ON Saturday my girlfriend and I booked a skiing taster session at the Chill Factore for £43.

We left in plenty of time for the appointment at 3pm, however got stuck in gridlocked traffic barely 200 yards away at the Trafford Centre for a full 45 minutes. I have never seen it so bad, and as a former Trafford Centre employee that’s saying something!

We ended up being late for our appointment, but what shocked me far more than the traffic was the rude and intractable attitude of the staff towards supposedly valued customers.

We were told the company had lost out because we hadn’t turned up, and that it was not possible to reschedule our session. We lost all our money and, horrifyingly, were told with a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders that “business is business.”

I have never in my life received such poor customer service. I fully appreciate that traffic is not the fault of the Chill Factor e, and that the potential consequences of failure to arrive on time were detailed in their terms and conditions. Why though did this have to result in our loss of £43, their loss of future revenue and a considerable amount of bad sentiment?

It occurred to me that given the particularly terrible traffic around junction 10 of the M60 on this day, and indeed generally, we cannot be the only people to have suffered this appalling attitude. Have any readers experienced something similar?

Regards, Mark Bowles, Urmston