, but not before she had made them open the cafeteria that had been shut for 4 hours, they provided tea, coffee and christmas cake for all the people waiting and when the truck arrived a fella came over to my mother took her list and got all the stuff off the truck before it was on the shelves.

Result!

Matt.