very disappointing service, after being a loyal customer of jd sports for many years i have now taken the decision to take my custom elsewhere, i rushed into the new store at the springs in Thorpe park on a Sunday afternoon and bought 2 pairs of trainers , one for my son and one for me, got home and rushed to get ready to go for a meal put on the trainers jumped in a taxi and got to the restaurant upon looking down the 'new' trainers had a greasy mark on them so decided i should return them for an exchange, the following day i went into the store with box and receipt explained that there was a mark and could i get them changed at this point i must point out there were 5 staff loitering around the till area and as one young man was preparing to deal with this a girl chipped in and said 'ave they been worn cos if they ave you cant return them' at this point the young chap confirmed sorry nothing we can do if there worn you need to speak to customer service, i tried to plead to their better nature to no avail all i got was we need to re sell them and cant if worn! why would you want to re sell the if they have a greasy mark on? as i could see this was going nowhere i asked who the manager was he said he and another girl were i asked for names and was refused, i wanted to know who was refusing my exchange and thought it a fair question as i was intending to speak to customer service as advised but they wouldn't provide details, i went outside called customer service who to be fair were polite and sympathetic they advised i should go back to the store and they would speak to them but i would have to ask the store to cal them as they wouldn't speak on my phone, reluctantly i returned to the store after feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable due to the lack of help and what seemed to be an unnecessary amount of staff hovering behind the till overseeing my complaint, however in i went asked they call cust service which they reluctantly did saying no point even though this was what i was advised, they had a conversation he gave his name to them (i have this if needed) they listened to the cust service agent ended the call and simply said like i said we wont exchange. what a pointless embarrassing experience, the only other step would be to write to head office but again would no doubt be pointless so instead i choose to leave a review (which i have never felt strongly enough to do about any other company) after having gone through various bank statements i have spent over 2k with this company in the last 12 months alone but i will never set foot in nor purchase from this company again. note to jd sports; i would recommend you look at staff levels at the store as there seems to be plenty of them with little to do and maybe prudent to send them on a customer service course as there face to face service is little to non existent!