I've never flown in First so also wondered what that was. Thanks to c-w-s for the explanation.

I have also now learned that asking for Avios as compensation is what you should do. A few years ago the entire first row of CW (row 10) on our flight to Philadelphia had no IFE at all. After two attempts at rebooting the system the CSD gave up and offered all 8 passengers something out of the Duty Free on board sales catalogue (excluding booze!). I would have much preferred Avios. I did ask if I could be upgraded to CW from WT+ on my already booked flight to IAD for the following month but that was denied. I should have persisted. Oh well that was in the past, lesson learned.

5k then 10k Avios offered to OP sounds derisory especially from the figures c-w-s quotes.

For reference, I recently received 15,000 Avios after a LHR-SIN flight in CW (redemption) where the hinge on the screen was faulty and the screen did not stay in place, managing at best 45 degrees but still moving. May sound petty, but it didn't lock in place in front of me, and I wasn't about to lean forward and to the side to watch it head on for 13 hours. Raised it with crew who did their best to fix it with wooden stirrers to no avail. The guy did promise to send the CSD over but that didn't happen. Filled out the web complaint form when we got home and I was immediately offered 15,000 Avios which I thought fair.
Initial response took about a week, and for some reason Avios didn't appear initially so I followed up and they appeared the following day.

They did also tell me they valued my Blue membership, so perhaps that had something to do with it ;)

Yes, 5k is way too few, and 10k wouldn't sound right unless you had something like it was ok to watch some things but not full functionality. So the CSD should have been more customer focused, in a way the next step is the way forward since hopefully CR can assess this better.

I've had this issue with the screen on UD on the 747 quite a few times. Luckily the CSD on the first flight had a trick up her sleeve and she used a wine bottle cork to wedge the sliding mechanism in place (it worked perfectly). Every time it's come up as an issue since, I've told the crew of this little trick which they've then tried and it works every time. ... it didn't occur to me ask for Avios... wish I had now as I'd have prob another 60k avios in the account. :-)

I think we've come to expect it on those old birds, but this was a 4 year old A380. Good to know there is a fix, though; that is information that I may or may not choose to deploy in the future ;-)

The cork trick sounds a better idea than the swizzle stick I got given...which would suddenly snap and bits of plastic flying through the air. Maybe I should carry a cork with me but flag it up for avios purposes!! :-) You really do wonder if general planned maintenance is carried out these days.

IN general, it is really not good enough that people have a poor flight in First - myself included. Are there cabin crew specifically trained for First or can anyone just bid for these flights?

Out of interest can I ask what route this was? LHR to ???

I've flown in Club World and First where there have been issues with the IFE system. It's so common that cabin crew try and fix it and, if it can't be fixed, just move on and apologise. Nothing they can do. Often it will affect the entire plane, irrespective if you're in Economy or First. So frustrating though if you didn't prep your iPad in advance - I've learned now to make sure I have at least one movie stored on my iPad....just in case.

Yes, understood - technology is often the problem in all walks of life ;-)

It wasn't so much that it wasn't fixed, it was much more the way the whole situation was handled. This was my first time in First and I'd been really looking forward to it, but the attitude I encountered definitely spoiled my experience (and for my husband, too, who'd wanted it to be a real treat for me). I was left feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable, which wasn't at all what I was expecting.

Probably bucking the trend here but I've had good flights in First recently so submitted positive feedback to Customer Services and received a reply within 24 hours from GGL Customer Services.

Have we had an answer yet as to whether there were other seats available with working IFE? If there was then I'm not sure any compensation would be offered.

Post 13

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=31414276&postcount=13

OP indicates just one spare seat but that it suffered the same issue, so unfortunately moving doesnt seem to have been a solution this time

Oh my! I'm not doing very well this morning. I'd better go and have a lie down :)