In reply to Stash: I think there have always been ridiculous returns from people, I'd be inclined to agree that more people are returning things that are really just worn, and not faulty.
A woman brought a jacket back recently, a sub £50 white jacket, fault - it was getting dirty too easily. She seemed quite sincere as well and not totally mental; she had the demeanor of someone who had been wronged by us/the manufacturer and was genuinely expecting us to provide her another free jacket and an apology. These types of people have always existed but I think there are more and more "normal" people bringing things back that are worn, footwear in particular. Lightweight trail shoes they've had for 2-3 years and the tread is starting to wear for example (1 this week, so far, they usually come in on Saturdays!)
I think there is a level of blame on the manufactures though, and also on people for suddenly turning gullible. When did we start expecting marketing departments to tell us the whole truth and not exaggerate their products? A customer brought back a sub £100 waterproof back saying it "didn't breath", they were adamant that it wasn't faulty and were angry that we wanted to send it back to the manufacturer for testing. All they wanted was to swap their's for a different jacket. Shops are caught in the middle because when someone ask "does it breath" they expect the answer to be yes, and if the answer is more nuanced than that they go to go-outdoors, read the labels and believe the hype. "But this cheap regatta jacket is breathable and it's half the price of that one they said breathed to an extent in the right conditions". It's a no brainer, the marketing department tells them that the £20 jacket is really breathable so it must be better than that £100 jacket in the other shop.
Manufacturers do big up their products too much, to the extent that people expect a cheap waterproof to breath as well as one costing £400 or to breath as well as a softshell. A lot of customers take some convincing that a non waterproof shoe is more breathable than a gore-tex one! (but that one says "breathable") That's how good their marketing is and how gullible people can be.
Ben