To boldly complain

<< Trivial, though it sounds, I find it annoying that Asda have their pots of yoghurt, which reside on the top shelf of their fridges, stacked so that the top of the highest pot is in contact with the top of the fridge. Any fool would immediately work out that the yoghurts cannot be retrieved from this position without first pulling out the entire top layer.

If I'm expected to buy from a supermarket, I expect them to make it easy to retrieve their stock.

Asda are bad about this, their stock is always in a hard to reach place when I visit, around 12pm on a Sunday. There is no excuse, even though it is Sunday when I visit, I believe that if they are prepared to employ staff to take my money, then they should employ staff to provide suitable arrangement of stock.

To add to the problem, milk can usually only be found at the back of the racks at the bottom (rather than moved to the front at the top) and their bottled water is usually hidden underneath the plastic separators, which need removing when their layer's worth of bottles has been exhausted.

Individually, trivial complaints, I know. However, the yoghurt one is irritating and I brought it to the attention of the no excuses policy customer services staff at the beginning of this month. Unfortunately, their no excuses policy does not guarantee any result other than a lack of an excuse. The problems remained on my last visit.

I called a member of staff over to show them the problem with the yoghurts. Here is a letter to that staff member - I will not be sending her the letter, but I feel it best expresses my feelings. To all of those people who stared and pointed at the man speaking loudly in the dairy aisle this week, may I say **** you!

Dear Elaine, (or whatever your name is)

Here's a tip for you love. When a customer points out a problem and you agree with him, simply offer to solve it and try and assure him that it will not happen again. Do not, under any circumstances, assure him that you were on your lunch and so it definitely is not your fault.

You see, Elaine, blame is a bad thing. Finding a scapegoat solves no problem. Whether you agree that something should not happen is also irrelevant, though useful in getting it solved. Your colleagues in customer service have a no excuses policy, do you have a no culpability policy?

I know that you're not paid to think and that you did offer to get your manager, but a simple complaint about the effects of a problem does not warrant the protracted conversation you forced me to endure. I honestly don't give a toss what your systems involve, so long as the problem goes away, and I'd rather that you passed it on for future improvement rather than get me to go through the whole thing again.

How much would you bet that my next trip to Asda will bring me back into contact with fridge-ceiling-touching-yoghurts?