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Hi Bednobs - that's why he takes a deposit, there are so many different stoves, colours, different handles, sizes, etc. He could end up ordering a really ugly beast of a thing that the customer turns round and says they don't want and he will be lumbered with it - and some of them cost £000's. He will have to tighten up his paperwork and make sure the customers know that the deposit (or some proportion of it) is non-refundable. In this particular case, he had two men at the customer's house, with all the bits needed to fit the stove so he has lost out (don't know how ugly the stove is though!).