Resolved? Combatting You Get What You Pay For

When Raven posted about her icky J. Crew experience, she followed Infintessimal Readership and DC Celine advice and contacted the company. Here's what she writes about their response:

Well, I pretty much got what I expected -- what is mostly a form letter.

I will excerpt:

PANTS
Our returns inspectors are normally extremely thorough when checking our returned items for quality, defects and other items that may call the item's quality into question. Pockets are supposed to be checked and emptied as well. Any returned items that are returned to our stock are supposed to be good as new. This was obviously not the case with your chinos.
You are also welcome to return the chinos along with the hair accessory you found. Be sure to note that the item was left in the pocket by our returns team, and this is why you are returning it, if you choose to do so.

SWEATER
If you believe your sweater is defective, you are welcome to send it to the J.Crew Returns Center for evaluation. Please be sure to note the nature of the defect that you have discovered on inside of the package.
If the sweater is deemed defective, we will issue a refund or exchange the item according to your request.


We sincerely apologize for the problems you've brought to light, and will use this information to improve and refine our procedures. We hopethat you will continue to enjoy the same level of quality and service that you have experienced over your years of patronage. We expect nothing less from ourselves.


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I don't know what I expected, exactly, but it somehow was more than this. I chose to go the email route because the closest accessible JCrew is in Columbia and I don't have time to go down there. (Other one is at the Balto Harbor and I refuse to pay $10 to park for an hour).

The best part is "you're welcome to return the chinos along with the hair accessory." Right. Like I actually KEPT it, much less want to touch it again to mail back to you.

So, there you go. No more JCrew for me. Oh well. They're overpriced anyway.

Raven, you did your consumer's duty, and let the company know about a problem. Their response, while not effuse, certainly is appropriate. What I heard them say: "Return the icky things." Not unreasonable.

Big companies: Hear us now. We don't like icky things in our pockets. And we expect you to do something about it. We know you can.

Style Dilemma: Combatting "You Get What You Pay For"

In a twist on our regular style dilemmas, Raven posted in response to You Get What You Pay For:

Can I just rant re: getting what you pay for? I ordered pants from JCrew online. They arrived in a hermetically sealed plastic bag, all creased and fresh-looking, tags still attached. Imagine my surprise when I reached into the pocket yesterday and came up with someone's hair elastic. With blonde hair matted in it. I also bought a sweater, which had five major pulls in it after wearing it to dinner one night. To dinner! I wasn't out playing rugby in it, for godssake. So, when dropping $200 at JCrew, I DO expect to get what I pay for -- unused pants and a sweater that lasts more than one evening. Pathetic.

When I asked if she'd taken either item back, she continued...

I'm not sure what to do. I feel like I should at least complain but wanted to wait until I simmered down a bit. Unfortunately I found the hair thingie at work, which means I had to sit around in the pants all day. Should I mail the hair elastic back to JCrew? I feel as if that might just be overkill. But sure would make me feel better. :)

Raven, until a couple of years ago, I was the Queen of Not Raising a Fuss. Then I got smart. Encouraged by CBear, a lifetime friend who is the Queen of Effective Letters to Ineffective Merchants, I slowly gained the ability to 1) ask about things in a store, 2) return something if it didn't work (gasp! I know!), and 3) raise bloody heck (firmly, civilly, but assertively, of course) if something I'd paid good money (or not such good money) for didn't live up to my expectations or showed that it was, in fact, of inexplicably poor quality. Like your $200 worth of clothes from what is a respectable national retailer.

So here's what I would do (it's not overkill in the least):

1) Go to the store, and take your sweater with you. J. Crew is one of those lovely places that (if I remember correctly) handles online-bought items in their stores, and vice versa. Explain the sweater situation. See what the response is. It may be nothing, a "I can't do anything about it"-type response, and you may have to end there, but if not, maybe they'll at least trade in the sweater or give you store credit. Especially when you explain that you've been a long-time purchaser - primarily because of their quality - you depend on them.

2) Regarding the hairy find in your pants pocket, get on the phone immediately and call customer service for the online people. Explain the situation nicely, but very firmly. My guess is, those pants were probably sold to someone else first, who wore them once, then returned. Maybe you could suggest that they check the pockets of returns more carefully.

In either case, don't be afraid to talk to the next person up the line if you think the person you first get isn't hearing you. I honestly have no idea if they'll do anything at all, but if you approach both situations with a "hey, I'm a loyal customer and I just want to let you know that my confidence in your product has dropped because of these two incidents," mentality - and be prepared to back it up (read: don't go there any more if you really don't trust their product quality any more) - then who knows what will happen.

At the very least, you've done your duty to the next gal buying pants. No more hairy elastics in pockets. Eeeeeeew!

And of course, you have to let us know how it turns out.