1 /5 Holly Hill: I love Anthropologie’s clothing and have been a loyal customer for many years. The problem is not the clothing, it is the workers.
I ordered two of the same formal dress to ensure I had the correct size, and figured it would be simple to return the size that did not work. I’m from Tulare, roughly 45 minutes away, so I planned to do the return on a day that I’d also shop for my birthday gift.
Shopping in the store was fine. Workers were walking around the store and willing to help, but the customer service wasn’t anything special. The real problem was when I decided to checkout and do my return.
The worker asked for my phone number and email, which I didn’t use to place my order. The app did not require them. We went through both of my emails, my mother’s account, my grandmother’s account, and everything we could think of. The worker did not know what else to do for the return, so she got a manager. The manager repeated the same process and then said, “I do not know what else to do to return the dress. I would suggest calling customer service, but just know you’ll be on the phone for 30-60 minutes and even then, it is not guaranteed the return will happen.”
Rightfully so, my grandmother replied, “If we cannot do this return, I’m hesitant to purchase from you again.” She was talking about the $580 we were about to spend on my birthday gift that we shopped for before doing the return.
The manager then said, “Listen, I understand this is frustrating, but as a consumer you have a responsibility to enter your phone number and email to make an informed purchase.” Excuse me? The app didn’t require that information… Why is it my fault that you only know how to do returns with information that isn’t necessary for a purchase? He continued to repeat the “responsibility as a consumer” statement as my grandmother and I tried to find other ways to do the return.
Eventually, my grandmother found a code on the front of the bag the dress came in that the worker was able to input to find the order. 30 minutes later. It is unfortunate that the worker did not know how to do the return and the blame was placed on the customer.
To top it off, when I got home and unpacked my birthday dresses, I realized the security sensor was left on one of them. I called the store, and was told I needed to make a trip back to Fresno to have it removed.
I drove the 45 minutes and had the sensor taken off. The lady who helped me at the front remembered me and said “Sorry.” Sorry does not fix the inconvenience and poor experience.
For an upscale store, I am terribly disappointed.
