Bad experience in M&S fitting rooms

[TwinTantrums]

I’ve recently lost a lot of weight and so need a lot of new summer and holiday clothes.

I came over to M&S this morning and had a trolley full of clothes and other such items, walking up to the fitting rooms and the woman looks me up and down and then asks how much I have, as “8 items is the maximum, to stop some types” from stealing. I offer to split it up and she rolls her eyes and says “I suppose you can”

I go in, try on my eight items, split them into what I do and don’t want and come back out, she then huffs and asks if I really need to go again? I said yes, as I’ve lost a lot of weight and don’t know what size I am. She looked me up and down and then asked how big I had been before if this is the after!! I just took the number from her and went back in.

AIBU or was she totally out of line?

Read comment posted iv never been complained about but iv been severely impacted by my complaint people need to seriously think about what there doing and the consequences

That's ridiculous. Sizing varies from shop to shop. I even tried the same jeans on in 2 different colours in the same shop and had 2 get two different sizes.

Well done on your weight loss, that’s a brilliant achievement.

I worked in retail for 21 years, New Look and River Island. Worked my way up to management then back down again after having kids (retail management didn’t used to be family friendly). I would absolutely want to know if one of my staff was as rude as that. It’s bang out of order. No excuse. I would complain to their head office. Mine didn’t like getting complaints and the manager’s woukd have to do an investigation and report back. If this woman is getting complaints then even if the manager doesn’t want to act HO will force them to.

Working in retail can be a thankless and badly paid job but it’s the job you choose and if you don’t like customers then you need to look for a different job. When on the fitting room your job is to check people in and out, offer help if needed and sorting the unwanted items out correctly on the hangers and have them ready for the person who is clearing them out of the fitting room. If you wanted to try every bloody thing in the shop then as annoying as it is the job of the person on the fitting rooms to help you to do that. It is not relevant that people steal from there, that’s not your problem and she shouldn’t have said it.

I have no idea why people on here are making this your fault. Her job was literally to help you use the fitting room. If she thinks that’s too inconvenient for her then she should speak to her boss and ask that she doesn’t get put on there or she gets a job somewhere without all those pesky customers who pay her wages.

But none of that is your fault. It’s his behaviour that lost him his job. It’s his decision that led to him killing himself.

Yeah it doesn't feel like that its been over 10 years and I still think about his kids. I still have the newspaper article after the inquest

Well hopefully you've been reassured, as much as possible anyway, that it was absolutely not your fault that extremely rare situation happened.

Gently, it sounds like your view of complaints etc. is extremely clouded.

If op complains, as she should and as is her right, its then on the employer to deal with it fairly and whatever happens afterwards is absolutely none of her doing. Same as in your situation.

@TwinTantrums If you used your sparks card you might get an email asking for feedback of your visit, I have received one a few times and it usually says the managers name on it, not sure f I have had one since their cyber attack though.

Your receipt may have contact details on it.

Okay this one took a turn 😅 but thanks to everyone who confirmed I’m not being unreasonable here, I do see why me having a large amount of items was annoying but I was in store to try things on! I don’t think I deserved the comments

Exa this

Exactly

You didn't deserve that comment and I know iv been coming at you and what she said was horrible and youve done amazing to lose all that weight and dont let anyone take that achievement from you

I’m not a complainer at all but even I would complain about this. Regardless of if you were slightly thoughtless in taking too many items to the changing rooms, it doesn’t justify being rude to a customer. You’re not being oversensitive at all- that comment was downright mean.

Do you think Marks & Spencer’s as a store would issue a statement saying “ you wanting to try on lots of clothes at our store is really annoying and so our staff can be rude at you”
or do you think M&S would say “ please feel free to try on our clothing, our staff will assist the procedure in any way possible, any more than five items at any one time can be kept on the rail for that purpose, please enjoy our store!”

I always end up taking more than the limit in, knowing that I can swap them. There aren’t really enough staff to get other sizes, and the sizing is so inconsistent, it’s just a sensible thing to do. And yes, she was very rude.

Ok, to be honest you can try everything on in the whole shop if you wish to! Any comments on “you should have guessed if such and such an item would fit based on trying on a different item in that size blah blah blah” NO! You were not being at all unreasonable and it pisses me off that people are creating even a tiny bit of doubt and making you feel like you should have conducted yourself differently!
as soon as you were told the maximum items in the changing room at a time, you adhered to it, after that you did nothing at all wrong!
Yes you should have raised it at the time, however wanting to just get the heck out of there after being made to feel embarrassed and an inconvenience was a natural reaction. Yes you should raise it with the customer service department, just go online and call up, theyl will log it with the correct store manager and theyl have to review with the correct team member and report back to them. Unless this is a constant issue with the fitting room assistant, nobody is likely to lose their job or even receive an official sanction, but they will hopefully learn a valuable lesson on the impact of their words and actions on others.

I'm genuinely astonished by how many people are down-playing this. I'm awful in the heat - feel faint and nauseous - but I would never speak to somebody like that, let alone whilst at work. Because 1. I'm not an arsehole and 2. I understand what's expected of me at work.

I would absolutely be complaining about this and I've only ever made a complaint once (when heavily pregnant and treated like shit). You don't deserve to be treated like this. Absolutely nothing wrong with trying on as many clothes as you'd like, if there isn't a queue at the changing rooms. M and S changing staff are the people doing bra fittings FFS - they should know how to make people feel comfortable and valued in the area their managing. I'm so sorry this happened to you and well done on your weight loss - you deserved a shopping spree and I'm sorry it ruined what should have been an exciting time

Everyone in that store is on the same wage, working in the same heat. You can bet she completely changes the energy on every shift she's on. My adult children have done min wage jobs and posters don't seem to get that the colleagues of these mood vampires, have their day made worse by these types.

I wear M & S jeans in size 8 or size 10. Dresses can be an 8 or a 10. My M and S swimming costume is a size 14! Their sizing is all over the place.....drives me nuts. One reason why my allegiance to M and S is now decidedly shaky.

I totally agree. I’m shocked that anyone would think that the last sentence spoken by the assistant was in any way acceptable under any circumstances

I tried something on in M and S yesterday and the assistant in the fitting room had some mobility issues and was clearly struggling in the heat even though it was air conditioned. However, she was lovely, cheerful and really polite as we chatted about coping in this weather.

I can't believe that people are defending the assistant's rudeness. Being a bit short with customers because of the heat is understandable, but that was studied bitchiness.

That is the woman’s JOB!!!! That’s what she’s paid for!!!

This is very unusual for me, but actually, it's a big YES from me. She needs to be sent for extra customer service training and be on a final warning. Are we really happy to accept service like this? She wasn't just rude - she was downright cruel. Please, please complain OP.

Super rude. Yes I would complain. What an awful approach to customers.

So rude that I laughed when I read the last comment !

Oh and btw I have clothes in 5 different sizes that fit perfectly, so don't give us that "you should know your size" bollock, people!