Imagine that you have bought clothing that does not fit and made a mistake on another item. You might want to take these goods back for exchange or a refund. Would you? Or would you just write the purchase off? you might if it was just your mistake, but when goods are mislabelled, saying Medium, when they are Small, you might make the effort - because you would have felt cheated.

Agreed that it is a lot of hassle exchanging goods, having to go back and then face staff, who may have been trained to be unhelpful in exchange situations, or might just be having a bad day. Let us then begin:

It was a cold December day in 2014 when our subject visited T J Hughes in Eastbourne. In this case the items purchased were four pairs of Long-Johns and a fur lined jacket with a hood. The reason for the purchases was that the shopper worked in an unheated workshop. At the time he made a lot of items that need welding and had a welding shield that required temporary removal of headgear and so a hat fixed to his clothing, for convenient and quick head re-covering in the sometimes sub-zero temperatures, would be a distinct improvement in work conditions.

When he returned to his workshop. He tried on one pair of long-johns, only to find that he could not get his foot through the opening at the leg ends. He then tried on the jacket and realised he'd somehow picked up one without a hood. It was thus useless for his purposes.

T J Hughes displayed the fur lined jackets side by side with identical jackets without hoods. Having found a garment that fitted without a hood (on the left hand side of the stand) he then picked up a garment of the same size from the side displaying the hooded versions of the same garment. His error was in assuming that the garments were not mixed up, when in fact they must have been. Either that, or they were not displayed in any logical fashion.

About two weeks later the shopper was again in Eastbourne to post an important letter. He'd forgotten to take the ill fitting garments with him, but did have the reminder to do so in the coat he was wearing. As he was just yards fro the store, he spoke to a lady near a doorway about exchange - but for some reason she said that exchange was only possible like-for-like. In other words no.

After posting his letter he went into the store and spoke with a more senior assistant. This lady was more helpful, telling that exchange would be possible and to see the chap on the desk. The shopper said he'd bring in the garments, but as he had noticed that they did have the goods he wanted on display, he wanted to secure these items, fearing they might be sold. The long-johns were sale items - and sale items move fast.

Our shopper offered to pay for the goods he'd selected on a promise that he'd get a refund when he returned the original items, or alternatively, suggested that they might put the garments he'd selected to one side. In other words to hold them for him. He also wanted to buy another pair of corduroy trousers as the ones he'd bought last week were good. Apparently, they had new stock in, as the male counter assistant advised.

Then for some reason the chap got confused about the proposed purchase and refund. He said that the ticket he'd seen proving purchase of different items the week before was not for the same goods as he was being asked to put aside. He said to the shopper that the manager would have to sort in out for him. He also asked if the alarms had gone off when the shopper had purchased the goods two weeks earlier. Wondering why the assistant would ask such a question, he recalled that an alarm had sounded while he was in the store previously, but that had nothing to do with his purchase. It seemed a strange question to ask.

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LINKS