Humiliated by John Lewis staff

[FTMaz]

Hi
okay so I know this will seem very trivial to some but it is playing on my mind because I think I am a very reasonable and polite person and feel I was humiliated for absolutely no reason.

so I bought a jumper from a John Lewis store (Sweaty Beaty brand). The jumper was in the sale for £65. I wore it once and washed it according to the instructions. I put it on yesterday and my Mum commented that it had faded, the jumper is beige but I noticed it had a big white patch where the colour had seemingly ran out of it on the front. As I know John Lewis is known for their customer service I decided I would take it to the store to see if they would offer an exchange, I still had the receipt showing it had been purchased recently.

I went to the womenswear till but the queue was massive (I had my 12 week old baby with me) so I went to a till near the shoes. The girl serving must have been about 17/18. I explained to her what had happened and said I wasn’t sure if I could swap it but thought it was worth an ask. The girl was very polite but said she needed to check with a colleague, fine not a problem. She returned with a colleague who didn’t even acknowledge me. At this point there was a now a queue at the till. They both turned away from me and girl number 2 started whispering and inspecting the jumper. This probably went on for about 10 minutes. Girl number 1 then turned back to me and said something to the effect of I’m really sorry but I need to check with a manager…I assumed girl 2 was a manager but again I said okay. She then called someone on the phone. I continued to wait and at this point my baby started to cry, girl number 1 obviously feeling uncomfortable called again and apologised, again fine as not her fault that baby is crying or that manager is taking a long time. So eventually the manager turns up and calls me ‘sweetheart’ okay a term of endearment but I am a 34 year old professional so odd of her to do. Anyway…she inspects the jumper and says she can’t see the white patch, I said to her I couldn’t either until I went into natural light and my Mum pointed it out. At this point I am starting to feel agitated and embarrassed as there is a queue, my baby is crying and I am basically being told I’m making things up so I say ‘don’t worry about it for the sake of £60 I’ll just have the jumper back,’ she then says to go with her outside the store to natural light to show her the patch…seriously? I reply no it’s fine I’m not dragging my baby outside I’ll just have the jumper back. Again she insists I go outside with her and I again say it’s fine I’ll have the jumper back. She then turns to girl number 1 and says ‘you’ll come with me outside to look won’t you’ so they both then walk off and leave me at the till with my now screaming baby. Sometime later they return with ANOTHER member of staff, so now 4 people have looked at this bloody jumper! The manager says they all agree there is nothing wrong with it. Now I am quite frankly pissed off and humiliated and say ‘ I told you I would take the jumper back but instead I have been standing here whilst 4 people inspect it, I didn’t demand a refund I simply asked if it was possible to do anything such as an exchange.’ She replies there’s nothing wrong with it. So I say (probably wrongly so but I’d had enough) ‘if you go on my account you will see how much money I spend in this store, do you seriously think I would make things up to get back £60?’ She replies again there is nothing wrong with it.

for context I worked in retail for years both before starting university, during and after (the irony is I actually also worked in that John Lewis 😂) I get that it can sometimes be shit and people are rude but I was honestly lovely and feel I was humiliated and spoken to like an idiot.

However I am also overly tired from the sleepless nights….so AIBU to wait to complain to the store?

OP has written a long blathering post mentioning baby, she's a professional, how much money she spends, all irrelevant. Then goes to the shoe counter to exchange a jumper which isn't a straightforward return.

I think they were just taking your jumper situation seriously tbh. But you felt frazzled so it probably seemed like bad service when actually they were trying to help you. We’ve all had moments when everything is a bit much, but I don’t see how they ‘humiliated’ you.

I had a terrible experience returning something at John Lewis a few years ago. We had received a stovetop le creuset kettle as a wedding present, which had a lifetime warranty, and a couple of years later the handle fell off it. The sales assistant took the kettle, huffed that we hadn’t recently descaled it, then went on and on about how the kettles had increased a lot in price so we were getting an amazing deal and we wouldn’t be getting another kettle from
them. So unprofessional. I was late 20s at the time but have always looked younger than I am and I think she just thought she could talk all over me.

Some say OP and her baby are still in the store.

But why should JL give a refund without being satisfied the jumper was faulty?

O
M
G

@BobnLen because the baby was crying? Hence the OP just wanted the item back and to not spend time with four separate people?

The sand would've been said if she was on her way to work, this is taking too long, I need to go.

It's all normal life, the point OP is making is it took to long.

How can they refund if they can't see the white patch. Id have gone outside. Why didn't you go to customer service till as that the point of those tills. The baby crying isn't their problem sorry. It does take time to sort things like this out. Not seen the white patch though.

Didn’t expect this to get so many replies to be honest. Thanks to those who have expressed their opinion politely, whether agree or disagree. For those who haven’t I guess being online really makes you feel like you can say what you want and to be sat here at 2am in the morning digging someone out and being rude is to say the least strange behaviour.

to clarify some points I’ve mostly already answered but people have ignored or not read.

