Hong Kong was a british colony or something til a few years ago. From experience they speak better english than us, especially the scottish
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Too late now, but personally I always sent stuff back through the LHS bought from. Even without proof of purchase, they would vouch for it - may be able to retrieve the original receipt, and no problems then... but also I keep receipts in the original packaging anyway, especially when just spent £100+ its just habbit.
Schumacher is ace, it'll take more than your bad experience to damage their popularity. As a business they can't give money away, and it may be that the manufacturer (not Schumacher) call the shots, and Schumacher are the middle-men dealing with you, they definately won't like giving bad news.