I figure that if I’m happy to moan about companies that mess me about or rip me off I should be equally happy to praise companies or products that impress me, and today I was mightily impressed by Fireplace World.

Back in May I bought an electric fire online after getting thoroughly cheesed off with Homebase.  The fire arrived the next day, I installed it and more or less forgot about it. Recently Jayne has been putting it on – just the fire effect and not the actual heat – to make the room feel cosier. Unfortunately the fire made a high-pitch whistling noise that was unbearable.

This week I dug out the paperwork for it and Jayne called up the customer support number. They said it was not acceptable for us to be unhappy with their product and promised an immediate replacement which arrived the very next day and works perfectly. They are arranging for the old fire to be collected on Friday.

I wasn’t aware when I bought it that the website and retail operation was owned by Adams so in effect we were buying directly from the manufacturer. It made everything very easy because they had proper records of exactly when we bought it even though I forgot to send off the registration card (oops).

It is an old cliche that the aim of a customer services operation is to delight their customers and this helpline certainly did that.