Something that frustrates my colleague John Austen is that although all the news and product information for KBzine might have long been finished and uploaded, he has to wait for my leaders as I tend to leave them until the last minute to ensure that they're topical.

Not so this week, (or so I thought) since I prepared today's leader this morning. It began with: "Another week and I'm still without a fridge" and went on to say how the engineers arrived last Tuesday and discovered that far from my fridge being broken because I'd damaged it, the thermostat and/or sensor appeared to be faulty. After much bashing about they left my appliance in the middle of the kitchen where they'd found it and told me they'd ordered new parts as they don't carry them. They said the parts would "hopefully" be in sometime this week and that the retailer would be in touch...

I didn't actually respond that I wouldn't hold my breath - partly because none of this was their fault but also because I was biting my lip so as not to ask why the heck they didn't carry what I'd consider to be essential parts on the repair van! I waited patiently until this lunchtime before contacting the retailer to say I was still wondering what was going on.

I don't know if the fact that I'd taken to posting my despair on the retailer's Facebook page had anything to do with it, or whether it was the last post in which I included the Group managing director's email address and asked if it was the one I should use for my complaint, or whether the company realised it hadn't performed well, but I've just had a message to say that owing to the length of time I've been without a fridge, the company is going to replace the appliance.

Naturally I'm delighted, but it has rather messed up my leader which I've had to rewrite and caused John - and you - to wait again!

This is the second time a repair engineer hasn't had essential supplies on board - the last one had come specifically to replace my last fridge freezer's lead (chewed through by a rat my cat had brought in) and didn't have a lead or plug with him! New Year resolution for repair people perhaps... carrying all the parts that might be needed? Mine is to get my leaders done early in future!

Merry Christmas!

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Yours,

Jan Hobbs