【Detective Archives】

LONDON -- Complaining to companies doesn't have Detective Archivesto be a dull, rage-inducing affair -- it can actually be an unexpected outlet for creative expression.

SEE ALSO: Man discovers the world's greatest drunken apology method

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.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

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.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

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.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

2. And this man, who discovered a worm in his cucumber.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

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.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The outcome:

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

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.

Mashable Trend Report Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

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.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

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.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Still, Hazell did get a nice viral tweet out of it so the whole thing wasn't a complete loss.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

4. This woman's drunken Twitter exchange.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

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:

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

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.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

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.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The outcome:

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

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.

---

Featured Video For You

---

10 years, 4 million YouTube followers – meet the internet's favourite mad scientist

---

Topics Facebook X/Twitter