to have sent this letter of complaint? (Bit long, sorry)

[FilledWithRage]

I feel I might have been a bit 'OTT', having calmed down slightly since last week. I still feel shoddy service should be reported though.
No response yet. Here is the letter, sorry it's long.

"I am contacting you to register my concerns regarding the service, or rather lack of service, which I recently experienced at your (town name) store.

I visited on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 March.

Complaint 1: On both occasions the shop was hardly busy, myself and maybe two other customers, yet I was not once acknowledged, approached, greeted or offered any assistance during the course of a 20 minute browse. (I appreciate it is nice to be left to browse in peace, but I do value a smile and a friendly greeting, and an offer of assistance later on if required. This encourages me to shop and provides a relaxing and welcoming environment.)

Complaint 2: Worse, when I approached the changing rooms with a selection of items to try on, I was greeted by blank unsmiling stares, and (here I trust I am not entering the realms of paranoia) what seemed to me to be stifled sniggers. When I asked 'May I try these items on?' I was greeted with a curt 'yes, there' and a finger pointing towards a changing room. No friendly greeting, or 'We'll be here if you need any help'. Once I was in the changing room cue whispers and more laughter. Whether this was related to such an apparent spectacle as myself is, of course, indeterminable. But it was unprofessional and off-putting.

Perhaps you could advise these extremeley unhelpful and seemingly immature staff of the following salient facts:

1. If they find my size 12 post-caesarean figure - no doubt considered obese if you are a 19 / 20 year old - so objectionable, there are many more stores one could (and given recent experiences, definitely will!) choose to give custom to.

1. Shock! Customer is clad in 'old clothes' rather than the latest offerings (for which these staff are presumably given a liberal 'uniform' allowance). Er, yes, I have a baby and can't spend hours getting ready and co-ordinating. Also, that would be why I am shopping - to buy new clothes.

1. They are employed (presumably) to provide a service, and were it not for people like myself (ie a customer) visiting the store and spending what is probably the equivalent of a couple of days' pay for them (if not more), they would not have a job in the first place.

I find this blase and even hostile attitude unacceptable at the best of times but utterly astonishing given the current climate. If customers are not valued, made welcome and assisted at the moment, what hope is there?

I found the whole experience very unsettling and off-putting, the absolute anthisis of welcoming and relaxing.

I read on your website that 'store teams are carefully selected to ensure that they can offer our customers friendly, genuine, knowledgeable and impartial advice in a relaxed environment'. This is laugable, and is certainly failing as far as the (town name) store is concerned.

I was left with the abiding impression that Jigsaw (town name) ticks along quite nicely without the interrruption of customers, thank you very much, therefore I am not currently needed and will not be returning to this shop in a hurry, if ever."

I think you've done the right thing aswell.

Probably 99% of people would just accept this sort of treatment and never go back to the shop. It takes people who are willing to stick their head above the parapet to at least try to get things changed.

I hope the two girls get told about your complaint and reprimanded, might think twice about it next time.

Good on ya for making the effort to write.

YANBU and I agree 100% with SadMarg - people who weren't there have no idea whether you were insulted or not - you felt insulted, that's the point!

I don't shop in Jigsaw because i hate their clothes, but have had a similar experience in Miss Selfridge.

I went in there (also post-cs but I wish I'd been a size 12!) looking for a jumper I'd seen in a magazine in my size. They had 1 in a size 12, but nothing larger. I had a browse, being completely ignored by the size 6 adolescent assistants, and became fascinated by the lack of anything beyond a size 12 - in fact I got rather carried away (I was on maternity leave, DD was asleep and I was bored witless) and looked through the whole shop - they only had 3 items in a size 12 and nothing larger. I went up to the counter, had to interrupt their conversation, and asked them if it was their store policy not to have anything in bigger sizes, they looked at me like I was shit on their shoes and said 'we don't get no call for plus sizes, love' and fell about sniggering to each other.

I was suffering from mild PND at the time and slunk away feeling slightly lower than pondscum. I wish I'd been able to write a letter like the OP's!

Hope you get a decent response

oh fruitbeard, that must have been awful.

op - well done

I am somewhat bemused by posters who claim my letter doesn't contain facts or relate what actually happened....??

You could say that all complaints are paranoia / imagined. I am especially confused by Sfendona's post, I'm not sure what is the difference between 'something that has happened' and 'someting you believe to have happened'?

I think I have a better idea what happened than anyone else really.

I am also interested to know what you people who say the letter is 'paranoid' would actually have written in my shoes / if you would have even written at all?

Accepting poor behaviour or service (assuming it's not paranoia of course) won't help anyone. The worst that can happen is nothing changes. The best that can happen is the girls get told to be more sensitive and /or helpful.

I felt I had to be personal / emotive to get across the depth of my feelings here.

You seemed to have written that letter when you were still very angry (possibly same day?)... and it does come across in your letter as slightly OTT. Give yourself time to think and calm down before writing a letter of complaint.

Look, i ve tried not to write this because i didn't want to upset you. But since you want to...

OK read your no 1. Fgs. Did they call you obese? THIS would be fact. They were laghing yes. But the rest is your imagination. YOU IMAGINED that they were laghing at your size (size 12!).

And just because you feel unhappy you want to cause problem to some girls who probably try hard to earn their living, maybe to pay for their studies or their first flat or whatever. This is nastiness.

