The fruits of complaining

I e-mailed the local bus company where my mum lives to complain that I had missed the last bus of the day because it arrived 7 minutes early just as I was walking down the road to catch it. It was the second time in the last couple of months that it had happened. I'd had to take a taxi costing me an extra £13.

I got an apologetic reply the next day saying that the driver in question had admitted that he had mis-timed the run. I was assured that all drivers had been reminded to keep to the specified time for each stop. I was happy with this but would have been even happier if they'd offered to reimburse my £13!

Deedaa - nice bottle? Jane - that sounds like good customer relations! If something gives wrong, and it's dealt with well, that's what you remember and tell people isnt it - how they made amends. It still amazes me how some businesses don't appreciate this fact

Yes, at a restaurant, a former favourite of ours and our local. We had a meal there a month ago that was virtually inedible. We complained and when we went there last week for a friend's retirement dinner, the manager recognised us and all we paid was £10. The rest was written off.

We had a bottle of wine from Nationwide when they messed up an International money transfer. It was very nice of them but we had still lost the Italian Grand Prix tickets we'd been trying to buy.