to expect a shoe fitter not to try and force DS's foot into shoes that patently don't fit ?

[cmotdibbler]

We were in JL today, and decided to get DS's shoes checked as it was quiet. Bloke confirms that he's OK in the boots he's got, but I idly enquired about some sandals.
He brings some out - 'we've got none in a 5.5 G, but lets try the F'. Proceeds to jam DS's foot in (very high insteps), which involves unthreading the strap and wiggling it around. Proceeds to start looking at the fit from the toes up, ignoring the fact that you can see his poor little foot bulging out at the sides in an instant.

Needless to say, I can definitively say that DS won't be having Clarks or StartRite sandals this year, and we'll be trekking to the nice independant shoe shop again

it wasn't JL at the trafford centre was it? had a similar experience myself, but they made up for it with a nice lady helping us the next time

No, Cribbs Causeway. We'd stopped there for lunch on our way home from holiday as its just off the M5

I've had awful service at JL trafford centre - DD got sent home with a pair of doodles with one foot a whole size smaller than the other, yet the guy who fitted them said fit was fine (even though the smaller foot was too small when I checked at home)

I took them back and said I wanted a refund and would go to another shop as I wasn't happy that had happened, I just got a sheepish 'sorry' and that was it!

we had that with dd2 at stevenage clarks. they tried to sell us some sandels in a F fitting and dd2 has always been i na G/H fitting. they said they fitted fine. i pointed out her foot was spilling out over the sides and it was not a good fit at all. walked out and never went back.

yep, had this at clarks. sent dh to buy new shoes for ds (ds was wearing his wellies at the time) and he came back with an 8 to replace the 9's he'd been wearing for the last 6 months.

Just adding that i was there again today and different lady was really good - spent ages making sure DS's feet were ok, making him walk up and down, checking they were not going to come off etc etc. It is only his 2nd pair of shoes so not had much experience of this shoe buying malarkey!
Very pleased with her!