Category Archive: ConsumHER Reports

The “Hole” Story, take 3

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ConsumHER Reports

October 24, 2011

by Stephanie

October 24, 2011

It’s been almost a year (yes, I said a YEAR) since the saga of the MissMe jeans began, and we aren’t done yet….

To refresh your memory, click here to read the beginning of the story : MissMe Part 1 , then read the follow up MissMe Part 2 .

My last post on this topic, dated April 28, 2011, left off with me trying to decide what I was going to try and order to replace the defective jeans. A couple of weeks after that post  (May 18th to be exact) , I saw a cute pair of shorts on the MissMe.com website that B said she liked and the website showed her size in stock- so I immediately placed the order. Only to receive this email a few hours later:

Dear Stephanie,

Thank you for your recent order with MissMe.com.  We regret to inform you that one or more items (jk5045m9-mk27 in size 10) on your order are out of stock and we will not be receiving any more of this item in our warehouse.  If you could please respond to this email to let us know whether you would like the rest of your order to ship or if you would like us to cancel your order entirely, we will act as quickly as possible to resolve the matter.  If you choose to have the rest of your order sent, we would like to offer you complimentary standard shipping as a service.  If you have any further questions, please let us know and we would be happy to help!

Thank you for your understanding and have a wonderful day.

WTH? Thank you for your “understanding”?! Do you realize how PATIENT I have been people? We’re talking MONTHS. Furious, I fire off this:

Megan

I can’t begin to tell you how frustrated I am. The credit I used to pay for this order was because of a defective pair of jeans I returned in DECEMBER! There have been NO jeans that my daughter liked in her size, so I decided to go ahead and pick some shorts, and now this! Yes, cancel the entire order. 

Reply was standard: “We apologize, our products sell fast, can’t update the website fast enough, blah blah blah”…

So, here I am still without jeans, shorts, anything. I spend almost the entire summer searching the website every couple of weeks to see if they have something in her size, but to no avail. Finally, in late August, SUCCESS. I find a pair of jeans she likes and I place the order. AND THEY”RE IN STOCK. I am SO thrilled to be finished with MissMe and the nightmare of the jeans, I pick up B from school and proudly announce “Guess what!? Your jeans came in! I can’t wait to see them on you.” Now, for those of you that know B, fashion is not her thing. She’d just assume wear something from Target than designer jeans – so her enthusiasm for this is nil. We get home and I ask her to try them to make sure they fit and are comfortable. She emerges from her room with a crinkled forehead and says “Mom, I don’t like them. They are too tight in the legs and too long.”

WHAT?! What do you mean they don’t fit. THEY HAVE TO FIT. I CAN’T TAKE DEALING WITH THOSE PEOPLE ANYMORE! I’m devastated. After a few days of procrastinating, I package the jeans back up and pay to send them back for another stinkin credit.

By this time, we have been through three complete seasons AND moved up a pant size. Yes, it’s been THAT long. So now I’m on the hunt for a size 12 jean (yea, they’ll have to be altered, again), but I’m thinking, “Hey, at least she’ll be able to wear them for awhile”. I decide that I have tortured myself long enough with this company, I will call the local store they were purchased from and see if, by chance, they could be of any help. I phone Keedo’s in Northpark Mall and Kelly Smith answers. I give her a scaled down version of my VERY long saga and ask if she can help. She apologized profusely and said she has had lots of issues with MissMe too, but would do everything she could to help me out. Her thought was maybe I can “sign over” my credit to her and I could buy something from her store. YES – that sounds perfect. I can try on pants there and walk out with them and she can have the credit. She calls Miss Me to discuss it with their wholesale department. Miss Me’s response. No, you can’t do that.

Back to the drawing board. This process annoys me to no end, so I put it off until last Friday when the girls were out of school and we could stop by Keedos to try on jeans and then, while I am IN the store, check their website to see if they have THAT STYLE in the correct size. B tries on 3 different pairs. Pair 1 is a no. Pair 2, No. Pair 3 – YES. I hold my breath and grab my phone and type in missme.com hoping they have them in stock. Finally I get to the sizes available, YIPEE – Size 12! I stand in the middle of Keedos and punch in all my credit card info and address to place my order. Send. Whew, finally.

About two hours later, I’m in the car with my darling hub when I shout from the passengers seat “YOU”VE GOT TO BE EFFING KIDDING ME”. Hub is like “Um, WHAT?”. I see this email on my iPhone:

Dear  Stephanie,

Thank you for your recent order with MissMe.com.  We regret to inform you that the item on your order is out of stock (Hippie Chick Skinny size 12) and we will not be receiving any more of this item in our warehouse. We cancelled your order and refunded your credit card in the amount of $7.00, your funds should be available in about 5 business days depending on your banking institution. 

We would like to offer you complimentary standard shipping as a service off your next order. Please notify me when your new order has been placed so that shipping can be deducted. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and hope that we can continue to be of service to you. 

Friends. I am done. I have spend NUMEROUS hours, more than $30 on alterations and shipping back and forth (not to mention the additional $15 I would have to spend on alterations for a new pair.) and I am beginning to wonder if it is worth it. What do you think? Would you go to all this trouble for an $80 pair of jeans for a 10 year old?

 

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The United States Postal Service (USPS) is dead

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ConsumHER Reports

September 7, 2011

by Stephanie

September 7, 2011

I’ve read recently that the Postal Service is in financial trouble. Rumors are that there is a possibility of default on pension payments, huge layoffs and closure of many post offices.

After my experience today at a nearby USPS location, I think it might not be such a bad thing for them to close down and start over. Here’s what happened…..

