Unacceptable customer service. No returns. Avoid avoid avoid

I bought a £90 pair of boots, that lost their colour in 3 weeks of wearing.

It turned out that I could NOT return the boots unless I had the original slip from the box in which the boots arrived. Email order and dispatch confirmations are not acceptable.
Two more phonecalls to Black later, we worked out that the purchase can be tracked and the receipt can be printed out by any Blacks shop till.

I took the boots back to the shop in London. First they would not accept them for the lack of original receipts from the box. Then the manager insisted that I had not worn boots in the right kind of environment, so the loss of colour was mine fault. The manager said that they were made to be worn in Verbier snow and not in on London streets. The Blacks website said that the boots are "equally at home in urban and rural situations".

Some discussion later, he printed out the receipt from the till and took in the boots. He issued me with the "inspection slip", i.e. Blacks send boots out for inspection and then they decide whether to issue with a replacement or a refund or nothing at all.

It has been nearly 3 weeks now and Black are still inspecting the boots. Needless to say, I have bought another pair elsewhere, because it is winter and I need winter footwear.

In the meantime, I am awaiting a decision.

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4th week update - called their customer services to find out that the boots had been posted back to me (but they can take another week to arrive), because Black have decided that there was nothing wrong with them. They say I can send them back for another inspection. What a joke!