Ellee Seymour

There was a time when most of my invites were for those dull parties where household products and jewellery were sold. I now seem to have been elevated on to another list.

Totally out of the blue, I have this evening been invited to the American Embassy by the Ambassador and his wife, Robert and Maria Tuttle. I’m taking my mother Loula with me to share the fun.

We are going to commemorate International Women’s Day by watching the film Iron Jawed Angels, which describes the courage of American suffragettes.  Awe-inspiring, gritty stuff which I know I will really enjoy.

There will afterwards be a discussion with panelists Lesley Abdela, who actively promotes international women’s rights and I met last year at the Conservative Women’s Conference; Lucy Richman Baruch, whose mother was good friends with American suffragette Alice Paul who is featured in the film; historian Dr Harriet Jones; and Prof Anne Philips, Professor of Gender Theory.

I am so thrilled to have the chance to meet such interesting women, thrilled I can take my widowed mother too who lives in a small town and doesn’t get out much. She still has no idea what blogging is all about, no matter how many times I try and explain, but I’m sure that’s what I have to thank for this lovely invite.

I do admire the small man who stands up to the giants of industry after suffering an injustice, those David and Goliath stories, like motorist David Bond who sent the bailiffs to Tesco when they refused to compensate him fully for damage to his van after buying contaminated fuel from them.

This could not be more embarrassing for the superstore, hot on the heels of its pledge to pay for damage to vehicles following the latest faulty petrol disaster. Hopefully, Tesco will  have learnt from this, and fully compensate customers for any car hire too, without making them go through hoops.

I also hope motorists who have no proof of purchase will ask supermarkets to  check their CCTV cameras, I don’t know why that hasn’t been mentioned before. If there is no paper trail, this must be the best method to provide evidence to back their claim.

It just goes to show how the small man can take on the big boys - and win. It happened to me once. During a family holiday in Disney World, Florida,  where I badly gashed my head on the sharp edges of their tiered metal grandstand seating at a show. I had to have several stitches and was not allowed to get my head wet or wash my hair for the following week, which is pretty unpleasant on holiday, as well as suffering headaches.

I took photos of the jagged metal and my head injury and pursued a claim when I returned home. People told me you can’t sue Disney, but I did and I won a small settlement, without the aid of a lawyer too.  Like the angry Tesco claimant, we knew we were in the right, but luckily for me, Disney resolved my grievance in a civilized way. For me it was a matter of seeking justice, wanting to be listened to and treated fairly.

Have you ever made a claim against the big boys?  Do you think large companies are too dismissive of their customer’s grievances?