It does pay to contact the company!

Oh yes, I have done this before. In college my friend and I used to always get Arizona (the same company who makes the iced tea) Lite Chocolate soda before this super boring class we had together. After a while the soda we were getting started tasting really weird. First we got new ones for the store…still tasted icky…so we decided to write the company. We must have written a pretty funny letter because the head of the company called us directly. They loved our letter and passed it around the company. Apparently they had troubles with sealing the bottles in one of their shipments. This made the soda go bad, so to speak. A few days after the call we found a HUGE box waiting for us at the post office. They had sent us more soda, t-shirts, and other fun freebies to apologize for our bad experience. It was really fun and it was so nice to know that we had been heard. What great customer service!

I done this twice actually. first is that ice tea ( i bought it in a little store and it tasted blah...and i saw the date expired already )...i call the customer service number, they sent me coupons for 3 bottles free. the other one is mac and cheese...expired also...i call the company and they sent 3 boxes free.

I bought starkist tuna 3 cans and there was something wrong with all three cans had black stuff throughout all three cans. My mom told me to write them and complain because we refused to eat it not knowing what it was and we sent them samples of it also and they rresponded back within a week and sent 3 coupons for 3 free cans of starkist tuna. My mom also filed a complaint with a company becuase she found bugs in the cornmeal she bought and several other items by the same company and they sent her a box free of every item they made and apologized for bugs and said they possibly got in the bags from the store where she bought them. We have to keep them on their toes to let them know when their is problems with their products and other stuff so they can fix it.

wow vokey we need to take a page form your book! i did this once...i got a can of pringles...when i opened the can it was not full...i mean if i put my hand in the can the empitness went up to my knuckles. They said maybe it was from the crumbs settling. i said there was NO crumbs to have settled so they sent me a coupon for a free can...however i not longer eat pringles...they got weird tasting and i like Stax better

Good for you! I did that once years ago. I opened a can of tuna fish and as I scooped it into a bowl, I noticed there were many little bones in the tuna. Fish bones, they were small and thin but hard. I wrote the company (it was before I was into computers, otherwise I would have emailed them). They sent me 2 coupons for free tuna and a letter saying they were sorry and that a machine packs the tuna and sometimes all the tiny bones don't get out and end up in the can by mistake.

I do that anytime I'm not satisfied. Most times they're very nice and send a coupon to replace the product. I've had one or two that wrote back basically saying, "Yeah? And what do you expect us to do about it?"

I did this for Hot Pockets that we bought and just didn't taste right. I got 2 coupons for free Hot Pockets. My boss had his luggage damaged and decided to submit a claim thinking that it would be rejected. Not only did he get the money for his replacement bag (no questions asked) he got 2 vouchers for up to $250 off of airfare.

Oh that's great that they sent you a coupon for that. What a great company, what company was it? I can't say that I have done something like that, I always mean to but just never seem to get around to it. lol

I wrote an email once to subway restaurants because I was not at all satisfied with the service I was given one day. They say that their breads are made fresh daily but the bread they used for my sandwich was so hard and stale it was just gross.. when I told the manager about it they were rude with me and she was saying that she knew it was not stale because she made it that morning.. it was only early afternoon.. so I wrote a letter letting them know that I was not satisfied and that I had tried to explain to the lady about it being stale but she was rude. so the company emailed back and apologized and ended up sending me a card in the mail that was good for 2 free 6 inch subs.. when we went it was my kids and my fiance and I so we had quite a bit more than two 6 inch subs but I was surprised that they even replaced anything at all. the only bad part was we had to go to the same crappy subway to use the gift card thing... but atleast they were sorry and made things better.

I always write letters to companies when I have a complaint and I have written to corporate offices when I have had a really good experience in a store or shop. I wrote to Yankee Candle once about an unhappy visit to one of their stores and they actually called me, sent me an apology and $25 gift card to the store. I have gotten all kinds of coupons, gift cards and even free products as a result of my letters. I think companies need to know what they are doing right and wrong. If their customers don't tell them, how can they improve the wrongs and keep doing the rights? I even write to complain on behalf of the employees sometimes. I went to Dollar General a few weeks ago the A/C was broken. It was 97 outside and the temp in the store was registering 108. There were no windows that could be opened. They had the front doors open and 4 box fans going. It was horrid in that store. I wrote to the corporate office to ask why this problem hadn't been fixed. The clerk had told me that it had been broken for over 4 months. The manager had asked corporate to fix the issue several times. So I wrote a letter. I told them that they should be ashamed of themselves and that I was sending a copy of my letter to OSHA. They sent me a letter thanking me for bringing this matter to their attention. I went to the store Saturday and the A/C was fixed. I also never just send my letters to customer service. I go online, find out who the top people are and send my letters to them. I always send copies to the President, the VP, CEO if different from the President and Customer Service. I always get responses.

I once bought a case of Squirt (soda) and it was flat. I called up the company and they were very nice about it asked a few questions and sent me a few coupons for free cases of Squirt. Another time I bought a frozen Connie pizza, it just didn't taste right, like it might of been spoiled. I called them up also. They sent me several coupons for free pizza's and $2.00 off a couple more. I also happened with a couple of other things.

I complained recently about a nappy that the sticky tags werent sticky and sent one back to the company and they sent me a whole big bag of them back to me for free!!! I was really impressed by this! I remember a few years back I complained about a packet of corn chips as there were big lumps of the flavouring in the packet and they sent me about 10 packets of chips for free, that was pretty cool. I think people should tell the company when there are things wrong with their products other wise they dont know anything is wrong and cant fix the problem

Yes, I bought a case of can coke once, and 2 of them, still unopened were empty! I wrote them a letter, and they sent me a case of coke, and an apology!

this is awesome. im going to start writing companies when i feel there is something wrong with their products.

nice to read that... well in sevral occassions i also contacted company on missing item or regarding any problema nd i also got favour from them...either they sent complimentary item or similar item without any extra charge.... so its really worth contacting them.

My client got some baked Lays and there was this big, knot of chips in the bag. She called to ask about the situation and they proceeded to send her coupons for free bags of chips. She got 6 free bags in all.