My friend who works for Evans Cycles as a mechanic told me i'd be "lucky to climb a decent hill with that cassette"! He said it wasn't suitable for what i wanted the bike for. If he knew it wasn't suitable for climbing steep hills how come those who made/sold it didn't know? I suppose you could say my friend would say that but he's not one to call other mechanics work, or knowledge of bikes just for the sake of it. Why didn't the shop when they knew they more or less had the bike sold to me, suggest a more suitable cassette, like the one i've had to have fitted? Perhaps the shop/sales assistant, who i know puts their bikes together, did genuinely think the cassette would do the job? Apart from that i'm quite happy with the rest of the bike.
Maybe you weren't clear in what you were asking them.
You said you wanted a triple but they talked you into a double as your not mechanically minded but how did you know you needed a triple? Also your friend is a mechanic why didn't you ask him for advice before you bought the bike?