Drop Us a Line

Some of our favourite articles started as a reader's question sent late in the evening: why a picture frame keeps tilting, whether a projector screen is worth it, what to do about a coffee maker that suddenly takes forever. If something on the site has helped, puzzled or annoyed you, we would genuinely like to hear about it.

One address, three readers

Email is the only channel, and it goes straight to the three of us: letters@lab-retriever.com. The small form on this page simply opens a new message in your own email app with the address filled in, so you can check and edit everything before you decide to send it.

We do not have a telephone line, a postal address or an office that takes visitors. Answering by email lets us take the time to look into a question properly instead of guessing on the spot.

Worth an email

• A question about a guide. If a step did not work the way we described, tell us what you tried and we will try to help or improve the article.
• A correction. Out-of-date information, a broken link or a plain mistake: we would rather know and fix it.
• A topic suggestion. Home jobs you keep postponing, gadgets you do not understand, a destination you are curious about.
• Feedback on the site itself. Something hard to read on your phone, a menu that confuses you, a page that loads oddly.

Outside our reach

We cannot assess a specific appliance, wiring fault or building problem from a description, and we do not give legal, medical or financial advice. Orders, bookings, refunds or account issues with companies mentioned in an article need to go to those companies directly.

Help us help you

A few details make it much easier to give a useful answer:

1. The title of the article, or a copied link to it.
2. What you were trying to do and what happened instead.
3. The type or model of device, if the question is about one.
4. Whether you are happy for us to update the article based on your note.

How long replies take

We read every message, though replies can take a few days when several arrive at once. Corrections are usually handled first, because a mistake on a published page affects everyone who reads it.

What happens to your email

We use your email only to reply and, where relevant, to improve an article. Nobody ends up on a newsletter list because they wrote to us. The details are on How We Handle Data.

Before you write

Your answer might already be waiting in the archive. The Your First Visit page lists every desk, and the Tips section covers many of the household questions we hear most often, such as how to clean a coffee maker.