Miss Angry in Glasgow

This week I did something that is an exceptionally rare occurrence for me. I wrote a letter of complaint (well technically an email of complaint). I am the type of person that is always paying too much for gas and electricity. Never returns a item that is is faulty or doesn't fit (I have many items in my wardrobe that still have the tags on, furthermore there are many items abandoned at my mum and dad's house that have never been worn) I simply cannot be bothered with the hassle that this ensues. I know, I hear you all sighing with disapproval at my careless ways. I am far more likely to write a letter (email) of praise to a shop / business that has exceeded expectations. I worked for a long time in shops as a student and in customer service as a professional and thus when i get truly good service I want to ensure that the management / organisation appreciate its quality staff.

So what could possibly have provoked this sloth-like person to put pen to paper / fingers to keyboard? I was recently shopping in a famous British shop (you know the one, excellent food adverts that make you want to lick the TV and always a celeb-fest Christmas commercial) and saw that a favourite candle of mine had returned to the shelves. Excellent I thought as I shoved one into my basket. Now this candle had long been a favourite of mine. I always liked to burn one in my house, and had taken to gifting them to people who invited me over for dinner. Traditionally there were two sizes available a large and regular. Both encased in glass jars and boxed for sale. The large was the first to disappear from the shelves and sporadically the smaller one could be found in the larger stores, but eventually they disappeared all together.


So imagine my delight at finding, the smaller one, admittedly, back on sale. I duly purchased the boxed candle and went about the rest of my day. The following house work day I dug the candle out of the cupboard and removed it from its box ready to place it resplendent on my coffee table. Well, I was hugely disappointed, although the box packaging had remained the same the glass jar had shrunk, and thus the candle, and gone was the paper label replaced by a cheap looking, haphazardly placed, clear sticker describing the contents.

So disappointed that my £7.50 (the other glass candles in a slightly larger size are £5) had not bought the product that I expected I felt compelled to write to share my views. Now I am sure that they all had a good laugh in the office when they received my 3 paragraph rant about a ridiculous, extremely minor product in their range! I have lots of candles in my flat ranging from tea light in holders that have a combined cost of about 50p to exquisite sensual scented ones at £37 a pop. Why I felt such anger at the cheap look of the £7.50 scented candle in glass jar I still do not know, why that anger drove me to share my views with the retailer, I do not know. The point is that I did. If I applied this energy to researching gas and electricity suppliers, returning unsuitable clothes and complaining about faulty goods I'm sure I'd be able to afford many more scented candles!