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I made a post recently about my sucky experience in my local Marks and Spencer's lingerie department, and how my subsequent visit to Ann Summers then rocked! 
I've been back twice since then, and each time Ann Summers has continued to be a great store, with helpful staff and good (although expensive) products. I've now bought 2 bras and matching knicks there, and my mum was even helped with buying a babydoll there too.
Well, this bad experience actually comes from my good friend, who I will call Dee. She told me about this outrageous experience in the nearby Debenham's lingerie department. I was suprised actually as I frequent their fragrance and beauty section and always found the service decent, but I'd certainly think twice about going there after this little incident....
Dee is a busty gal, unfortunately so. In fact, she's actually relatively quite slim, but she has to wear bigger sized clothes to accomodate her bust and no one gets to see what a marvellous hour-glass figure she has! (She has such a tiny waist underneath those clothes!) By no means is she a small girl, but she isn't actually as big as her boobs would lead you to think
She has had a nightmare buying bras for years, and has been told multiple different sizes from multiple different brands and companies...you name a brand, she's tried them. M&S used to be the only place where she could get bras in her sizes, but she stopped buying there as they were snapping after a month's use and she was so embarrassed about having to constantly go back for refunds.
She is now wearing a 38HH. One of her pups is bigger than the other, a cup in difference apparently, so she goes down a cup size- she's more comfortable with one boob spilling a wee bit than one boob being a fried egg (same here personally, I'd rather be a teensy bit squashed than have room to spare, I haven't been able to replace all my 36Cs with Ds, so I'm putting up with it for now).
She bought a 38HH bra from Debenhams and it lasted 3 weeks. She was really quite annoyed, and took it back for a refund. The girl processing her refund was obviously new, a bit nervous and got flustered. Turns out a supervisor was needed to authorise the refund, and this poor girl kept ringing and ringing and just kept being ignored. Now Dee is a sweet-heart, has the patience of a saint, and also works retail, so she kept reassuring the new girl that it wasn't her fault etc, but after some time, she had to admit she was getting annoyed with waiting so long.
Then another colleague popped up and told the new girl that Sucky Supervisor wasn't going to come over, and to send Dee over to the other side of the store so Sucky Supervisor could authorise the refund at the desk there.
Annoyed but hiding it, Dee went to the other desk, where she had to join a whole new queue. Some cashiers were doing the ringing up, but Sucky Supervisor was just in the background, faffing about and doing nothing to help get the queue down. Eventually Dee gets to the front of the queue, goes through whats happened all over again. She explains she had the bra for 3 weeks and then it snapped, and she wanted a refund.
SS was listening in, and jumped in and said "I don't think she bought the right size, therefore its not faulty!"
She said that without even looking at Dee, and not even addressing Dee. Dee said that she had bought the right size.
SS said "I don't believe you. There's nothing wrong with our bras, and if you had bought the right size, it wouldn't have snapped, so I'm not giving you a refund."
Dee still remained calm even here. She told me she was very angry still, but as I said before, this lady has the patience of a saint. Keep in mind she's been messed about loads already, the product is faulty, this supervisor clearly thinks that its her role to delegate while she fart-arses around and not do her job, has been talking about her but not to her, and now she's basically calling Dee a liar...and underneath it all, without her specifically saying so, I think there's a bit of a dig about Dee's size. If it had been me, I would have basically felt that I had been called fat (don't know if you'd all agree with that, but I sure feel that way).
Instead, Dee calmly but firmly argues her case. She tells SS that she got measured on the day she bought the bra and brought the right size, thats it not her fault it snapped 3 weeks later.
To which SS then says that she won't give Dee a refund unless she can measure her first!
Seriously! She said she didn't believe Dee was wearing the right size and that she wasn't going to accept that unless Dee let her measure her right there!
Dee exploded! She felt humiliated! I would have to! She basically copped and told SS she absolutely was not going to let her measure her. They argued for a bit, before SS relented a little and offered Dee a credit note. Dee accepted it, but I would have demanded my actual REFUND- not a credit note!
I think this would have been one of the very few, rare situations where being angry at the supervisor was/would have been completely appropriate. And I tell you, as someone who works in retail, and absolutely does not believe in treating retail workers like crap, I would have ripped that bitch a new arsehole. Dee had her reciept and was entitled to a refund, instead she was basically called a fat liar by a lazy arrogant bitch who clearly doesn't know how to do her job properly.
