How to do "customer service"

My other half (soon-to-be-wife) likes Denby crockery. We've been collecting the Denby "White" stuff for a while and are well into having the whole set. Our wedding list ought to help us towards having the whole lot. Emma (that's her name, so I'll pretend you know her from here) was pleased to have bought their pasta bowls. We're aspiring cooks and enjoy simple pasta dishes (linguine aglio e olio being my current favourite, with lots of 3-year aged Reggiano parmesan - get the best ingredients from http://www.mediterraneandirect.co.uk/ - they are superb. Just a few weeks after we put them in the crockery cupboard, Emma caught one of them, ever-so-gently against a Denby plate and it chipped - very easily. We put it aside and decided to call them. Their stuff is quite expensive so we felt that it had chipped too easily. It was odd though - none of our other stuff had chipped in several years.

Calling them went to the bottom of our to-do list until it happened again. This time we don't even know how. Denby were called straight away and were impressive enough that I'm compelled to tell you about it. First they sent us a nice padded envelope with a returns form. We promptly forgot to send the two bowls back. A couple of weeks passed and Denby wrote to us reminding us to send the bowls to them. An unusual step, but a great reminder. They went back that same day. Within a week, two brand new bowls arrived with a letter explaining that they were unable to find a fault that caused the chip, but that they wanted to replace the bowls anyway. Brilliant. The letter also asked us to let them know what the postage had cost us. This morning, a cheque for £4.96 arrived to cover the postage.

It's hardly a riveting account of complaints, ombudsman and watchdogs, but it's nice to be able to espouse a positive, customer-oriented company. There was no problem dealing with them and the stuff we have is lovely to use. My often-too-spicy food looks great in their stuff. So, when you see that Denby is a little more expensive than the own-brand stuff, there's why. Our wedding list will be live in a couple of months. Let's hope people buy us the nice Denby stuff we've got on it!