Lighter side: Strange compensation offers from companies

Providing compensation to dissatisfied customers may seem like a logical response, but these companies should probably stick to a simple apology.

How would you like a year’s supply of fruitcake? What about the opportunity to adopt a meerkat?

These are a couple of examples of bizarre forms of compensation offered to dissatisfied customers, according to a survey by the UK website Resolver

The site compiled a list of the 25 most unusual compensation offers, which included an out-of-date bottle of orange juice which fermented and exploded, a Cadbury crème egg and a free meal at the same restaurant where the complainant got food poisoning.

Other compensation fails included:
  • “An exchange for the same product which was the wrong item in the first place.”
  • “A box of chocolates after a service issue cost me over 100 pounds and five hours of my time to sort it out.”
  • “A voucher for a new tyre from a scrap yard.”
  • “8,000 flying club miles, despite complaining that I am finding it impossible to spend the club miles as there were no qualifying flights.”
  • “A book of vouchers only redeemable in the USA so we would have to buy flights to go and spend them.”
  • “Sex offered by the girl on the phone from the contact centre.”
What’s the strangest compensation offer you’ve come across?