In early February at the start of our last holiday my wife and I visited a well known high street clothing retailer and I purchased a couple of pairs of trousers. Nothing remarkable in that apart from when I tried them on one pair, although supposedly the same size as the other, did not fit.

Last Sunday afternoon we returned to the store, our first opportunity since the purchase, and returned the goods. Unfortunately the company now has a policy that limits the period when customers can return products and get a full refund. As my purchase was outside this time limit I got a partial refund, £4 less than I paid for the trousers. I can’t say that I am happy about this, in fact for me it is a deal breaker. After being a customer of their’s since I was a child I have decided that I will not be using them again.

The question this raises with me is are there things that we do that have the same effect on our customers? It certainly has made me think.