The car, the cinema and the rainbow cake

Or the utterly flabbergasting power of social media.

And the birthday was saved!

I didn't think it would work, honestly I didn't.  I mean actually who reads this blog? Who tweets? Who's interested in what I put on my personal (I told them I blog! eek!) facebook page?

Do Citroen really care if L's birthday is ruined because their supply chain is rubbish?

Turns out they do.

On Wednesday afternoon I posted this (click the link if you have no idea what I'm talking about).   I also stuck it on my and B's and Citroen's facebook pages.  I also asked anyone who read it to tweet it.

B and I have, in total, we reckon, about 500 separate friends on facebook.  According to blogger about 350 people read the post (which I think means actually clicked on it).  I don't understand twitter, but I think about ten people tweeted it.

Citroen are a pretty big company.  They must spend millions on marketing.  As a result they must have a global reach to futher millions of people. They're not going to care about fewer than 1000 of my friends and relations, are they?

My phone rang at 8.45 on Thursday morning.  By Friday afternoon (took them time to find one big enough) we had this.

A Hyundai Hee-Owge (that may not actually be what it's called). All expenses (well not the petrol, obviously) paid.

By this morning the part was at the garage, and by mid-afternoon today, we had this, shiny and clean, riding high on its lovely new rear suspension:

Even better, on Sunday lunchtime, L had this:

And by Sunday afternoon she had a bucket of popcorn as big as her head on her lap, and a pair of 3D glasses attached to her nose.

I don't get it. I really don't.  What's a thousand people to the millions Citroen reach through advertising?  What was it about us that got us bumped up the queue (because we're far from being alone with this problem)?  Was it the human interest of poor little L, with her wobbly bottom lip and her tear-streaked face, missing her birthday treat?  Was it the blog? Was it the tweets? Was it the fact that though we were clearly fed up with the situation we didn't shout or swear?  Was it actually not us at all, but the garage (Dalgleish in Coldstream, who were also hassling on our behalf) that applied the vital pressure in our favour?

I don't know.  I probably never will.  I don't understand it, but I'm very grateful for whatever it was.

So thank you.  You, and the garage,and Citroen.

And apologies to the several hundred other Citroen owners who have, according to Citroen's facebook page, this forum and others, been waiting, mostly a lot longer than we have, and continue to wait.

Because while Citroen were great to us (why?)  they're still being rubbish.  They still haven't got the parts for other people, their supply chain is still non-existent (some people are being told it may be 8-10 weeks for the part) and they still won't admit that there's actually a fault with the thing in the first place.  So, again, please tweet this post, if you tweet. 

Because Citroen deserve to be praised for the way they treated us, but we're not alone, and there are other people, and probably other six year olds, who deserve to be treated as we were.  

If it worked for us, you never know...