Refund, please.....please......!!!

If you buy something from a store that doesn`t work and isn`t suitable for the job, you return it and get a refund - right?

Not so!

I decided on Friday that I needed an additional indoor clothes airer to dry my washing on. So off I went to our nearby Argos store, having conveniently reserved the item online first. Bought it and brought it home. Good, I thought, now I can put it up and put my laundry on it.

Wrong.

It had come in shrink wrap plastic, so I carefully cut up two sides of it, removed the Airer, removed all the plastic metal ties on it, and the label. No instructions on the label as to how to put it up. I spent over 30 minutes trying to get the thing assembled. It was like one of those children`s metal puzzles, but whichever way I tried, it just wouldn`t stand up, like it should.
I gave up.

Next day, I took it back to the store for a refund, as it clearly wasn`t suitable for our use.
I was told in no uncertain terms by the young man on duty that I could not have a refund as it was not in its original undamaged packaging! I pointed out that one could not get an item out of shrink wrap packaging without opening the packaging. He still refused to give me a refund. And said that I shouldn`t have opened it if it wasn`t suitable.
"How can we know it`s not suitable if we don`t open it to try it", I said.
"We cannot resell it because its been opened" he said, "so I cannot refund it".

Eventually after a lot more to and fro of comments, I had a brainwave
"Can you show me how to put it up then" I asked.
Cockily, he said "yes", taking it from me, he then proceeded to...... try and erect it....."it goes like this" he said, lifting the top rungs - "yes, I got that far" I said.

He struggled with it for a few minutes, turning it this way unable to get it erected, and by this time some of the connecting bits were flying off of it!
"I can`t fiddle with this" he said giving up!
"So, it must be faulty", I commented.
"I can replace it, if it`s faulty" he eventually said.
"OK," I replied, "but with a different model please".
To do that, he told me, I must go to the cash desk with my receipt (which I`d ofcourse got) and get a refund then order the one I wanted.

I went and got my refund........ and left!

I have however, written a letter to their head office, to complain about their Refund policy. It will be interesting to see if I get a reply.