I went up to London with Frances and Christopher at the weekend.

I’d booked the Mischief Theatre’s Magic Goes Wrong at the Vaudeville Theatre, so we hopped on the train and off we went.

I printed the tickets, checked the route in London, and although it said 20 minutes on the Bakerloo line, I left 60 minutes just in case.

Turns out we needed every minute of it.

The first fun event was turning up at Paddington and finding out that there was no access to the Bakerloo line as they were refurbishing the ticket office. Hmm.

Never fear, we are nothing if not resourceful, quickly realising we could take the Circle Line to Embankment and then walk.

Unless, of course, the whole Circle Line was not working the whole weekend.

Frances was adamant we could still make it by Tube, Chris suggested we walk.

In the end, the older child triumphed, and we managed to get the District Line train to Earls Court, then change to the Piccadilly line.

But guess what? We weren’t the only ones doing that. The Tube was rush-hour full, very hot and very cramped.

By Green Park, we’d had enough, so we got out and ended up speedwalking to the restaurant, arriving 3 minutes late for our reservation.

What was supposed to take 20 minutes, ended up taking 63, with far more perspiration than I’d planned.

All thanks to TfL.

Sure, they weren’t doing it deliberately, but it still happened, and it reminded me of the poor experience so many businesses dole out, not by design, but by accident.

The businesses with websites that make you register an account to buy anything.

The businesses that never pick up the phone to answer your call.

The businesses that only accept cheque and BACS, making it hard for you to give them money.

Are you making the ease of buying from you like our Labours of Hercules?

Thinking that everyone definitely wants to buy from you, no matter how difficult and unfriendly the process is?

Take a fresh look at how people buy from you. After all, it’s not magic!