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?

Because it is over a jumper and JL profit from their good customer service branding- you can’t have it both ways. It is not a court of law and the OP is not on trial and doesn’t have to prove anything, especially as she asked for it back but they ignored her.

I know customers can be nightmares but if it did fade (aside from the white patch issue on top of that ) you should be able to expect better after just one wash. I’m assuming you followed any instructions on it but as a fellow sweaty Betty fan I would have returned it too. You paid enough for it and I think sweaty Betty themselves would have accepted the return(but I know it’s the experience you had trouble with) I think they went on a bit silly to be honest, it sounds like they got the whole section to debate your jumper. I get the baby thing too, so stressful. I would definitely hold a grudge now and only shop on the sweaty Betty website. It was definitely embarrassing for you.

Rubbish.

They were trying to help with a fault no one could see in the store including the OP.

Secondly how is it reasonable to take someone outside then stand out there whilst the jumper is further inspected THEN if they agree come back inside etc etc. it’s a strange suggestion in my opinion.

It is reasonable IMO because they couldn't find the fault, and you told them that nor could you unless it was in natural daylight - they were following your lead! They were very patient with you in my view, they even took two colleagues off the shop floor to try to find the fault in daylight when you declined to go with them to point it out. It's not their fault that the natural light that you said was critical to identifying the problem was a decent walk away, not is it their fault you had an unsettled baby with you or that you refused to go out there with them. I think them trying to go outside with you see the issue was a very normal and unremarkable thing.

Yes I agree that she should have given it back when you asked for it but it sounds like the manager thought you'd have been leaving unhappily and she was trying to avoid that, whilst at the same time trying to identify if there was a fault with the item or not.

By all means you're entitled to feel frustrated at the whole situation, but I don't think you should complain.

No not ‘rubbish’ true!

If they were trying to help they massively fucked up as it is just humiliating and not returning something the OP owned when she asked was again poor customer service! Completely ridiculous and OTT reaction to traipse a customer with a baby outside to prove a point or not.

To give the OP her money back or an exchange - which she’d asked for?

You’re very combative.

‘Patient’ with all that fussing she was the patient one, patience of a saint with a crying baby!

Seems a bit daft to take it to a JL in a shopping centre if the fault could only be seen in natural light😜 Perhaps it's a well-known con trick and the staff weren't going to fall for it this time, hence the laboured customer service...

Are you the op in disguise, @Goldenbear ? Your insistence on this being humiliating is quite odd.

And you are very rude, stating someone’s opinion is ‘rubbish’ you forgot to add in your opinion!

Good customer service would have given a regular customer back their money no quibble. Why didn’t they just return the top when she asked for no more fuss.

Yes, that’s right I don’t agree with you so I must be the OP. Your insistence that it isn’t does that mean you are LittleBearPad or anybody else that agrees with you or do you work for John Lewis- in fact are you one of the four members of staff😱

Well if you have ever shopped at JL which seemingly you haven’t, in the past it wasn’t how it worked!

What, you could bring a clearly used item, with no fault visible to the naked eye back for a no quibble refund?
When was this?

I wonder what good customer service would look like?

It would have been a far better idea to bring it back on grounds that it didn't fit the person you bought it for, if the discolouration was so hard to see.

They sound like they really wanted to be helpful. They would probably get into trouble for exchanging something that was worn but not faulty so have to be sure.

Your comment about looking at your accounts to see how much you spend there was also uncalled for.

Actually, what set them apart from competitors was that they would not focus on the one percent of unscrupulous customers, back in 2014 this is what the retail director explained, “As you walk in [to a store] much of their communication is designed for that 1% of the population – ‘don’t touch it, don’t break it, don’t drop it, don’t bring it back unless it meets these 27 criteria and it’s a Friday and the wind is blowing from the north west’. Why would you do that if 99% of your customers are trying to be fair and reasonable?”

In the 00s you could definitely return things and get your money back without a receipt! it was a completely different approach and it is definitely poor customer service for JL considering their past!

Actually in the 90s as well, my friend’s Mum was very fussy about furniture and would buy stuff from JL And have it sitting around and then return it as she would discover a scratch or mark that was definitely in her imagination But they would have the cabinet back or the sofa time and time again as this happened frequently!

Dear god, I don’t know what to do with this information! Want to look away, but can’t stop looking…😱It just brings up so many questions, mainly HOW could she have thought this was appropriate customer service? I can sort of understand some poor bugger being given that task away from public view ( although, again, ewww and arghh!), but just to do it right there in front of you?! 😂😳Mind boggling! Haha, I’m not surprised you still think about it. Sort of flash back style no doubt!

As I know John Lewis is known for their customer service

I'm not sure they are known for their good customer service these days though - increasingly they are known for their shocking customer service. Have a look on this site alone.

I have had a really poor experience too.

YABU

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? Or if you didn't want to do that there, just say, you need to take 10mins to pop to their feeding room, and that you'd come back then.

I still don't get why you couldn't "drag" your baby outside though. You told them you could see it in natural light, so they decided to go check it out, which is perfectly reasonable. Baby wouldn't have been "dragged", you'd have either been carrying baby in your arms, or in a sling, or have baby in a pram, so baby wouldn't have been in any discomfort being taken outside. Who cares that JL was in a shopping centre?! Unless it's lashing with rain, I really don't see the problem with going outside for a few minutes.

They didn't humiliate you. Yes, they took ages dealing with it, but they didn't humiliate you. Yet you were a bit of a dick to them, which you should have known better having worked there yourself, prior to becoming a "professional" 🙄

Boo bloody hoo!

There was no humiliation! OP has just cried “Waaaahhh!” because she didn’t get exactly what she wanted!