I am horrified to report the following story. Yesterday I received a beautiful Breakfast Hamper which was sent to me my my dearest friends who are celebrating their Ruby wedding anniversay. They thought it would be wonderful to share a breakfast together online and this was the perfect way for us to get together to celebrate. We noticed that the bread supplied was solid - in fact it was extremely stale dispite the sell by date. I therefore contacted F&M customer services and informed the company of the situation. I pointed out that I would not feel able to discuss this with our friends as I did not wish to embarrass them by suggesting that a gift they sent was sub-standard. I was told that there was no way that the situation could be resolved as a result of the Data Protection Act and the fact that a replacement could only be sent with the approval of our friends and that they would therefore need to contact them. Firstly, I fail to understand the DPA breach that would occur by resolving the matter directly. I was also told that it was not possible simply to send out a new loaf. So, this matter was unresolved. I have to believe that the Fortnum and Mason policy is to rest on a historical reputation rather than reagrding the current customers as in any way important. I fully expect this matter to remain unresolved becasue F&M actually do not care. I should point out that our friends have held an account with the company for many years. At the point at which we feel we can refer to this situation with them we will certainly be recommending that they close their account. This is a simple matter which could have been resolved so easily. In fact, it is mostly the fact that this was not resolved quickly and painlessly that annoys me so much. The actual response was SO diametrically opposed to my expectations that I feel it so necessary to let others know of how little F&M care about their customers.