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?

Just ignore them.

There are some absolute nut jobs and trolls online who get off on sticking the boot in. Most who feel the need to be so nasty are probably just sad little keyboard warriors with no friends and no life. They lurk around waiting to pick on strangers. It's very weird.

I think you need to get over yourself

Indeed. I think we're getting a clearer idea of OP's attitude generally.

are they required to give you a refund legally? or is there something that needs to be wrong with it? if the latter then they thought you bought it, wore it once and made it up. Some people do this. and staff are generally bored out of their lives, tired, irritable...But of course they should have been politer esp with your baby. Did you assert yourself e.g. sorry my baby is crying and I am in a hurry, may I get a refund please?

What, I posted that not the OP and the drama is wholly created by the shop staff. In all honesty, this is dull as dishwater now and like Groundhog Day where the same questions and comments are being asked over and over!

You should have gone back to Sweaty Betty directly. I sent back some "sweatproof" leggings that made me look like I'd wet myself :D They were incredible. It was a while ago but I think I got a better colour in exchange.
I think the JL staff should have dealt with it better.

I laughed out loud at this..BUT..in M&S returns, I saw a M&S staff member unfold and look closely at the crotch of someone's swimming costume! {It still had the crotch guard plastic in place}

Maybe they do get stuff that has been tried on returned? {edit..in a less than pristine state}

I've heard horror stories from Charity shop workers sorting through donated goods... a pair of jeans with tights and pants and a used panty liver in there.....That is just grim.

Poor staff. It's amazing that people can take off jeans with tights and knickers all on one go and not notice!

I used to be a big fan of John Lewis but several years ago, their customer service and staff training went down the pan.

After some frustrating and very unhelpful incidents relating to quite big ticket items, I stopped shopping there and now, as a matter of principle, I won't buy from them.

You cannot guarantee that they will provide the after service they promise, and I'm sick of them trading on a good reputation they used to have and customer goodwill that built up over the years and was then abused.

It’s mainly you, tbf. You’re like a dog with a bone and have posted more than anyone else on the thread 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think that was appalling customer service, even if they disagreed with you at the end of it all.

I would complain, yes

I was sticking up for the OP as I think she was being unfairly treated.

and ridiculously scrutinised over things that she didn’t suggest.

Complain about what exactly>

hi I tried to return a jumper which had been washed and worn, unfortunately the fault was not visible, and the staff brought in four people to try to help. The fading was only visible in day light, so they kindly offered to go out and look. When I said I didn’t wish to they said it was fine, they’d do it for me. I just really wanted my jumper back and foe them not to help me any more. So I would like to complain about their overly helpful ways.

Vote with your feet.

You can get most stuff off Amazon that JL sell. Or on other websites. JL used to be a jewel of British retail, but it's now as crap as everywhere else (if not worse, in many cases).

I am on a boycott of JL since they sold me a faulty washing machine and refused to do anything apart from ask the manufacturer to send an engineer (in 2 weeks' time, after I'd been waiting desperately for the new washer for a week, with 4 people's washing piling up - and dog washing). I paid a local engineer to come out the next day, he confirmed machine was faulty and said that JL are legally obligated to take it back as it was brand new. As per his suggestion, I emailed JL, told them to take the machine away and refund it - so they did as they knew they were legally obliged to.

I also wanted a replacement part for a blind that I bought from JL. I was passed around various departments and all they wanted to know was whether it was under guarantee etc. It wasn't, and I wasn't asking for the part for free. I was just asking if they had the part for me to buy. Nobody was interested because it wasn't under guarantee and nobody would see if this part was available. I chucked the blind in the bin. Replaced with a cheap one. Wasteful and ridiculous, crap service.

I have never bought an appliance from JL since and would only do so if I had no other option. I buy something in JL about once a year now.

Apologies, I thought that was taken from one of the OP's responses.

