Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

So I rang Schuh today to arrange the return of my wellies. Galway's about two hours' drive from Limerick, so there's no chance of me being able to visit the shop in person before returning to Wales. But as we all know, when there's a fault with a product, it is the shop's responsibility to look after the customer and rectify the problem. My receipt was stapled into one of those fancy little booklet things, so I had a little read of their 'service policy' before phoning, to see if it said anything about returning items by post. It didn't, so I presumed that wouldn't be a problem.

I rang the Galway branch. I was told that they don't normally accept returns except in person, but gave my phone number so the lady could check with the manager. She rang back to confirm that, explaining that they needed to see the shoes before they could offer me a replacement or refund. I pointed out that they would be able to see them, because I'd be sending the shoes to them. Then she said the manager would need to talk to me about them. Couldn't he do it over the phone?

Anyway, I was getting nowhere, so I rang Schuh Customer Services (01506 468 733). The man seemed more concerned about whether my shoes were broken enough to warrant a replacement, which I thought was a pretty futile concern since we were speaking over the phone, so I ignored that. But he said it was Schuh policy not to allow postal returns to shops (funny it wasn't mentioned in the service policy) because I'd need to sign something, and only Head Office could override that. He said I was welcome to send them to Head Office instead, and they might even cover my postage costs.

Instead, I have opted to call into Schuh in Dublin on my way back to Wales. I persuaded the customer service man to reserve a new pair in my size for me, so there's no chance of them not being in stock.

I'm quite annoyed though. That was ultimately the most convenient option for me (returning to Head Office would probably take weeks, whereas I was hoping Galway could get the shoes back by Friday), but it's still a complete nuisance. And why such arbitary rules on returning items? Couldn't they just forge my signature or something? I really felt they weren't doing anything at all to make life easier for me. The girl in Galway apologised a little, but the manager didn't and neither did the customer service guy. I'm not going to buy shoes from them again.

Oh I don't know why I'm so annoyed. I just think that when they've sold me a product that's so clearly faulty (shoes shouldn't break after half a day of wearing them) they should be making more of an effort to put it right. Anyway, I feel better having ranted.