The Winco,
I take your personal point of criticism of Safeway 'patronising and very lengthy explanation' may I make a counter point?
These are open fora where others are reading and learning too. Some of us follow every post, others dip in from time to time. In other words, Safeway may be patronising on a one-to-one basis or had he posted in a PM. Here I think it was not unreasonable.