AngryAnalyst - I’m curious what you think the remedy for this situation should be?
It’s a good question and I confess I am still not sure. Some sympathetic listening and an apology for the duct tape suggestion is I think the minimum acceptable outcome. Why this is important to me in any practical sense is unclear, but it is important.
I don’t know if it is fair that I would feel entitled to demand a refund from someplace like Surefoot (absent some very specific explanation of what exactly is being guaranteed that was not provided here), but don’t want to demand that from a small shop.
I am also still unsure whether it is fair to leave a “Bad Review” somewhere for the selling shop. They did do a series of things that were unhelpful or wrong.
4 pages of discussion in - I do appreciate that this was a complicated problem in more depth than I did at the beginning. I am not sure what impact, if any, that should have on the fair outcome.