And you know what S2?

When you received the response it restored your faith in human nature. Bet you were gearing up for any one of a hundred excuses and having to go through the aggro of writing a letter to their customer services and spending the rest of the day snapping at all and sundry because some two-bit bleeding company can't get a simple order right.

The sad thing is that's what we always expect from customer facing organisations. I'm always surprised when the person on the other side of the counter or other end of the phone is helpful and resolves my query in the first call and doesn't shunt me round seven different departments first.

I always write to the MD when I have a good experience because that is usually passed back down the line to the person involved. It's all very well me saying thank you politely before ringing off but the organisation should know that their people are doing a good job.

I'm not always a grumpy old sod.

You're right apart from one thing: experiences like this destroy my faith in human nature.

Another equally disconcerting experience: reading that response actually and literally caused me to Laugh Out Loud.