Easter eggs and other chocolate delights

Dear customers and chocolate connaisseurs, l hope you are enjoying the Spring very much, and that you still have plenty of chocolate in stock.

l thank everyone of you for having ordered some Easter eggs from the website which l have not even advertised this year, and even more, l have hidden the Easter eggs page at the bottom of the shop. The truth is, l was thinking of not making them this year, but l didn't want to disappoint the ones of you whom l know enjoy them very much. So l did, but l thought to myself that if l hid the eggs page, not many would notice them, us modern persons being in a hurry and we don't have time to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the shop page to find the hidden products, do we. However, and l am grinning here because l enjoyed making them in the end, many of you found the page and ordered eggs among the 4 flavours l had available this time. l have a few eggs left (l must check the product page as l have ran out of the large praline eggs) if any of you would like some. l thank the many of you who have subscribed to receive the newsletter also! Thank you! l have a question for you. If you were me (l know you are not, but we can play pretend for a minute) what would you do if you got an email like this: Hi,

You recently delivered an egg to me but we were out and it was left outside in the hot sun in our porch way and has unfortunately melted.

Please can you send a replacement.

Many thanks, D. Now, this person ordered a large 12cm, £28 caramel egg, which l posted at the post office last week, with Royal Mail. He is a first-time customer, he had ordered just this one big item. l was on time for sending my "dispatched" notices (unlike sometimes where l forget when l come back from the post office) so he had been warned the delivery would come soon. He could be genuine, but (and l am assuming here that he wants a free egg replacement) there is a hint of entitlement there in his words. Of course, if he offers to pay for a new one, l have all this very wrong. What makes me ask the question to you, is because of the assumption that because he was out, and his porch is in the sun, the chocolate had melted and l am to send him a replacement, well, l don't know what to do for the best. There is no photo of the melted egg - I don't know if he ate it, threw it away, or just kept it and set it back in the fridge.

The email is polite and concise, he is expressing his needs and what he wants to happen. However, the post office did its best to deliver the parcel to his "safe place" and the fact his porch was warm enough to melt the egg (where is the photo?) is neither our issue. Post office doesn't offer a cold parcel service and there was no note in the email asking me to put a notice on the box for the postman not to leave it in the porch if it was hot weather. What would you do if you were in my shoes? Knowing that it is a real hassle to get certified on Google Business and l have been certified once already but Google has removed my certification (don't ask me why, I don't know) and l have one negative review on there from a year ago which l cannot reply to - as well as the other positive reviews who must think l do not care (l do, l love you lots, thank you for your reviews).

l would rather not get any negative reviews and I may well get one, if l told him that it is his responsibility and if he wanted another egg he could buy another one. l could be kind and make him specially a new egg and ask him to pay half, or ask him to pay for postage only, but the way the email was written and the tone of it didn't trigger the response he would want. What is a small business owner to do in this situation? If he was a returning customer l know well, or even one l don't know well, it would be different. (very unlike insurance companies) You know, l do feel flat at the moment, you probably can tell from this non-entertaining newsletter. However, I wish you that if you are flat feeling yourself, that you go and do something you have been putting off, so you can end up relieved and joyful, which is what I am doing now.

I feel guilty having given you no Easter news!

I will do my best to be more entertaining next time!

À bientôt,

Alexandra