I used to like M&S but I'm not surprised they are struggling to sell womens clothes, WARNING MAY BE UPSETTING

[Behooven]

Says it all...

but they had changing rooms by 1989 (because I distinctly remember being in one in July '89!)

bored so I googled it.

M&S launched their own "charge" card in 1985 but they didn't start accepting other companies credit cards (such as visa) until April 2000.

www.independent.co.uk/news/retailing-ms-will-accept-credit-cards-in-bid-to-boost-sales-1122125.html

That is slow by anyone's standards!

Good grief, April 2000! That's later than I remember. Though I did do a lot of shopping there in the 90s, so it can't have put me off too much!

Excellent work Georgie for initiative

I'm up for it but I don't live in London , which is no doubt where the " listening " will take place as M&S don't have stores outside the SE or a web site

You are a

M&S should be very grateful that there is so much goodwill towards their brand, that customers actually care enough to want to make it better .

Thanks! Hopefully they will realise it is a good cross section of people and ideas.

Great thread!

Another one here who used to buy a lot more clothes from M&S for all the family than I do now.

I've stopped buying jeans and trousers from them almost altogether - I used to live in the Roma Per Una cut jeans but these days find that Sainsburys jeans are about half the price and if you buy their Roma equivalent (think it's called something like classic waist) then they are even better cut and last just as long... I've had far more compliments wearing Sainsburys jeans than I ever did wearing M&S ones which really surprised me. I've also found that the Sainsburys tshirts and tops are often much better too.

I've just been caught out on the online returns - and it's partly my own fault for not reading the form it came with really carefully - because it is there in black and white. But - in my defence - M&S have always had an extended returns policy for things bought in the run up to christmas - so even if you buy something in mid november, it can still be taken back up to a couple of weeks into the new year (usually about the saturday closest to being two weeks after new year's day). I just assumed that policy would also apply to stuff bought online - because you can still take it back into store until that date apparently - just that you can't send it back outside the 35 day time frame. Unfortunately I had lots going on in December/early Jan which is why I hadn't clocked the difference - I knew the extended date as a nice M&S person had reminded me about 'anything you get from M&S now (ie november onwards) you have until Jan 16th to take back and get a refund' - so by the time I'd read the letter it was already beyond the 35 day limit, but inside the other limit and I'd just assumed that they had a standard printed letter for online deliveries but that the extended xmas date would also apply but they didn't change their stationery specially. Hey ho. learn an expensive lesson!

So I now have a cashmere jumper (half price on black friday) in a colour that doesn't look great on me and some uncomfortable pyjamas that are a yucky colour that doesn't look the same as it did on the photo that got sent back to me along with a snotty letter.

Horsey great reply you got

And you might find it's not just London - I went to a focus group type thing at my local M&S (large regional one) - there was a flyer by the till about them a week or two beforehand and I think they ran about 4 sessions, you got to go to one rather than all of them. I think we even got something for going - cash or an M&S voucher, plus nice M&S drinks and biscuits in the session!

I'm totally up for it and I live in London.

They need to re-think Womenswear completely.

Hi there horsey,
We've made some deletions, as that's not really the way we do things round here. Please do tell Steve he is MORE than welcome to contact MN's Insight team on [email protected].

Nice work.

I suspect all the designers defected to Tu at Sainsburys, which does a reasonable job of taking catwalk trends, selecting the most universally wearable and replicating them in natural fabrics and for not much money. M&S didn't do a bad job of that a few years ago. Autograph stuff was quite lovely, and some of the Limited Collection was OK. Now Autograph has gone vile, Limited Collection is mostly cheap (in every sense of the word) flammable tat and good God no-one mention the Ugly Sister, Per Una.

Biggest biggest biggest M&S gripe - none of the t-shirts and vests are long enough. I'm not that tall. It can't be that fucking hard. They can't even get basics right.

They need to get their bra sizing and fitting sorted out. Small back sizes and bigger cup sizes do exist together.

Their bras are a disgrace. The fit is appalling.

Hi everyone,
We're just popping back to say thanks to everyone who has contributed their thoughts. Our team had been in touch with M&S PR dept prior to this and had also sent them the thread to have a look at, so we are hopeful that there will be some official feedback activity soon, fingers crossed.
We will, as ever, keep you all posted! Thanks again.

Helen

Looking forward to reading the feedback

Just out of interest, wondered what the security problem was? My email address wasn't in the message and Steve Rowe's is in the public domain anyway. I found it on the M&S website! Just curious.

Glad to have been of service, I'm sure if he wants to contact your team he will respond.

God work. Have been dipping in and out of this thread. I agree with many of the comments. One thing that's really irking me at the moment is that even when the style is okay (which is very rare), it's made from naff material. Case in point, really nice black and white striped shirt dress - but it's polyester.

Does anyone remember the 'Perfect' range? A range of basics, eg the perfect merino v neck sweater, the perfect white cotton shirt, the perfect t shirt and so on? Bring back that range!

Ive found myself buying much more from Tu these days than m and s for the kids. Most of their clothes are h and m, Tu, John Lewis and Boden. More or less ignore m and s but I used to shop there. The kids clothes are sometimes nice but often covered in cartoon characters and look tacky. I don't shop there for my clothes because it's hard to find nice stuff. Except socks. M and s are good for socks. But my work wear comes from Hobbs or phase eight and casuals from all over, and the last thing I bought from m and s was a jumper last year. My mum is in her 70s and she thinks per una is for the elderly.

That's really interesting Helen thank you.

Just think, we could be saving M&S! we'll get in the Daily Mail

yy Tu are pretty good, a year or so back they did some really great multi-sets of girls t-shirts, bit disappointing this season though. Leggings good too. Not so good for jeans/cords (maybe little girls arent supposed to wear them??).

Ladies jeans aren't bad, and I've bought some great cotton/viscose casual day dresses there.

Yes Awkward I remember the perfect range - they were exactly what M&S is now missing and should be making up a big chunk of what you want from them - great simple basics that are reliable, comfortable and don't scream M&S.

I bought one of their warm heat gen thermal tshirts this year, having previously bought them in the last couple of years. Previously - all very fine, great for layering, felt good quality, did a good job. This year's incarnation the fabric felt about 3 times as thick as the old ones (in a bad way), it felt much cheaper and didn't look as good - it had a printed pattern on it and looks like it's going to wash off quickly somehow.

And Kipper I've even stopped going there for socks - they're cheaper and better quality in TK Maxx, especially for the men's ones.

That's a bummer about the new HeatGen tops, I've got about 5 or 6 that must be a couple of years old now but are still going strong despite much wearing.

Costco are great for the thin thermal tops and also merino wool socks strangely enough.