Once upon a time, a central point of B&Q adverts was that you could purchse what you needed, safe in the knowledge if you bought too much or the wrong thing, you could return it. Not any more.

For a start, you need the receipt or they won't even talk to you - well they will, but will treat you like dirt, and tell you 'our returns policy is clearly stated on our web site' and you should know it. Unfortunately, not only is it not as far as I know a pre-condition of shoppping there that you have seen the website, a full returns policy ISN'T ON IT! It only states in any detail what their returns policy is for ITEMS THEY HAVE DELIVERED. For anything else - not a word, other than it will help if you have your receipt.

Now if you ask why the policy (if there even is one) has changed, B&Q staff argue (or rather quote robotically from their training manual) that this is because given the number of offers they have, if you don't have the receipt how can they know what you paid. True, but how difficult would it be to say that, if you don't have the receipt, they will only credit you the lowest price charged in the last (say) two years. Not rocket science. But even more annoying is the mind-numbingly obstructive way they choose to implement the (non existent) policy.

For example - I purchased a roll of bath edging tape, cost about £2.50. I picked it up from a location marked 'white tape' but a cream one had got there somehow and I didn't notice. Got home, realised, took it back. 'Can I swap this roll (unopened, with their stickers on it) for an identical roll in white?' 'No, not without the receipt' said the girl who'd sold it to me the day before.

Now I don't know about you, but if I kept receipts for everything I bought for £2.50, I'd need to build myself an extension just to put them in. What possible problem could it have caused B&Q to just swap them over and please the customer? The result? I bought some more tape elsewhere, and having been a regular customer of B&Q for over 20 years will never use them again. I hope they are happy.