Somewhat unimpressive service from Charles Tyrwhitt

Back in the days when I used to wear suits a lot, I spent many hundreds of pounds a year on shirts from Charles Tyrwhitt, who pretty much dominated the quite-posh-shirt-by-mail-order market. And I still buy quite a lot of clothing from them, given that I don't especially like shopping (particularly in places like Debenhams where they inexplicably group items by designer, rather than more usefully by product type. So to compare lots of shirts you have to traipse around the whole store. Coincidentally, Seth Godin had something to say about this only a few days ago.)

Anyway, I never had any reason to complain about Charles Tyrwhitt, but rather assumed from the friendly, informal tone of their marketing that if I ever did complain they would resolve it without fuss. Not so.

The dye in the label on this pair of trousers ran horribly in the (first) wash, ruining the trousers and a couple of items of (baby) Lara's clothes. No drama, I thought, send back to CT and I am sure they will refund the cost of the trousers (£45), the cost of Lara's clothes (about £20), plus hopefully the £20 I spent at a local tailor getting the trousers adjusted as they didn't quite fit.

They have offered to refund the trousers. But only offer a £20 credit note for the baby clothes (not purchased from Charles Tyrwhitt, so can't use their credit note to replace them), and refuse point blank to refund the adjustment costs.

Am I going to spend hours quibbling over this? No.

Am I going to see if Marks and Spencers' menswear has improved as much as people say it has? Yes.