To think Marks and Spencer aren't listening to their customers?

[brightyellowflower]

General rant, somewhat lighthearted, but really had enough of what was my favourite shop!

1. Online orders. Come with zero paperwork and you can't return to store until you've created a 'return code' Cue wasted trip today for some school uniform that was too big and I simply needed to size down. (thought they could scan the labels anyway so knew you'd bought it?)Actually, that leads to point 2...
2. School uniform in general. Absoultely sod all in school so now I've got to go back online anyway to order smaller uniform and pay the delivery charge AGAIN for the privilege. Surely having school uniform in store is a basic? This is a large out of town store I might add.
3. New self scan tills in store for clothing. Who the hell thought this was a good idea??!
4. New freezers in store in new food hall. Can't access the top shelf. I'm 5.4. Taller than the vast majority of older ladies who shop there. Surely someone checks out that the height is suitable before installing?

No knowledgeable staff in store to ask. Plenty of young managers alll trying to look important but when you ask them anything they haven't got a clue.

Final rant was my poor Mum who's in her 80's. Bought a top to match a top she already had - was actually wearing it at the time of purchase. Identical T number, same size label etc. Has it in her wardrobe for 8 weeks before needing to wear it. Puts it on, it's completely different style wise. Goes to return it and gets told no by member of staff as it's out of the returns window. If I'd have been with her I'd have insisted on a Manager and a common sense approach refund to this.

Seriously. I thought M&S cared about it's older customers 50+?

We don't want QR codes and paperless everything. We want staff. We want common sense and we want to be able to sort things out.

If you're reading this and you're senior at M&S, give your head a wobble!

Agree! 4 weeks later and I’m waiting on my returns refund on items over £100. Lack of return paperwork and lack of any staffing at smaller shops is awful. The non investment in people and for people is shameful. Really sick of it too…

1. Isnt true, you can just show them the order on your app and return at a till to have it credited straight back to your card. (At least I always have, including this week - assume the same everywhere.)

The cafe selection isn't good and staff are slow. It's painful and too expensive to be anything less than perfect.

Number one was true for me, when having online orders, they wouldnt accept it back in store at the till, had to do it all online and use a drop box after scanning a code. I have bad eyesight, so use my mobile as little as possible plus a tremor, again use the mobile as little as possible because its not easy for me.

Same for me.

I just returned an online order to a good store yesterday. I was super impressed with how easy it was. Logged in to my account, pressed return. It created a code which I screen shotted. Went to the machine in store, scanned. It printed a label which I stuck on and put in the returns bin. Easy peasy.

It must depend on the store, ours still accepts returns at the counter, though ther is a Dropbox thing if you want, I just take it back to the counter, they take the numder from the address label if it's click and collect but home delivery has to have the barcode from the phone. There is no self service yet in the clothes bit or cafe in our store, it's a modern store on a retail park

Im just amazed that anyone finds anything worth buying in M&S these days. I went in with 2 friends and we scoured the clothing floor with the aim of buying anything we fancied. We are older but keep up with general fashion and styles. We couldnt even find a simple top to buy! The colours ,cut and fabric were all out of our comfort range . The tshirts we might have bought as a sop were not good quality and would have been a waste of money.

Maybe it was the out of town store were in but there was nothing to draw us back again

I don't mind self-scan tills but I hate when they are used to completely cut down on customer service.

I wanted a decent plain black bra the other day. I am not an unusual size. The only bras they had in my size were in garish colours or weird floral monstrosities. You'd think they would know that people want stuff like bras in black or white or flesh-tones, so why not make sure they are the ones available?

The food used to be an affordable treat but now it is too expensive. £5.50 for a couple of tiny puddings? No. Waitrose is cheaper.

I do not want clothes made out of recycled polyester, or indeed any kind of polyester. What has happened to natural fibres?

I shop in M&S mainly and have no complaints at all. I prefer the new online ordering system and self serve tills are a bonus.

Well our local foodstore is closing and everyone on Facebook is going nuts about it and even the local mp is involved
so agree

Cafe staff were rude last time I was there and the food was awful.

Totally agree. Can't order online now after their system throws me out after 10 years of ordering. Can't go into store as an idiot at head office thinks the shopping village is the same as the very large town and moved the shop to the shopping village...you can't get there at the moment as the council is digging up all the roads...and if you do it's 2 hours in a queue to get down the one road the council has left open...but the roadworks will finish by Sept 2025 so hopefully can visit marks then.

Are you kidding? M&S have the most straightforward online ordering and returns process ever - you don’t need reams of useless paper. They are knocking it out of the park food and clothing wise right now!

And if you can get to a store, pick up deliveries there

Re school uniform, I (finally) found some school shoes my son was happy with, tried on a size 2, slightly too small, couldn’t find any other sizes in store, me in my head thought no problem I’ll order a 2.5 online. Done.

got home, looked online and the largest size in that style is a size 2 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ whyyyyyy. My son is only 7, how is that the largest it goes up to. Back to the drawing board.

It's quite easy to use their "returns" section, if you read the instructions.

Sorry about your Mum, but forget the T-number, could she not see that it didn't match what she was buying?

My biggest beef is their sizing, having to order 4 pairs of trousers to find one that fits.

You can just scan the barcode on the green packaging a click and collect arrives in. I find it really easy, if you don't have the packaging you just use the app
I also find their basic fruit and veg and bread very reasonable, sometimes cheaper than Tesco and better quality

Our big M&S has the new screen ordering, never seats available and they run out of items frequently.
john Lewis little better, visited yesterday and the only sandwich available was a tuna baguette. Their cafes used to be great.

In our huge one they stock all larger sizes. Waste of time.

I wish our m&S cafe had the ordering screens most of the staff are really slow and often get things wrong

My current bugbear with M&S is re breast pockets on women's t shirts. What woman ever used a breast pocket on a t shirt?

This. And super fast refunds - I made a return last week and was refunded the next day. Their knickers are actually cheaper than they were a couple of years ago.

Nope. Easiest return is, your goods arrive in the bag. You take them out, don't fit, put them back in the bag and go back to store with everything needed IN the bag or on the delivery label.

I would edit to say, I'm a certain age, don't have a smartphone that can have Apps on it (and don't like Apps anyway) and hate the assumption that everyone does (don't start me on QR food ordering at restaurants)

Sainsbury's Tu do good bras. I like cotton ones and theirs are great, and cheap too. I find that the actual big store has my size while online is often sold out.