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?

My upbringing was similar, you do think about others- I don’t think offering to reach some nappies for someone with a baby that seemingly couldn’t reach them equates to me then being responsible for someone’s baby - bit of an overstretch, it is just common decency when you go out and about in public.

John Lewis isn’t the shop it used to be. Customer service and staff expertise is now zero. They still should have allowed you a swap for defective merch.

Funny, I tried to take a totally untouched item back to M and S. I was over the time on the receipt. No chance.

Memo to self, Don't go shopping when feeling sad.

I’ve never heard this expression before. I love it! (And absolutely agree) with you).

It depends. I think they get lots of people trying it on for refunds. Not saying OP was doing this.

I do agree customer service and staff expertise has gone downhill generally in stores though. Blame Brexit or low pay for attracting or not retaining decent staff.

But that’s their T&C when you buy with them, on their website.

Maybe a smaller independent merchandiser would allow this but if every shop did then they’d be out of pocket.

I’ve done the same as you but I’d never take an out of date item and receipt back for a refund as I know it’s just taking the piss.

No photos yet!?

Me too! I don't think the OP did herself any favours here, as she's there in the shop (presumably) to get some resolution of her complaint, and either a refund or replacement - so saying 'for the sake of £60' sounds odd and contradictory, and must have sounded odd to the staff, too.

It's also surely not the fault of the staff that the only lighting nearby was artificial lighting and to see it in daylight they'd have to take it outside the shopping centre. I've found John Lewis good for customer service in the past, but obviously branches are different.

But interestingly this ties back a little to the comments about not being helped with the nappies. It’s winding her up that people are treating her like she needed help - which is maybe what they feared if they offered to reach the nappies.

I take help if I need it and I’m offered; no point feeling offended. If not I smile snd say I’m fine thank you. No point getting wound up.

Yes, how times have changed, they don't give those credit vouchers anymore if you are over the 35 days. There was an outcry when they changed returns to 3 months and then 35 days but you could still get credit vouchers for late returns. I think they stopped this about a year or two ago so nothing now for a late return. Next still give credit voucher refunds for late returns

If you really spend so much money there and you wouldn't 'make such a fuss over £60' then just go and bloody buy another one instead of wasting so many people's time.

They wasted their own time by taking such a bizarre and staff-heavy approach to this.

If you were standing there for that long, why didn't you just stick your crying baby on the breast to calm him/her down?

Oh of course, she's really going to want to do that in the middle of the shop with a queue behind her... 🙄

I know the Westfield in Stratford and it has an inside escalator but it literally takes 5 mins to reach the outside part of Westfield near John Lewis entrance from there.

I’m not talking about you, OP here has perfectly good arms and legs despite having a baby.

Even if you do have a mobility scooter and are disabled do you really think people should bend the rules for you? I was speaking to someone I know who works in M&S and she told me people on mobility scooters had been seen to shoplift there and they treated them the same as other thieves.

My DB’s FIL is a paraplegic and uses an electric wheelchair and likes shopping but he’d never ask for preferential treatment though of course appreciates assistance if he can’t get in and out of a shop or use its facilities easily.

I had an issue with not getting a promotional discount in store at JL recently. The signage was very misleading (the staff on the shop floor agreed), but seemed powerless.

I emailed their customer service and explained that I'd bought two items totalling around £150 and was expecting a 20% discount as per the signage, but when I'd got to the till, had been told it only applied to limited items.

I explained how the signage was very unclear.

I got a refund of the 20% credited to my bank straightaway - no quibble.

Wow, no yanbu! It sounds like staff number 2...or 3 or 4 felt like not working tills so maybe twisted what happened to waste time.

That sucks, and honestly I would complain. Why they wouldn't just give you your item back is so odd!

Got what a palava over a bloody jumper!
Definitely didn't need so much fuss and 4 members of staff wtf
YANBU.

I have a baby of a similar age.

I can COMPLETELY understand why you feel as you do. Good customer service means putting yourself into the customer’s shoes and showing empathy, while remaining commercial. That’s the challenge of the job!

Leaving the shop to go outside given it’s in a big shopping centre would have seemed too much of a faff to me too and I’d probably have reacted the same.

JL customer service does seem a bit variable. Sometimes it is excellent, sometimes very poor. I once phoned to complain about a delivery of a fridge freezer which was cancelled on the day after we had eaten all the food in the old one they were due to be taking away (and given away a bunch of stuff to neighbours). The customer services lady simply said ‘oh well these things happen’ like she couldn’t care less. How to make an unhappy customer feel even worse!

YANBU OP, although you'd think by the pile on you've had here that you went into the shop demanding "do you know who I am" and trying to return a roast dinner you'd already eaten.

The staff sound incompetent and unhelpful. A manager should be able to make a decision. I would have just given a refund, but she could have said no, and referred you to the manufacturer. Either way, it shouldn't have taken four staff to resolve the situation, and you shouldn't have had to have the whole conversation in front of a queue of spectators.

I would write an email to John Lewis customer service and explain what happened. Alternatively, take the jumper in again on a different day, and try again?

John Lewis will refund the difference for anything that goes down in the following 35 days, they don't advertise this widely though

https://www.johnlewis.com/customer-services/prices-and-payment/price-drop-refund-claim

I think shopping with a small baby, when you're sleep-deprived, hormonal and still recovering from giving birth is unlikely to be a happy experience, OP.

I don't think they humiliated you. The fact that you mention several times that they apologised says otherwise. My guess is they experienced you as someone tired and stressed and anxious, and when they couldn't see this big white mark you had described weren't sure how to proceed. Perhaps they were worried that you were okay. Perhaps they wondered if you were a desperately hard-up new mother in desperate need of £60 back on a worn and washed sweater.

They tried to make it clear to you that if they could see the mark in daylight that you could have your money back, but you couldn't/ wouldn't enable them to do that. It's not their fault that the shop is based in a shopping centre and a long walk to daylight. It's not their fault that your baby started to cry and you felt uncomfortable with the situation. They were in a difficult situation: they're not allowed to refund on a used item if they really can't see the problem with the garment.

Haha I thought the same about possibly preferring madam. How up your own arse can you get? I can hear Mrs Slocombe… “oh yes, modom”.

Worlds’s gone mad, seriously.

I don't think you were humiliated, and I also don't think you handled it well.

Sorry you had a rubbish experience, I actually think they were trying to help you, I expect they have a huge number of CFs who wear things once and try and take them back for something else. They can’t refund/exchange unless there is something wrong with it (otherwise prices all will go through the roof).
They were trying really hard to see what the problem was with the top so they could help but it wasn’t apparent. Is the white mark still there, can you still see it?

😁My Gran would say it, think it is scandi heritage though as I have never heard anyone say it outside of the family.

She had made a decision. It was not returnable as far as could be seen in the shop. She had offered to see it in daylight to see if the fault was visible in which case she might be able to do something. What shop would accept a non faulty, washed jumper back and why? How is that good business or even good service?

I just would of preferred a normal ‘hello’