I don’t recall when I first saw a Le Creuset Screwpull corkscrew in action, but I do remember being impressed by its mechanical ingenuity. It was many years later when I saw one in a shop at a price that I felt I could afford (and it was still an awful lot for a corkscrew).

So… I was quite upset when my faithful Screwpull fell apart whilst trying to uncork a bottle of white last Saturday. I stopped swearing when I discovered that it was covered by a ten year guarantee, though I worried about the receipt – had I put it in the original box, and where the heck was that?

I called the helpline on Tuesday. They where helpful – giving me a Freepost address to send it back to, and advising that I should get a proof of posting slip from the Post Office.  Some bubble wrap, sticky tape and scootering followed and it was on it’s way.

A couple of days later I got a voicemail from customer services saying that my broken corkscrew had arrived, and that they would be shipping out a new one. And indeed a shiny new boxed Screwpull 200 (complete with foil cutter) just came in the post, with a nice note from Laura in customer services stuck to the box.

Well done Le Creuset for honouring your 10 year guarantee with minimal inconvenience and polite friendly communications from customer services. If only more companies could be like that.