We all need to reduce our energy consumption. What better way than investing in a type of adapter that switches of your TV at night when it’s on standby mode? I saw one advertised in the publicity brochure of a Office Furniture supplier that was just down the road from our house. However, when I got it home and removed it from its plastic wrapping, I could not get it to work. As I am a fierce champion of consumer rights I took the item back to the shop the very next day.

The manager dealt with my complaint. ‘ You have opened the packaging – we can’t put it back on display, so you can’t have your money back’. A less brave person might have caved in and accepted defeat. He obviously had not encountered a Brit who had fought many battles in the past. ‘How could I know that it doesn’t work without opening the sealed package?’ He called for a minion and thrusting the device into his hand, ordered him to go and test it. A few minutes later the young employee returned, ‘It doesn’t work.’ was his brief report.

The manager offered me an ‘Avoir’. This is a slip of paper that credits you with the sum you have paid, obliging a purchase during the next 3 months. I took it reluctantly as I seldom shopped there. That evening, as I mulled over the events of the day, I became even more dissatisfied with this outcome. I could see that flimsy square ticket could easily get lost, or forgotten about, or expire before the date limit. Each of which outcomes would mean the shop had profited at my expense. I did not want to have a bank account at an office supply shop that I seldom used.

I looked on line at the shop’s website. In big letters it proclaimed ‘Satisfait ou Remboursé’ .It didn’t take a degree in French to know that a dissatisfied customer should be offered their money back! I printed out the webpage.

The next day I was back in the shop with my husband in tow, just for moral support – he hates confrontations. I approached the manager, proferred the offending, flimsy ‘Avoir’ and the page from their website – ‘Satisfied or Your Money Back’. It couldn’t be clearer. The bossman looked at the page and said, ‘That’s for internet purchases only.’

I have heard tales from young employees that the only way customers get their money back in some establishments is to scream and shout and create such a scene that the boss man accedes to their demands in order to get rid of them. I had also heard that having a man with you, who could potentially threaten the boss is also seen as a way to get justice.

I don’t know if he thought that my husband might grab him by the collar but, his tone changed. ‘As I am a nice man, this time you can have your money back.’ My ‘Avoir’ was duly exchanged for cash but I left the shop unconvinced that others would benefit from the breech that I had opened for the rights of the consumer!