Does anyone actually call the customer service number on food packaging? What made you do it if you did?

25 comments

1. We wrote to them instead, and got some vouchers

2. Opened a box of Celebrations and there was an empty wrapper on the surface, made me feel all dirty like someone had been eating my chocolates at the factory.

3. Regularly as I deal with food safety complaints

4. Got a bottle of Sprite a fair few years ago, tasted awful. Got another for free from the shop. Tasted worse. Called the number to report a possible bad batch. Was told it was the new recipe with stevia sweetener or whatever. They offered a freebie. Of something I no longer liked.

5. I did once for a box of quality street because it only had one green triangle, I got a voucher for £2.50 to spend on any nestle product and a letter

6. Called the number on an Old El Paso kit as the pack recipe was badly wrong. (3 times “half the cheese”, both zucchini and courgettes mentioned as ingredients … ).
   I got a “yeah, we got that wrong, thanks for calling” but no voucher or anything.

7. I rang Oasis once to complain that I had spent a whole pound on what was basically blackcurrant squash and water. They offered me a refund.

8. A pack of 10 fish fingers only had 9 fish fingers in it.

   Birds Eye were *very* interested in the batch number, and sent me a voucher (almost equivalent to the cost of the pack, but valid against any Birds Eye product). I do my shopping online, so gave the voucher to a friend.

9. Wrong content; things, (hair blob of an animal) in a bread loaf.

10. Not phone but I once emailed the email address from a sandwich pack. It was meant to be a chicken sandwich but was 2 slices of buttered bread and nothing else. They responded apologising and sent me a £2 gift card which I still haven’t used 3 years later cos I never have it when I go to the supermarket they made it out to.

11. Got a multipack of twixs. None of them had chocolate. Phoned the number and they apologised with a big box full.

12. Once because I opened a package of meat and it stank rotten and of bleach at the same time. This was from Morrisons. They took the batch number, refunded me and I didn’t get any further explanation. It was that bad I had to put it outside.

    I don’t eat meat anymore.

13. Many MANY moons ago i sent a letter to walkers because they didn’t include my looney tunes pog and i got a pack of pogs and was over the flippin moon lol

14. Dumped a bag of salad mix into a bowl and found a sort of corkscrew shaped sliver of metal. About the width of my little finger and half the length. Solid enough that I couldn’t bend or unfurl it. Called number and sent lot number and pictures. Company was Dole, I think (in US). They said it must’ve come off of their machinery – didn’t sound all that surprised, tbh. Got a stack of vouchers in the mail for free bags of salad.

15. Called the freephone number on a bottle of Coke from a payphone with my school mates when I was about 13. It used to say something like “Feedback?” so we called them up and said that the Coke was quite nice. Most innocent prank call ever but we were pissing ourselves, the person was so confused.

16. I used to work for an ad agency and one of the services they provided was those telephone numbers, it was just something they threw in with the whole branding and packaging part of the deal. It was literally just me an a guy sitting bored shitless in an office reading the news or chatting on forums, we were the office for all the hotlines and we never knew which one was calling when the phone rang. We just used to say things that sounded official and say sorry, and take details for freebies. Those numbers are bullshit but I liked that job a lot, it was so easy and I could be high af and no-one cared.

17. While at a festival my mate called the number on the side of a tin of heinz sausage and beans to ask if it was safe to eat cold. Had a good chat with the woman for like 10 mins she was sound.

18. Not me, but a friend once bought a pouch of Revels specifically for the orange one. He didn’t get any at all in that pouch so called the customer service number. After about 10 minutes on the phone and 5 business days, he got a box of 20x 200g pouches of Revels for free.

19. Did it a week ago, bought a roll of cling film that was impossible to get off the roll, absolutely infuriating, so quick rant down the phone and they’ve sent me a card with the cost of the roll on it to be redeemed next time I go to that supermarket.

20. My cousin complained that one of her four fingered Kit Kat was solid chocolate instead of biscuity inside. She got a box of 12 Kit Kats.

21. As a supermarket checkout bitch, I see some people make an entire living with it, occasionally coming through with entire wallets full. My biggest hate is these random 3rd party vouchers they send out. Half the time they don’t even work, or people don’t read the accepting retailers, then act like I must accept the voucher just because we happen to sell the product.

22. When I was little, I had one of those buttons yoghurts but it didn’t have any buttons in it so my mum rang up and got vouchers and they sent me a little chocolate moose soft toy.

23. When I was about 9 I wrote a letter to a seed company telling them they had sold my nana bad seeds because her carrots didn’t grow.
    She got a big box of seeds from them and I thought I was a superhero for a while

24. Yeah I had a bowl of cereal and chomped down on a huge stone that was in there nearly broke my tooth lol I sent the stone with a letter to them and they send me a letter of apology back and a cheque for £25 was pretty pleased with that 🙂

25. About 20 years ago my parents found cocktail sticks inside a loaf of bread. Called the number and they were extremely apologetic. Got a refund and somebody came along with a vanful of bread and gave them as much free bread as they could handle. Enough to fill the bread bin and every bit of space in the freezer. They didn’t buy bread for months.