I hate to say it, but I think customer service standards are seriously dropping...
And to think, I almost got a job there a while back....
I've been back twice since then, and each time Ann Summers has continued to be a great store, with helpful staff and good (although expensive) products. I've now bought 2 bras and matching knicks there, and my mum was even helped with buying a babydoll there too.Well, this bad experience actually comes from my good friend, who I will call Dee. She told me about this outrageous experience in the nearby Debenham's lingerie department. I was suprised actually as I frequent their fragrance and beauty section and always found the service decent, but I'd certainly think twice about going there after this little incident....
Dee is a busty gal, unfortunately so. In fact, she's actually relatively quite slim, but she has to wear bigger sized clothes to accomodate her bust and no one gets to see what a marvellous hour-glass figure she has! (She has such a tiny waist underneath those clothes!) By no means is she a small girl, but she isn't actually as big as her boobs would lead you to think
She has had a nightmare buying bras for years, and has been told multiple different sizes from multiple different brands and companies...you name a brand, she's tried them. M&S used to be the only place where she could get bras in her sizes, but she stopped buying there as they were snapping after a month's use and she was so embarrassed about having to constantly go back for refunds.She is now wearing a 38HH. One of her pups is bigger than the other, a cup in difference apparently, so she goes down a cup size- she's more comfortable with one boob spilling a wee bit than one boob being a fried egg (same here personally, I'd rather be a teensy bit squashed than have room to spare, I haven't been able to replace all my 36Cs with Ds, so I'm putting up with it for now).
She bought a 38HH bra from Debenhams and it lasted 3 weeks. She was really quite annoyed, and took it back for a refund. The girl processing her refund was obviously new, a bit nervous and got flustered. Turns out a supervisor was needed to authorise the refund, and this poor girl kept ringing and ringing and just kept being ignored. Now Dee is a sweet-heart, has the patience of a saint, and also works retail, so she kept reassuring the new girl that it wasn't her fault etc, but after some time, she had to admit she was getting annoyed with waiting so long.
Then another colleague popped up and told the new girl that Sucky Supervisor wasn't going to come over, and to send Dee over to the other side of the store so Sucky Supervisor could authorise the refund at the desk there.
Annoyed but hiding it, Dee went to the other desk, where she had to join a whole new queue. Some cashiers were doing the ringing up, but Sucky Supervisor was just in the background, faffing about and doing nothing to help get the queue down. Eventually Dee gets to the front of the queue, goes through whats happened all over again. She explains she had the bra for 3 weeks and then it snapped, and she wanted a refund.
SS was listening in, and jumped in and said "I don't think she bought the right size, therefore its not faulty!"
She said that without even looking at Dee, and not even addressing Dee. Dee said that she had bought the right size.
SS said "I don't believe you. There's nothing wrong with our bras, and if you had bought the right size, it wouldn't have snapped, so I'm not giving you a refund."
Dee still remained calm even here. She told me she was very angry still, but as I said before, this lady has the patience of a saint. Keep in mind she's been messed about loads already, the product is faulty, this supervisor clearly thinks that its her role to delegate while she fart-arses around and not do her job, has been talking about her but not to her, and now she's basically calling Dee a liar...and underneath it all, without her specifically saying so, I think there's a bit of a dig about Dee's size. If it had been me, I would have basically felt that I had been called fat (don't know if you'd all agree with that, but I sure feel that way).
Instead, Dee calmly but firmly argues her case. She tells SS that she got measured on the day she bought the bra and brought the right size, thats it not her fault it snapped 3 weeks later.
To which SS then says that she won't give Dee a refund unless she can measure her first!
Seriously! She said she didn't believe Dee was wearing the right size and that she wasn't going to accept that unless Dee let her measure her right there!
Dee exploded! She felt humiliated! I would have to! She basically copped and told SS she absolutely was not going to let her measure her. They argued for a bit, before SS relented a little and offered Dee a credit note. Dee accepted it, but I would have demanded my actual REFUND- not a credit note!
I think this would have been one of the very few, rare situations where being angry at the supervisor was/would have been completely appropriate. And I tell you, as someone who works in retail, and absolutely does not believe in treating retail workers like crap, I would have ripped that bitch a new arsehole. Dee had her reciept and was entitled to a refund, instead she was basically called a fat liar by a lazy arrogant bitch who clearly doesn't know how to do her job properly.
I hate to say it, but I think customer service standards are seriously dropping...
And to think, I almost got a job there a while back....
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