Don't judge a book by its cover....

The cricket season is upon us; the sweet smell of freshly-mown grass a little way off yet but games to be played. So it was that we motored over to Preston on Sunday to cricket specialist Super Sports (web presence www.super-sports.co.uk).

In an off-pitch location on a fairly busy road, some way out of the town centre, we missed the shop on our first passing. As can be seen by this photo, salubrious is not a word that comes to mind to describe this Aladdin's Cave of cricketing goods.

Step inside and one is greeted warmly by the two co-owners, cricketers themselves, Mushy and Nadeem. Whilst I was seated watching Sky Sports my son was served by the two owners proffering advice and suggestions.

So it was we left goods in hand (imported own label bat made to their own specification, bating gloves, wicket keeping gloves and inners, and thigh pad), wallet a little lighter, but with a warm feeling of time well spent and a store more than worth a repeat visit.

Super Sports can be be found at 39 New Hall Lane, Preston PR1 5NX

Upselling at your Post Office

Standing in a queue, thirteen long, at my local Post Office the other day it would appear the staff are on a selling drive. Seated behind some low screens, but audible to everyone in the queue, an employee was selling an elderly customer some household insurance.

When I got to the head of the queue to send a letter by registered post I was asked if I would like guaranteed next day delivery for ONLY £5. Don't you just love that 'only' tag? I declined the offer and sent the letter for £1.85. But I can see how a flustered customer who has had to wait for seven minutes - yes I timed it (sad I know but I couldn't help it) - might just take that offer.

Having said that it becomes apparent that Post Office staff have to deal with a vast array of services including passport checking, foreign currency transactions, and the selling of financial products. And they do all this in a as friendly a way as possible given the relatively drab store environment.

After sales service

We have had to make a couple of replacement purchases recently: a vacuum cleaner and a dishwasher. Both items were purchased from Currys. The blended experience of online search, reservation, trade-in (of old Dyson vacuum) and delivery (and removal of old dishwasher) were excellent.

However, we have been dismayed by the performance of both products.

The Hoover dishwasher firstly. The seal around the door kept coming adrift, the plate rack kept falling over and the rotary arm (that sprays the water onto the dishes etc.) would not spin. We thought our plates were too big. A call to Curry's helpline got us a home visit from the Hoover engineer. He had to trim the rubber seal and showed us how to change rack height so our plates (which are standard size) now allow the rotary arm to spin. The engineer was excellent, explaining everything and also carrying out an electrical test. The product isn't great though as the seal still keeps coming away.

Now to the Dyson. Using the Curry's helpline once again we are patched through to Dyson who are unable to accept our call - too busy?, too few contact personnel? Who knows? I leave name and number on their automated system. Two hours later no response so I tweet my views on the 'service'. I then received a call back from a very pleasant Dyson employee. Our DC25 has been registered with Dyson so they know the model number we have and I explain the problem. The cleaner will not return to an an upright position. Yes, Dyson know about this design fault and to fix it I have to turn the cleaner over and push very hard on the two wheels. The fix works. In the interim I get a direct tweet from Dyson asking if they can help!

So both these big brands know about the faults but are leaving us to find out for ourselves that there is trouble ahead.