Today is a sad day for clothing e-tailers and customer service. I have often decided not to publicly vent my frustration with some stores and brands, however today I experienced an incident that deserves for the company in question, The Kooples, to be named and shamed. I hope you agree. Read on …
I purchased a Parka for £495 online. When it arrived, it didn’t suit me so I decided to return it. I completed the online instructions, which involved sending it back. TO FRANCE. WHAT???? At that point, I also read that I could bring it back to a store, so obviously figured this would be cheaper (although it also involved time, petrol and parking costs).
Crime no. 1
Today I schlepped to the store in Hampstead to be told that I could not get a refund and only a credit. So if I wanted a refund I would have to mail it. Here’s the overview of those costs due to the size and weight of the package:
1. £19 basic postage (no tracking, no signature, no insurance)
2. £40 (tracking, signature and £100 insurance)
3. £52 (tracking, signature and £500 insurance)
So basically a customer has to incur £19-£52 own costs for a clothing return in order to get a refund. Utter insanity! Furthermore, which of these postage options would you chose? If you do 1 or 2, you incur a risk of loss of part or all of the value if the item goes missing.
Why-oh-why can’t their central HQ just coordinate to do refunds for web purchases when they can do exchanges? Sure, I get that there is an extra element of admin involved, but just make it happen, people! Don’t lose your customers.
Crime no. 2
While still in the store, the assistant called another store to confirm that a customer is responsible for postage costs and then basically told me. SORRY! I then demanded to talk to someone in customer services and the phone number was written down for me. The sales assistant said she would not use her landline as this needs to be “kept open for customer calls”. Excuse me, am I not a customer?
I then noticed that the phone number was … yes, you guessed it, in FRANCE. That’s a mighty expensive phonecall, but I was determined not to schlepp the big box home with me so I made the call. More costs.
Crime no. 3
This situation now went from bad to worse as I’m put through to “Sandy” in customer service who tells me that it is their sales policy for customers to be responsible for postage costs. Fair enough for companies to define their own sales policies, however here’s where I feel decent customer service is not taking place:
1. Customers Don’t Pay Postage
It’s not very commonplace for e-commerce clothing shops to make customers pay as there is always a high probability of something being returned (as you can’t try something when you’re at a computer screen, of course). Banana Republic provide you with free returns labels. The Kooples is a high end brand with items around £200 upwards so one would expect an equivalent or better service even, not worse!
2. Postage to FRANCE?
If you have to force customers to pay, have it send local, but making them send back to France means exorbitant costs. Once again, make it easy for customers to do business, with you so get them to send to a local store and fund the shipment abroad yourself or introduce the stock back to your local stores.
3. Misinformation
Their website does not display this sales policy clearly or the fact that refunds are not available via the store, thereby causing inconvenience and costs for customers like myself hoping to get a refund in store.
When I point all of this out to Sandy, I ask her to either provide me with a refund in store or cover part/all of my postage costs but Sandy is not interested. I also ask to speak to her manager or a superior and she outright refuses. She says she is in the head of customer service. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Finally, when I ask for her last name she replies “it’s none of your business”. Nice!! Even if she doesn’t want to give it, she could say “I’m not able to provide you with that information”. What a way to talk to a paying customer.
In Conclusion
So off I went to the post office in defeat to send this item back for a refund. I had
to add £3 in packaging tape as icing on the cake!
All in all, a sad day for clothing retailers doing e-commerce online and a sad day for customer service.
All I can do is:
- Boycott the store (I can vote with my feet at least)
- Warn all other potential customers (via this blog post)
- Attempt to escalate to the company (send a complaint letter which will probably be ignored)
- Escalate to other customer bodies in the UK (from the perspective of misinformation)
What else can I do? What should I do or what should I have done? Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please let me know your thoughts.
