Customer service

Credit where credit's due.

The Merrell trainers I bought last Christmas had developed a split in both the leather and the wall beneath.

This clearly was not a Good Thing, especially because I wear them just about every day. My previous pair of Merrell's lasted about 5 years. So, discovering a Cotswold shop in Skipton a couple of weeks ago, I went to see if anything could be done. "Not without the receipt, I'm afraid, sir", says the assistant. Well, understandable, but hardly creative. Who takes receipts from last Christmas when they go boating in May?

So yesterday I decided to email Costwold's customer services, and got the usual automated response indicating that they hoped to reply within a couple of days. But it was only a couple of hours later that Lucy C from Cotswold replied to say (a) I should take them in to the shop again; (b) she couldn't find the receipt itself, but had made a PDF from the sale record on their computer, and attached it.

Eschewing delay, we opted to cruise back to Skipton today. Along I went to the shop, and it couldn't have been simpler. Nicola (the local manager) copied down the details, and the deal was done.

While we were at it, I decided to go for the GoreTex upgrade. They turned out to go rather nicely with my Craghopper trousers, even if grey isn't exactly adventurous.

This wasn't the first bit of good customer service I've had this week. With the grandchildren over from Oslo, Enterprise car hire's Keighley branch have had my custom for four trips to and from Manchester Airport. They are a very nice bunch of people but that, of course, does not necessarily make for good or efficient service. However, they went out of their way to set me up with exactly what I needed, and I ended up one very happy bunny. I know they're under pressure from above to get excellent reports from customers, but in this case I felt their hearts were in it as well. They'd bought into the model.

So, while in this happy mood I'll sign off with a satisfying picture I took at Kildwick a couple of nights ago.

My best beloved was in Norway at the time, but the same ol' moon was shining on us both.