How difficult is it to buy a light bulb?

I've called this blog post, 'How difficult is it to buy a light bulb', because I don't actually think it should be difficult to buy a light bulb???

The above picture shows the ceiling lights that I have in my kitchen.  One of these bulbs needed replacing, so while I was in Tesco's I looked for a replacement light bulb.  For anyone who has read my blogs before, you will know I am not a great fan of Tesco.  My local Tesco never has the things I want so needless to say it did not have this type of bulb in stock.

So, what did I do?

Well, I went to the local DIY shop in town with my light bulb that needed replacing and said, 'I'd like one of these please'.  I was thinking it would probably have cost 50-75p in a supermarket - local DIY shop may charge me £1.

I was having a dinner party and wanted everything to be perfect - a blown light bulb would not look good!

The local DIY shop owner is fabulous.  I love him to bits and he is also a very good salesman.

Somehow he managed to sell me four energy saving light bulbs which cost me £9.00.

So, I came home, took out the three ordinary bulbs (which were perfectly OK) and screwed in four energy saving bulbs.  Switched on the lights and............................... nothing?!!

Decided that they needed to be screwed in tighter.  After all - four bulbs could not all be dud?!

Screwed in the first one tighter - it cracked - but at least it worked for 2 secs when I switched it on.  Screwed the second one in tighter - nothing happened when I switched the lights on - screwed in the third one - it cracked - screwed in the fourth one it cracked.

So now I have four 'energy saving' light bulbs that don't work.  They're now broken because I was trying to screw them in too hard to make them work.  I can't take them back to the shop because I'm the one who's broken them, and I can't use them because they're broken.

So then I screwed back in, the three light bulbs that did work, and I had my dinner party with a bulb out.  Which you have to admit is a bit tacky.

And then, when I was in the 'Padstow Tesco' (see my last rant) I bought 3 bulbs for the price of two (£2).

...............So now I've replaced the original bulb that needed to be replaced, put back the three bulbs that were working OK, and now have two spares.  All for a couple of quid.  Yay!

As for the four energy saving bulbs that cost me £9 and don't work - well what can I do?