1. Shop assistant number 1 said she could see the patch but needed to check a return was okay. I didn’t bring this up with the manager as I didn’t want to put her in an awkward position going against her manager.
2. I refer to her as ‘girl’ as she was about 17. I don’t think it is offensive to call a 17 year old a girl but is so then apologies.
3. I say in my original post I shouldn’t have said about being a return customer..it was at the end of being questioned by 4 people. Although I do think the point is relevant.
4. to suggest feeding a baby on breast whilst standing at a till is ridiculous but if you can do that well done mum of the year.
5. I also say in my original post I was willing to be told no as the jumper had been worn. I stared my conversation saying I wasn’t sure if there was anything they could do. Hence when she asked me to go outside and I didn’t want to I said it’s fine I’ll just have the jumper back to escape what I felt was an embarrassing situation but was denied being able to do this.
6. I also say in my original post it wasn’t their fault baby was crying, I simply mention it for context
7. anyone saying you shouldn’t have a crying baby in public is clearly not a parent or has the perfect child only found on mumsnet apparently.
8. my point about £60 is that there are much more expensive items in John Lewis not that I’m so rich I can afford to throw it away, no one would be that silly.
9. the point about not wanting to go outside is because I find it embarrassing to walk past the queue, through the crowds to outside to then have another conversation about the jumper and then have to come back in again once they have made their decision at this point I really did just want the jumper back.

🤣🤣👏👏

I’m not saying you were doing this but, having worked on a returns counter, they probably thought that - because they couldn’t see the Mark and because you said don’t bother I’ll have it back - that you were a chancer / trying to pull a fast one.

I’m not saying you were, just that there’s a LOT of people who are.

M&S’s no quibble, no receipt cash refund policy in the 80s funded a lot of people’s drug habits in my town.

@milveycrohn I agree, she should never have got the job. Dame White was a career civil servant up to that point. If it was a public company, it would never have happened.

😂😂😂

Yet again. None of this means you couldn't sort the baby out by going to the baby room, and deal with the jumper chat later. You didn't, you just stood there with a crying baby stressing everyone out. Remember others have had babies too, everyone with kids has been a FTM sometime. Please explain why you couldn't say "I'll be back in 5 min after sorting out the baby", because I really cannot understand?

And here you are taking your time to respond to my ‘blathering’ post…strange person.

Okay in the future I will stop the conversation and say ‘I’ll be back in 5 minutes to sort out my baby’. Does that appease you now?

Gosh op, this is one of those horrible mumsnet threads where people are enjoying giving the op a kicking for no reason.

People saying dumb things like that you should have gone outside a shopping centre with a crying baby which presumably could have been a 10 minute walk each way 🙄

I do understand the shop can't just refund things if they can't see anything wrong, but they dealt with it very badly.

Ime John Lewis and Waitrose are god awful shops.

If I were you I would take some photos of the fault and email customer services, explain what happened in the shop and how it made you feel.

Just mentioning the irrelevant things regarding your return

I think it’s a difficult one as it had been worn and the mark wasn’t obvious and could equally have been caused by you. You had worn it enough for it to need washing so suggest you had got it dirty. I have a baby and seriously everything I wear is covered in strange marks pretty quickly.
it sounds like they were trying to help but struggling and that you were a bit frazzled and so got annoyed quicker than normal and that potentially also impacted their responses.
it sounds as if you were being overly sensitive so I wouldn’t let it put you off shopping there again.

hopefully the mark will disappear.

Fab. It'll make your life much easier.

Sounds like they went out of their way to try and investigate your claim that the mark was visible in natural light. What did you expect them to do when you yourself mentioned that natural light was relevant?

I think you were treated a bit rudely for a store that used to pride itself on customer service. Nothing wrong with asking.

This.

I don't know why you asked as you seem so convinced you were right!

Your attitude in your posts wound me up so I don't know how you came over in the store.

Why would the colour 'run' on a jumper?
I've never, ever heard of that or experienced it (and I'm old enough to be your Mum by the way so have washed hundreds of jumpers!)

I think you sound rude. Judging an asst on how old she looks for a start.
My DD is 35 and looks so young (lucky her) that she gets IDd a lot.

They were reasonable. They wanted to look at the jumper in daylight. It's not their fault that daylight is outside of the shopping centre.

You shot yourself in the foot by walking off in the huff because all that made you do was look as if you were trying it on (and when challenged, you gave up.)

Oh and you can't spell 'Betty' so it makes me wonder if this jumper actually existed.

I believe you OP, and I believe you were polite too, ex retail staff are usually far more respectful of current staff.

I would complain out of principle, partly to get it off my chest, but partly because JL have lost their way recently with all their Queer DEI shite and internal “Identity” magazine their very recent donation to a questionable charity. The more complaints and bad press they get the better.

They need to get back on track if they want to survive.

Anyway I digress….