Here you asked for opinions and you keep going on and on so here it is.

oh my goodness that letter is bumptious and comical. We can all get cross about bad service but this is not the way to get it addressed. It sounds like it comes from Hyacinth Bucket and will not be taken seriously at all.

and the fact that you went back on a second day just to see if the service was as bad - really, really can you not see how sad that is? There are better things to do with your life.

yabu

Lots of customers (me for instance) can't abide being approached unless I ask for help.

Young girls laugh, old girls laugh
YOU ARE NOT THE STAR OF THEIR MOVIE

Reality is...woman went into a shop and walked around looking at clothes.
Woman went into the shop again and tried on some clothes

Woman didn't have Pretty Woman experience and now wants to kick out at everyone.

Your rant makes you sound like...
You have a problem withas a start)
Your figure
Your self esteem
Your current clothing
Your perception to others
This not being the 1950's
Your self importance in the grand scheme of things.

In future you could try saying something like, "Come on girls!!" in a pleasant tone..you might be amazed

Talking about the amount of servitude you want in regard to their pittance of pay has made my response more curt than it might ordinarily be

And all this 'it is recession and i expect better service..' starts to piss me off. Seems like mnetters go mad on complain letters since the credit crunch begun.

Just because is recession doesn't mean that shops/restaurants have to kiss our ars every time we step in

are you in leeds perchance? Twas my experience every time I went in any more trendy / upmarket shop. But hey ho - never felt the need to write a letter like this. I think bumptious is quite an apt description of it really. And a tad paranoid.

Actually I've every sympathy for you. YANBU to complain. I hope they respond, err, appropriately?
Most of us know what it's like to receive half-baked service and in my experience, clothes shops can offer some of the worst shopping experiences!
I was in a posh lighting shop today and was patronised severely when asking if a certain light would work on a dimmer switch. "Why would you want to dim it? I mean WHY???" was the response. I'll do what I like in my own bleedin' home thanks very much! he was so condescending I though he could shove his light where there is no light...
But I have to say, I think that on a day when you're feeling better about yourself....and when the indignant outrage has subsided...that letter will make you laugh to high heaven!!

lol @ Hyacinth Bucket

you sound like you are showing off about your figure - I doubt you would find a shop assistant that slim where I live

Turning 30 and/or turning into a mother renders you invisible to shop assistants. And, sadly, men. Perhaps this is happening?

Good for you OP, well done.

surely no-one believes this is for real? ?

If it is then you need to get a grip, seriously.

Writing to complain about not being greeted by staff in a shop? or someone daring to laugh?

yeah right.

I think post pregnancy I was more emotional about things and having felt like a frump for the best part of 9 months, clothes shopping was a bit tense.

I think it is unlikely the staff were properly trained and were probably more interested in clock watching and planning their outfits for the weekend of partying than mocking you.

Your size is not an issue but perhaps your self image is, so practise pampering and loving yourself and the behaviour of a couple of shop girls will feel less relevant to you.

Hopefully, your letter will enable Jigsaw to identify a training need.

So you walked up to some shop assistants and thought there were "stiffled sniggers", then automatically assumed they were laughing at you - and specifically your size and choice of outfit? How is that not paranoid? One could have just told the other a joke! Unless you overheard them saying something specific to you eg "Gor - that woman with the pink coat/red hat/green shoes must be delusional if she thinks she'll fit in a size 10, etc" how do you know they were being rude?

IMO it's fair enough (and right) to complain if you have experienced godawful service and someone has been actively rude to you. But writing a frankly pretty emotional letter about staff not smiling at you and laughing when you walked up to them? OTT in the extreme.

I'm just wondering how long ago the OP had her baby. Sorry if I've missed that and I don't mean to be intrusive but you can feel very vulnerable about these things when you are adjusting to a new figure.

I think you probably have taken it too personally but that is easily done when feeling self-conscious. But the staff made you feel that way because they were unfriendly and made you wonder why.

I would be very surprised, given Jigsaw's sizes and demographic, if the shop assistants gave any thought at all to your figure but they were rude as young girls can be. Particularly girls in a poorly paid, crap job, where most of the time customers look down on them.

I think a straightforward letter pointing out their unhelpfulness would have been more effective. But it is done now, so don't lose any sleep over it!

a fact based, normal, letter of complaint would have said something like..

dear manager, i was dissapointed at the the level of service i received in your store yesterday. the staff on your fitting rooms seemed distracted in their own conversations and didn't offer me any assistance. similarly on the shop floor none of your staff saw that i wanted some assistance. i was under the impression that your store policy was to give a more personal service to your customers. i left your store without making a purchase as i was so unhappy.

yours.....

something like that.

That's true, ruddynorah. But it doesn't get the hurt across and it seems clear that the op felt very hurt.

early January, the same store, I tried on a top which was too tight and stuck my head out of the changing room and asked if I could have the next size up and the young woman yelled across the store that 'you've already got the large' and her colleague sniggered. I was very angry and upset by their response and sadly I didn't complain. for what it's worth I'm a size 12/14. YANBU

I for one loved your letter - particularly as its something I can totally relate to. I am not large - a size 12 maybe 14 on a bad day - and that to me is perfectly reasonable. Yet shop assistants like the one you describe are far too common and companies need to realise that we'll all bugger off and shop elsehwere if they can't train their staff.