What on earth are staff supposed to do? If she'd wanted to breast feed and they found her a chair they'd be accused of adding to the drama. If they didn't assist her she'd have accused them of not being helpful at the least.

Huge sympathies to all those working in customer service/ customer facing roles with a general public who express extraordinary entitlement and take offence at the slightest opportunity.

As a former retail supervisor, the whole way it was handled.

The queue should have been dealt with by an assistant (one of the four!) whilst the OP was taken to one side.
It didn't NEED four people, it should have taken ONE manager
So it might have been resolved - even with a polite 'I'm sorry I don't see anything wrong with the garment' much faster without a fed-up screaming baby and an audience.

And when the OP had had enough, her property should have been returned to her.

Sorry but if you admittedly couldn't see it in the store lighting, what the heck did you expect them to do? Just give you a refund blindly ? I think YABU

Whether they could see the white patch or not they behaved like dick heads.

Complain. It seems that more and more people just don’t know how to act.

I think you could safely put yourself amongst that number, @Lookingoutside

Is this a branch of JL thats by the river in a large shopping town in the SE? If so I can totally understand not wanting to take your baby out of there as its flipping massive and you wouldn't have to go outside to get back to the carpark. If you'd decided to just keep the jumper by that stage their response does seem a bit over the top - and maybe you were a bit tetchy but its predictable that parents of young babies will be sleep deprived and unless you were tetchy because you were demanding a refund I' m not sure that's an issue.

Also they are horrifically understaffed and whole place is a rabbit warren. I used to do the kids school shoe shop when down there visiting family but gave up several years ago after managing to lose DS on the side of the shop by the river! We found him in the end, otherwise I guess he'd still be there living his best life in among the sports kit, computers and the cafe.

Just wanted to say that we have given up on John Lewis (once upon a time we bought loads there, and we had our wedding list there twenty five years ago), because in our view their customer service is these days frankly appalling, nothing like what it was - although they continue to ride on their old reputation (in contrast, M&S are, to this day, lovely at customer service, even if sometimes there is quite a long queue if you go in person, and we have had brilliant experiences with Currys when electrical items go wrong, that is where we are now buying from instead of John Lewis).

The worst case I won't go into, as it is complicated, but just one of several examples - we bought a microwave from John Lewis and had it delivered as you would, microwaves are heavy, and it stopped working three months in. OK, no problem, we phoned up customer service - and after being taken all around the houses (it took forever, being sent from this one to that one - come on, this is a three month old microwave, you have a manufacturer's warranty), we were told that although we had had it delivered, in order to get a refund we needed to bring it into store so they could test that it really didn't work. Now I don't have a car, and although in fact out nearest John Lewis is only 15 minutes walk away, I assure you I am not strong enough to walk it down the road to their store carrying a microwave. When asked if they could not pick it up, given they had delivered it, I was told that was not possible. When queried if we had bought a washing machine or fridge, we would also be expected to walk it 15 minutes down the road, they said no, that they would pick up, but not a microwave. In the end I did enlist the help of somebody with a car to get me and microwave to the store for our refund. They spent ages testing that it really, really didn't work (guess what, it didn't work), and did eventually give me my refund. But in my view that is pretty shocking customer service all round (and as mentioned, not even the very worst case I had). In my view, simply don't buy there if you have any other choices.

I can see two things that might be humiliating to a sensitive person:

1. Your baby crying and annoying customers. Not John Lewis's fault.
2. You complained about a white patch that nobody except your mum can see. Not John Lewis's fault.

Sounds like they were going out of their way to be polite about the invisible white patch.

Maybe it’s just me but I actually have to sit down to breastfeed. I reckon I’d get nipple pull otherwise … downward drag by the weight of the baby!

I'd email a complaint to John Lewis I really think you should, this kind of treatment isn't on.
Then I'd contact Sweaty Betty and tell them about the jumper and that it isn't up to their usual quality and want to send it back to them to be replaced. Mention how rude and dismissive JL staff were.

What are you on about?