5 customer complaints that escalated hilariously in 2016
LONDON -- Complaining to companies doesn't have to be a dull, rage-inducing affair -- it can actually be an unexpected outlet for creative expression.
Just take the people below, for instance. Rather than letting 47-year flight connections and cucumber-dwelling worms get them down, they decided to harness the internet's power to turn their problems into something altogether more brilliant.
1. The time this woman found a worm in her salad.
After Leila Jayne Daly discovered a worm in her Sainsbury's lettuce, she penned the British store an hilarious open letter on Facebook -- this led to an equally brilliant response from a customer service rep named Ross, and a conversation that was shared around 24,000 times.
The outcome:
After some gloriously worm-themed negotiating, Daly eventually came home to discover two letters: one addressed to her, and one addressed to the worm (by this point it had been nicknamed Jackie Chan). Both had gift vouchers attached.
2. And this man, who discovered a worm in his cucumber.
Worm-themed complaints were clearly on trend in 2016. After Wes Metcalfe found a deceased worm in his Tesco cucumber, he decided to take a different tack with his Facebook complaint -- and it quickly made "William the worm" a social media celebrity.
The outcome:
Metcalfe posted photo evidence of the funeral he'd held for William, he and Rob from customer care traded a few songs about the worm's happier days, and Metcalfe got sent a gift card in the post so he could could treat himself to a fresh cucumber.
3. This unexpectedly flirtatious Twitter exchange.
What started off as a dig at Sainsburys' lack of contactless payment system quickly turned into some mild chicken wing-based flirtation on Twitter for Craig Hazell.
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The outcome:
Sadly for Hazell, Amanda vanished from Twitter and was replaced by a different customer service rep. Eventually she did make a reappearance after he penned her a poem, but her response might not have been what he was after.
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Still, Hazell did get a nice viral tweet out of it so the whole thing wasn't a complete loss.
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4. This woman's drunken Twitter exchange.
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After vlogger Lucy D'Agostino drunkenly tweeted a question mark at fashion website Boohoo when they didn't respond to her original query, she ended up having a late-night exchange with a customer service rep called Abul.
The outcome:
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D'Agostino got the items she'd originally enquired about, a solid 15,000 retweets, and -- most importantly of all -- some indispensable kebab advice.
5. This man's query about a 47-year flight connection.
After James Lloyd posted on travel company Skyscanner's Facebook page to query a 47-year flight connection, he received some truly excellent suggestions for ways to fill the time from a customer service rep called Jen.
The outcome:
Lloyd received a gift package from Skyscanner, and Jen's on-point responses won her the adoration of many, many Facebook fans (hopefully a promotion, too).
The lesson? If you have the time and the inclination, a well-worded Facebook letter might just get you further than an angry complaint.
