It pays to complain – that’s the message from hundreds of dissatisfied customers who are cashing in on compensation from embarrassed companies.Brits are learning that they can pick up thousands of pounds in cash, new goods and other benefits just by complaining about sloppy service or faulty products.
Terry-Anne Gulko, from Norwich, is the self-confessed Queen of Complainers. She says she’s made more money from compensation claims than from her day job.
She discovered her talent for complaining ten years ago and decided to cash in on it.
Since then she says she has made tens of thousands of pounds a year – more than she does from her job as a PR consultant.
She has complained to dozens of companies large and small after things have gone wrong and she says the secret of success is “Take your complaint straight to the top.”
It started when she booked rooms for her wedding guests with a top hotel chain.
She says: “They mixed up nearly every room and when my two year nephew became seriously ill with an allergic reaction, my sister called me for help but hotel staff couldn’t tell me which room they were in because they couldn’t operate the computer system. We had to run around calling for them.
“I took my complaint to the chief executive – after getting no response from customer services – and got a response within the hour. They ended up asking me to name my price for the mix-up with my nephew. I asked that all their staff should be sent on an extra computer training programme.
“They also gave me vouchers for more stays – but something went wrong with all of them and I had to make more complaints.”
Her next claim was over a phone installation, which ended up with a lengthy planning wrangle and Terry-Anne getting a bill £125,000 for consultancy and other work. She complained and was finally awarded £2000 compensation.
Then another phone fault led to her not getting the message about a family bereavement – and yet more compensation.
Since then she’s taken on banks, energy companies and food manufacturers. She says: “The culprits are usually big companies. The smaller ones usually care more about complaints and don’t get into expensive disputes.
She says: ”Don’t bother going through customer service departments – find out who is in charge and make your complaint directly to them. It is easy to track them down – just go onto the company web site and get their names – very often you get their email address and PA’s phone number as well.”
The findings are part of a survey by Britain’s leading Mystery Shopping company, Retail Active – who asked hundreds of its regular shoppers for details of successful compensation claims.
Retail Active’s director, Julian Chamberlain said: “Our findings show that more Brits than ever - 71 per cent - are prepared to complain about poor service – and it certainly pays to complain.
“You should be compensated if a standards of customer service and product quality are not met. It keeps companies on their toes and helps to maintain standards at all levels.
“There is a positive spin off for businesses too in settling complaints. The evidence is that when a company adequately compensates an unhappy customer – they pass on more positive feed back to more people than they would if they had had good service in the first place.
Complaints include:
• The 75-year-old gran with arthritis who needed to change trains at Milton Keynes. Station staff wouldn’t let her son-in-law onto the platform to help her and then directed her to a goods lift, where she got trapped. She was given a full-refund and extra travel vouchers – although she refuses to travel by train again.
• The mum whose toddler banged his head when a supermarket trolley seat collapsed. She was first offered a big bag of sweets – but was later given £300 when she took it to the top.
• The granddad who counted the perforations in Typhoo tea bags with a pin to prove their ad campaign that there were 100 perforations in every bag was wrong – and won a years supply.
• A bug found in a home delivery pizza. The supplier refused compensation until the customer threatened to call environmental health – and £35 was offered on the spot.
• The father who always took a notebook on family holidays and jotted down every problem and complained about them all at the end of the break – netting hundreds of pounds in compensation.
