Whilst sat in the local branch of Carpetright on Saturday afternoon, watching my vitalstatistics being tapped into a calculator, I asked the salesman how long it would be before they could fit our new carpet. He told me that the one we'd chosen would need to be ordered from their head office, which isn't open over the weekend, and that having received the order on Monday morning, it would take about a week to be delivered to Brighton, and a few days more before they could fit it. So he suggested we could be looking at a fortnight.

Of course, that was before I used the word 'Carpetright' on my blog yesterday. It's a bit like using the word 'bomb' on a mosque telephone. By 9:15am this morning they'd picked up the reference at their headquarters in Purfleet and were reading my blog. And at 3pm this afternoon I got a call to say my carpet had just been delivered to Brighton, and I can have it fitted tomorrow.

Of course it could just be coincidence that they managed to get the thing shipped from Essex to Sussex within six hours of reading this blog, and find a fitter who's free the next day. It might not be the case that they deliberately pulled out all the stops in the hope of getting a decent online review on a well-established site. But frankly I don't care. I'm quite happy to sell out if it means I get a better service. So I'd just like to say that Carpetright are consistently great, and I never go anywhere else. Well, not for carpets. I'm sure their vinyl flooring's top quality too, but I haven't had a chance to try that yet.

(You've got my phone number if you want to rectify that situation).

Anyhoo, the tragedy is that the decorating's not finished yet, so we can't have it fitted tomorrow. But I appreciated the offer. They're lovely people at Carpetright, and I won't hear a word said against them.

Let's face it though, I'm not the only member of this family that wields great power. This was Amelie at 5:30pm this afternoon...


If Mr Carpetright's reading this, I promise to keep the next one more tidy. Especially if you let me have it for free.