These aren't ordinary roses, these are Marks and Spencer's roses - dreadful aren't they?

The dear iGit made the mistake of entrusting his token of love; a dozen red roses (that costs the tidy sum of £40) to Marks and Spencer this year.   He is apt to be forgetful, and had quite forgotten the sodden frozen mess his sister had sent us for Christmas, also from Marks and Spencer. My roses are puny, they don't look anything like the image on the Marks and Spencer website used to sell them. In fact he could have bought a similar bunch of roses at the Garage or in Tesco for between £5 and £10 today! I know because I checked before I wrote this on the way back from having treatment at the hospital.    No wonder people think that celebrations like Valentine's Day are nothing more that over hyped commercialised rip-off.

It wasn't just the puny quality of the flowers that upset me, knowing what they had cost him. It was the fact they were so very obviously bruised and damaged; they looked frosted. I made him phone Marks and Spencer's customer services. Do you know what they said? 'The roses are grown at high altitude, and often suffer from sun damage'. So its a known problem, which they don't tell you on their website, and yet they expect you to stump up for inflated prices for what they are knowingly selling; substandard goods. Whatever happened to the Marks and Spencer we knew and loved?    After much prevarication on their part, they offered a refund, well bully for them. I was upset because my annual treat of a dozen red roses were dog-eared and tatty, despite costing £40, and the iGit was upset and embarrassed too. Nothing was done to redress this, except for the women repeatedly saying, I am sorry, in a way that you knew was a platitude; she had to say it many times a day, and it was meaningless; an automatic response to yet another disappointed customer.

I tried to complain on the Marks and Spencer Facebook page, but despite writing in a perfectly reasonable and measured tone, do you know how they respond to me? A note of apology? an offer to compensate me, or send new flowers? No .... they delete my posts! So - this shows you the real colours of Marks and Spencer. I for one won't be gracing their doors again.

If like me you feel this is a disgraceful way to treat your customers,  I would be  very grateful if you could post  the following on Twitter and ask people to RT it:

http://bit.ly/eJM5Ve    #thesearentordinaryrosestheyaremarksandspencerroses

Thank You!

P.S. I have subsequently written to the CEO of Marks and Spencer, Marc Bolland, and also submitted it to  the BBC's Consumer program 'Watchdog'. It will be interesting to see if the former replies, or whether my email is deleted too .