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?

I’m laughing at all the “why not go outside” messages?
I’m thinking of Westfield where you’d have to go down multiple escalators and walk some distance to get outside! It would be like going for a 20 minute walk with your local JL staff member.
But this is exactly the behaviour I found when I went to spend £2K - they were not there for the customer at all. They’ve lost themselves as a company top to bottom.

Having worked in retail, I think it’s quite naïve of them to have thought that it’s only 1% of people who take the mickey. I assume this strategy doesn’t work for them anymore, and that’s why they are checking that a faulty item that can’t be resold is actually faulty before they refund it.

You can go outside at Westfield in the cafe. Hardly that far.

There is a sign saying any till can process returns. Just became the till was near the shoes doesn’t mean it only deals with shoes. It was the next one along.

Ah I’ve never been to the cafe at Westfield.

Unfortunately I think you saying 'no doesn't matter forget it I'll have it back' would have made them suspicious that you were just trying it on. You don't normally get refunds for sale items in most shops (IDK about John Lewis) so it seems a bit odd that you would have gone to the trouble of taking the jumper into town, finding someone to help, and then when they wanted to go somewhere to see the issue you changed your mind and started trying to undo the whole situation. Someone genuine would have said yeah no problem, I'll wait here while you go look or here's a photo of it or okay I'll come with you. £60 is a lot of money on a single jumper so it would have increased their suspicions that you started being oh it doesn't matter. It just isn't congruous, ya know?

I really don't think this was a bad experience, they tried their best to help, and if they couldn't see the fault then they'd have been in trouble for refunding/exchanging a perfect sale item. But I'm sure if you emailed head office they would sort it out because happy customers are more important to them as a brand than one item.

Sorry but I cringed visibly when I saw the 'I spend lots of money in this store!' comment, try refrain from saying things like that in the future! It makes you look entitled and embarrassing. The staff on the ground don't care and they can't treat one customer differently to another just because you spend a lot there. You're not doing JL a favour spending lots of cash with them. It's a transaction that clearly works for you too or you'd find somewhere else.

I don’t know about your white patch, OP but I would say JL / Waitrose customer service is routinely very rude.

I once bought some placemats which were heralded as being machine washable. On first wash (at 30) they shrank. I returned them without any issue to be fair.

A few weeks later, I ordered 2 lobster tails from Waitrose home delivery. They were for our wedding anniversary dinner.
The delivery only contained 1 lobster tail even though both were satisfied on the order. I rang the store and they asked me to come in. I was on mat leave so I went - after the school run, with 3 kids in tow.
At the store they told me they had no more lobster tails. I was upset, I had assumed they had asked me to come in to give me the other lobster tail. Why call me in just to say they didn’t have it?

The manager came out and said in front of everyone else within earshot that she could see from my account that I’m a serial complainer as I had had a refund on some table mats the month before. I was horrified. The table mats are the only thing I had taken back to any store, anywhere, in years. She accused me of hiding a lobster tail and trying to get another for free.

I left in tears. My husband pursued a complaint and a week or so later they admitted that stock control figures agree with my story that I had been charged for a lobster tail we hadn’t received. I had no apology but we had £8 refunded to my card for the missing lobster.

I do still shop in Waitrose but I have learned a harsh lesson about taking anything back! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I think some people just hate on anyone who has a bit of disposable income regardless.

Do you mean Westfield at White City? The exit to the station is right next to John Lewis. Look: www.westfield.com/united-kingdom/london/retailers-detail/john-lewis-o-partners/62164.

Shoes are usually on a lower floor.

Do you travel by car and got confused with walking to the car park?

I once bought a shirt from H&M, got it home and realised it had disgusting sweat patches in the armpits, someone had clearly bought it, worn it, then returned it back to the store. I never tried it on in store so I didn't realise until I got back home.

I took it back and they accused me of being the one to wear it, get it all sweaty and then try return it!

I mean fair enough I suppose as clearly that's what the previous person did, but that's their fault for not checking when that did actually happen.

Stood my ground and said nope, it wasn't me, I've bought a product that is faulty and I need a refund. I got it. Your experience sounds ridiculous too.

