M&S Diddling Customers Out of Cash?!

I'm really surprised. I was in M&S mid summer, someone in front of me had some really muddy and well used wellies, no receipt, and said they'd got them for christmas and they'd split across the bottom and that's not good enough. They gave them a refund. I couldn't believe it, but they didn't even question the person.

I have had trouble in the past when I've bought with some gift vouchers and some on credit card in M&S and come to return an item that is less than the credit card amount, and they've insisted in it being a gift certificate because it was bought with a gift voucher. I argued that I bought that amount on my credit card, and wanted a refund on my credit card but they wouldn't give in. Wasn't happy as I had no intention of buying anything else there.

My DH is the king of complaints... only when it's really needed. He almost always gets cash back off of companies (barclays, who we weren't even a customer of, the local leisure centre, bt, our old energy supplier, a replacement pure radio when ours was 5 yrs outside of its guarantee....all sorts of things). His rule of thumb is to never complain by email. It's too easy for it to be deleted ignored, etc. So always put it on proper paper, always google the company and see if you can get CEO's name or someone else of similar high standing. If it's just sent to customer service you'll get a customer service response, send it to management with a name on it and they'll make someone do something.