THE president of Haslemere Chamber of Trade has defended the town's shops after a resident took local businesses to task, claiming that they provide a poor service in comparison with larger stores out of town.
In a letter to the Herald this week, Bryan and Stella Powell who have lived in Whitfield Road for three years, said:
"Give us the out-of-town super store that has free parking and delivers a good service in a reasonable time.
"I do love living here, but I think they need to have a really good think about their business and how they treat their customers," he claimed
"They're working 20 years behind the times."
In the letter Mr and Mrs Powell list a raft of problems from dealing with shops and traders in Haslemere as well as the increased costs of shopping locally.
Mr Powell claimed he had waited seven weeks for a pair of spectacles which failed to materialise.
But since then, he said, the opticians had apologised for the inconvenience, returned a £100 deposit and offered £50 compensation.
He pointed to another problem when the couple first moved to the town, when they were forced to sit on sun loungers in their home and discovered five weeks later that the material to re-cover their suite hadn't even been ordered.
"If you went to a big store that has branches all over the place I am sure they would not take this long," Mr Powell told The Herald.
He also was upset when, last year, he had to pay £20 after a parking ticket was placed on his car, which although parked on a double yellow line, enabled him to load goods into the boot which had bought from a nearby shop.
President of the Chamber of Trade, Melanie Odell, said: "I'm sorry to hear that Mr and Mrs Powell have had these experiences, but most of Haslemere's customers find the town and its traders very friendly and most obliging."
"There are usually extenuating circumstances when problems do occur as they can in any business," she added.