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?

You know what?

I'd sort out my week so that I didn't need to take a baby with me.

The OP has a mum around (and maybe a partner) and as JL are open till 8pm almost every night, in most big towns, and at weekends, it would be sensible to go without the baby.

Yes. I think that's exactly what you should have done.

Obviously your world revolves around your baby, but everyone else's doesn't, and trying to deal with a complicated transaction with a baby screaming the roof down is unfair to the store staff (who aren't paid enough to deal with stuff like that) and everyone else in the vicinity.

It would also save you having to play the "but I have a crying baby" card later when you're not getting what you want.

God, if you are a teacher in schools I hope you don't overreact to everything like you do here.

Your attitude to sales staff is appalling.

It's not a complicated transaction

It is a sweater material rather than a wool jumper…perhaps I should have said sweater instead.

unsure why my posts would you up..or why you felt the need to correct me on the spelling of ‘Betty’ didn’t even realise that is how I spelt it. Sorry I offended you so much.

I won’t tell you what came to mind when I read your reply about being old enough to be my Mum but maybe you think about why a post about a jumper that has no impact on your life wound you up so much 🤔

Returning a used item with a fault that’s not visible? It’s not particularly simple.

And so is your rudeness considering you are an older woman and should have developed some manners by now.

Except it was, because the damage was only visible in the natural light. But she didn't want to go outside to show them that, because "she had a crying baby".

Sort the baby out. Come back later when you're more able to deal with it and not so distracted, and also not causing a massive disturbance for everyone else.

OP why would you want to swap the jumper?

If it was faulty, why would you risk another one unless you mean you wanted something else worth £60 instead?

People normally ask for a refund if an item is faulty.

(Scuttles onto JL website to see the aforementioned jumper.)

What's so terrible about taking a crying baby for a short walk into the fresh air? IME it's often exactly what they need to calm them down.

But that isn’t what I explained, I have described the unique selling style in JL, quoted the ex Retail Director specifically to highlight this difference, not even that long ago they had the marketing strategy was not to focus on the unscrupulous 1% of the public so in JL’s case it absolutely was about the customer being right whereas most other retailers are focusing on the unscrupulous 1% and definitely don’t think the customer is right! This was their competitive advantage point and this is where they have changed!

I might have missed it, but has OP posted a photo of their jumper? That'd help with which way I'd reply.

OP, might be worth writing to the manufacturer to see if you can get anywhere with them.

Because she was trying to help you to the fullest. She probably didn’t fancy going outside either but you had said that’s the only place the fault shows up. So the staff went above and beyond to try to resolve this.

As an older woman, I maybe have a different perspective than you and can see you were rude to the assts, as you are being here to a lot of people.

It's not 'manners' to pull you up on your behaviour. And your age doesn't give you some 'pass' to behave as you did (and still are here on your thread.)

There's only one rude person here and it aint me.

I think you over reacted slightly and if there was a problem with it, then you should have stuck by your guns and got a refund/exchange.

That being said, I completely understand why you’d feel so uncomfortable.

I had a voucher for aldi during covid which school children eligible for FSM received (I was working FT just on a low income). And the store assistant didn’t believe it was real and had to get the manager involved and they questioned me over it whilst there was a long queue forming.
I too said don’t worry about it, as it was only for £10 and I had the cash to pay it but they wouldn’t let me until they could prove it wasn’t a fake.
I felt really humiliated and stupidly didn’t use any of the vouchers I was entitled to again.

So I do understand that feeling and I also didn’t have a screaming baby with me.

This is why they’re in a pickle now. Too much of this sort of thing when they should have just said no.

Send it back to the manufacturer. I bought some Crew trousers and washed them as per the instructions and the colour ran (I was dumb enough to put it in with other laundry - which all came out patchy blue ugh!).

I took photos of the trousers (they looked tye dyed) and sent these with the receipt to the company and had a nice to and fro email chat with customer services.

I mentioned (in passing) that other items had been dyed too (they asked for photos) and they sent me a rather large gift voucher (three times the cost of the trousers).

Ive had problems with other trousers from them too so wouldn’t rush to buy them again.

I’ll just highlight this again as this is where JL differed from other retailers it was literally their marketing strategy, they didn’t focus on the unscrupulous 1%, they focused on the 99% of customers that were fair and reasonable.

Oh my gosh that is awful! Exactly it wasn’t about the amount of money it was about wanting to escape the situation which some people seem to have missed.

Well, there's no Sweaty Betty beige jumper for sale in JL now so OP must have got the very last one.

No swap possible.

Op next time ask for a manager. None of them were managers.

Not just you. If it didn't matter why go in the first place?

You do realise stock online is different to stock in store….as the original post says I had my receipt. It’s actually funny that you wasted your time looking it up. Maybe consider getting a hobby.

Someone who works in shoes, isn't in a position to refund you a perceived faulty Sweaty Betty top, and as an ex employee, you know that. You should have just joined the queue to get a refund like everyone else does.

Well no they haven’t had this policy for a long time and it doesn’t work as it’s what customers that shop at JL expect, they are paying high prices and expect certain customer service for that!