I was intending to withdraw from this discussion, which I shall anon, but since you people are evidently fans of „close reading“, a few comments are in order first.
1. „A little politeness goes a long way“: in my posts occur the words „please, excuse me, thank you“ and „sorry“ (the last two twice). In the replies occur, referring to me, the expressions „ranting and raving (twice—once referring to my extremely bland first post!), making a fool of yourself, barging in (cough — you mean posting on a topic that has already come up twice before and was resolved, which gave me hope that I could get my loco this way? For this attitude I suppose every new thread is a „barging-in“), public ranting, more than a bit unfair, unnecessary grieving, fluster of hot spleen, your enemy is making a mistake (is it a mistake that my order will now be processed in a few days?)“. On the other hand I have not noticed a single one of my polite words in any reply. But this, I am to understand, is just „reasonable animosity“.
Please (whoops, there I go again!) can someone point out any actual impoliteness in my posts? I admit I used the expressions „ranting“ and „raging about a bit“, but that was (obviously, as I thought, especially to suble Brits) some self-deprecating humor, especially applying it to myself in the absence of any justification. I also admit I was a bit snarky about Locomotion, but that was the point: I was annoyed about the problem, and Mr. Lovett has honestly admittped that my order fell between the cracks.
2. People don‘t read the posts before replying (or immediately forget what was in them, I had neglected that possibility): see above on my fruitless attempt to use the webside contact button and now add „imagine how fast it could have been resolved if you had phoned them“: please (whoops!) read the post I have several times referred to, „Is there anyone there at Locomotion?“ He called „a few times“ from Australia; I didn‘t want to try this from Switzerland.
3. Patting yourself on the back that this forum led to a resolution: that is perfectly true, but it also shows that the staff at Locomotion read this forum more than their own e-mail and contact forms.
Knowing the excellent level of Latin competence in England please (goddammit!) allow me to conclude with: Illegitimis non carborundum.