This man's flirty exchange with a customer service rep escalated hilariously

LONDON -- It's not every day you send a tweet complaining to a supermarket and then end up nearly having a long-distance romance.

SEE ALSO: This man's complaint about a dead worm in his cucumber escalated hilariously

On Wednesday afternoon, London-based podcaster and TV researcher Craig Hazell posted a tweet complaining about the lack of contactless card payments provided by British supermarket Sainsbury's.

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Nothing particularly odd about that, and the reply -- which came from a social media rep called Amanda -- was also fairly unremarkable.

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After that, though, things escalated.

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But just as Craig and Amanda appeared to be striking up bond, Amanda vanished.

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Suddenly Daryl disappeared too, and was replaced by Martin.

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Finally, Craig received some help from Amanda's colleague Maria.

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Craig now had a well-received poem, and a plan involving flowers. Everything was looking good...

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...But at the final hurdle, his hopes were dashed.

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Oh dear.

Even an offer from Andy couldn't cheer Craig up.

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Still. He'll always have the memories.

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Craig shared the epic exchange on Twitter the following day, where it quickly wracked up several hundred retweets.

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Well played, Sainsbury's social media team.

BONUS: Email-scamming princess asks comedian to marry her