So you can’t bring a baby to a shop anymore in case it starts crying and causes a disturbance, ludicrous suggestion, this must be a wind up post!

I would have expected JL to have taken back the jumper back no quibbles or questions really as their customer service is usually good, but if people are taking the piss trying to return items after they’ve been worn/washed for no “good” reason they maybe they are cracking down on this abit more. Who knows. Not saying that’s what you did either OP, it just could be a reason why.

But when you played the “Don’t you know who I am!” card then you likely lost all self respect and embarrassed yourself, utterly cringe!!! I am cringing hard just thinking about you saying that.

I’ve read all your replies and think YABU. They were trying to help you. Rather than dismiss your complaint they asked others to see if they could see the issue. Yeah I get it seemed a long wonder faff, but they were simply trying to do their job and help you.

The way you handled it was poor. Rather than demanding to just have it back, which makes it look like you were trying them on, you could have pointed out you needed to tend to your baby and suggested they go out to look on their own.

I would love to hear the version of events from their perspective. I’m sure you’ll remember having difficult situations on your days working in retail (which by the way, most of us have done and don’t use it to preach how poorly someone else is doing their job).

Also, being offended by sweetheart is being a bit precious.

Taking a 12 week old basically anywhere can be stressful. I’d suggest you were stressed, but certainly not humiliated.

Do they know repeat customers though? Maybe the odd one that sticks in their memory but surely they can’t remember everyone who’s shopped there enough to qualify as ‘loyal’.

Don't be ridiculous. Read the OP.

She couldn't (or more accurately, wouldn't) do what the staff asked of her to get her exchange because she didn't want to take her crying baby outside to show them a fault that wasn't visible except in natural light.

So she should have dealt with the baby first and come back when the crying wasn't causing a problem. Do you not have any common sense? Honestly, sometimes I think giving birth robs women of all of it.

It wasn't a return, it was a complaint about a faulty garment. You hoped it would yield a return/exchange, but it was primarily a complaint, and it was unrealistic to expect checkout staff at a random till to deal with it.

As I said in my original post I realise I shouldn’t had said it, but I do think there is a point to recognising return customers. The point I was trying (badly) to make is that I have no reason to lie over a £60 jumper and that I am a returning customer.

JL have gone massively downhill when it comes to customer service, and I say that as someone who uses to work there and live and breathe their philosophy.

I think zero staff bonuses and general decline in high street shopping and cutting of staff etc. are taking their toll.

Maybe I overestimated what a manager can deal with then. I expected the first checkout assistant to get a manager…very normal in most stores but I didn’t expect a manager to also be unable to make a decision.

Most inaccurate comment ever, of course she is ‘doing them a favour’ as she is spending lots of money, that is factually more favourable to their profit margins. JL used to acknowledge this as customer loyalty something that was literally their marketing strategy! People are taking this comment personally, everyone knows the retail assistants don’t care, JL used to!

There is a sign saying any till can process returns. Just became the till was near the shoes doesn’t mean it only deals with shoes. It was the next one along.

A 'return' is just that- returning something that you where you are entitled to a refund under their time limit.

You weren't doing a 'return'.

You were discussing a faulty item. That's totally different.

You worked in retail at one point.

Honesty, some of your posts raise eyebrows to say the least!

You 'pull rank' with the shop assts over 'how much money I spend here'.

Then you dismiss an asst because you think she looks young (and therefore stupid, perhaps?)

You mention you are a professional woman (yet you can' t spell Betty) and don't appreciate a return is not what you were doing.

Why should they issue a refund without seeing the issue first though?

If no one could see the white patch inside then the poor staff can’t give you a refund for no fault. They tried to go outside with you to look at the white patch on your direction (you said you must be outside to see it) and then you refused to go outside. They can’t just take your word for it, they need to see failed items to ascertain if they are faulty.

YABVU and I also have a small baby

Another person adding parts to the narrative…I say I worked in retail to point out I understand that it can be shit…this is specifically what I say. Not that they didn’t do their job properly. If you want to quote me at least read it properly.

Oh please! I said the young woman was police and helpful but needed to get a manager. No dismissal at all. I think you are adding parts to the story so that you can choose to dislike me…again strange behaviour 😂