Hotpoint Ltd.
Celta Road
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
PE2 9JB

13/10/2007

Dear Hotpoint,

Your washing machine has been stealing my socks! I know this may sound like a ludicrous accusation to most people but as I'm sure you're probably already aware, it's true.

Around 6 months ago my ex-girlfriend bought me the machine as an anniversary present. I was delighted at the time as it meant that I would no longer have to get her to hand wash my clothes for me. I did not realize that it would end up incurring further expense.

About a month after we had got it I noticed that the number of socks I owned was steadily decreasing. Even more annoyingly the socks were not disappearing in matching pairs and I was left with an unwanted collection of odd socks. Naturally I confronted my girlfriend about this, her being the only other (living) person in the house.

Naturally she vehemently denied this, seeming quite offended that I would accuse her of such a thing. However, driven by the logic that "denial is the first sign of guilt," this only made me more convinced that she was in fact the sock thief.

After our relationship deteriorated further we split up and she moved out (I cannot blame you completely for this and as such will accept partial responsibility). It wasn't until she had been moved out for a number of weeks and my socks were still going missing that I realized there was a good chance that she wasn't a sock thief at all, and probably never had been.

At this point I decided to count my socks before I put them in the wash, then sat next to the washing machine for its full cycle while I read my book. I then counted the socks as I took them out of the washing machine and compared the results. To my astonishment there was one less than there had been before I had put them in!

Confused, I repeated the process each time I did my washing over the next 3 weeks. Out of 6 washes I lost a total of 5 socks (the one "clean" wash didn't actually have any socks in at all, which annoyed me greatly when I realized I had just wasted the last hour sat next to a washing machine).

I have since thrown out all of the remaining odd socks I own, replacing them with 8 brand new pairs. I now take all socks around to my parents' house for my mum to hand wash, ensuring that none of them go anywhere near my washing machine again.

I am writing to you to complain, not only about the fact that your appliances have this unadvertised and unwanted feature, but also about the fact that you are causing my elderly mother more work and therefore more stress. I do not think it fair that a retired lady of 82 should have to spend her days washing my socks.

I would very much like to know how your washing machine disposes of my socks; I find it astonishing enough that a household appliance has the ability to distinguish between socks and other items of clothing. I would also like to know why it would want to do this and how it came to be able to do this in the first place.

I have since spoken to friends who have reported similar experiences (strangely, these do not appear to be specific to Hotpoint machines). As you can probably imagine, none of us are too pleased about the fact that we have had to fork out hard-earned cash to replace items that your machines are there to look after. Why did you include such a feature? Did you think we wouldn't notice?!

I would like a full explanation from you for this enigma. My patience with your washing machine is running as short as my supply of socks. I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Jameson

NO REPLY!