I’m hosting a ThirtyOne party in a couple of weeks, so I headed to the post office to buy post card appropriate stamps to mail the invites. I arrived right before 5pm hoping I could get the invites out in today’s mail. The very nice woman, Patricia, quickly sold me two books of stamps for my invites. I politely asked “Will these go out in todays mail?” She kindly responded that they would if I put them in the inside mail drop.

I quickly placed stamps on each card and went to place them in the mailbox. However, before sliding them in the box, I notice the sign on the box says last collection is 5pm. Thinking I might have chosen the wrong drop box, I head back inside to confirm I heard Patricia correctly.

The worker closest to the door, Wonetta, has a customer but is busy flipping through papers, so I politely say “Excuse
me ma’am?”.

No response.

“Ma’am?” I speak a little louder. Again, no response.

“Can you tell me if the box outside picks up at 6? The sign says 5?” I say.

Without looking up, and with a VERY annoyed tone, Wonetta says ” Well thats what she said isn’t it? Don’t wanna believe her I guess?”

I was fuming. I simply wanted to confirm the time since the sign said one thing and I was told another. I left there thinking to myself that if my business treated our customers like Wonetta treated me, we would have gone out of business long ago. Instead the USPS continues to alienate customers
with this kind of treatment.

What experiences have you had with the Postal Service?

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The “HOLE” Story – UPDATE

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ConsumHER Reports

April 28, 2011

by Stephanie

April 28, 2011

As you may recall, back in January I wrote about a situation with a pair of rather expensive jeans my oldest daughter wore a hole in. I contacted the manufacturer, MissMe, to see about getting them replaced since we had only worn them a handful of times. Here’s the rest of the story…

I sent the defective pair of jeans to MissMe (they even provided the return label- thanks!), and awaited a response from their QA department. After about a week and a half, I received a call from them confirming that the jeans were, in fact, defective and they would be happy to replace them for me. Great I though! Customer Service at its finest!

Not so fast.

The young lady that contacted me asked me to visit the website and choose the pair of replacement jeans we would like and email her the style/color/size, etc. Ok I thought – easy enough. This is where things got complicated. After searching the kids section for a replacement pair of jeans – they did not have ONE PAIR in her size. Not one.

So, I emailed the representative and explained the situation. She apologized for the inconvenience and offered me two solutions. The first was to wait 2-3 weeks for the new styles to be posted on their website and I could peruse through them for a different style in the correct size, or I could receive a store credit.

Waiting a couple of weeks didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, so I opted to wait for the new styles and choose something. I waited. And waited. And waited almost 6 weeks. Nothing. No new sizes or styles. After waiting this long, I received an email from customer service alerting me to the fact that they were now issuing me a credit towards their store to be used for future purchases since I had not selected anything.

As of this writing, I still have not made a decision on the replacement jeans. As it is getting warmer out, I think we might decided to go with jean shorts (they have more sizes in those anyway).

I am satisfied with their commitment to replace the initial jeans since they were, in my opinion, defective. However, I think the follow up customer service could have used some work. Overall- I’d give MissMe.com a B- grade.

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The “HOLE” story

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ConsumHER Reports, General

February 4, 2011

by Stephanie

February 4, 2011

I was not blessed with the fashion bug. I am jealous of those who were, like my friend Suzanne. She has such great style and can pick things out that look awesome together. And when it comes to knowing designers, she is the bomb. I, however, am fashion-challenged. If I can’t buy it at Ann Taylor Loft or Target, chances are, it is not in my closet.

So I was perplexed when my oldest daughter came home from a shopping spree with her grandmother proudly displaying a new pair of Miss Me jeans. What are Miss Me’s? Never heard of them. (Reverting  back to my previous statement – these principles apply to my children too. If I can’t find it at Gymboree, Justice or Target for them, chances are they don’t own it..).

My mother-in-law, knowing I am somewhat price-conscious when it comes to clothes, always takes the tags off items she purchases for the girls before they come home so I won’t go into convulsions when I see how much she spent. These Miss Me beauties were no exception. But, they are amazingly beautiful. Studded crosses adorned the back pockets and the front has beautiful rhinestones shimmering all over. I was happy that my 9-year-old choose something practical (jeans) even though they might have cost more than most outfits in my closet.

So you can image my shock when when my daughter walked into my room one morning last week and announced that her new jeans had a hole in the knee. I was stunned. These jeans were purchased at the end of September, but my oldest put them in her closet and forgot to mention to me that they needed to be hemmed (a lot) before she could wear them. I found them in her closed in mid-November and promptly took them to the best alterations place in OKC (Sarah’s alterations at 122nd & N. May). I picked them up on Dec 2nd, right after the Thanksgiving holiday and they were proudly worn throughout the holiday season by my daughter.

So here we are, January 27th. A mere 7 weeks after she began wearing them, and they have a hole in the knee. We’re not talking a rip or tear. The fabric was so thin, it wore away on the left knee. So, in true Stephanie style, I went to the Miss Me website to see about returning them. (And this is when I almost went into convulsions, as I found out the jeans cost a whopping $85 at MINIMUM.) I contacted Miss Me and pleaded my case. The gentlemen on the phone was very kind and quickly emailed me a return form to fill out and send back in. Their Quality Review team will inspect the jeans and determine whether or not to replace/repair them. After the $15 in alterations, these jeans cost at least $100 – so they’d BETTER make this right.

I’ll keep you updated on the outcome.

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Well that doesn’t smell right…

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ConsumHER Reports

February 3, 2010

by Stephanie

February 3, 2010

I mentioned in previous posts that I have had numerous experiences with contacting companies to voice my opinions/disapproval/dissatisfaction with products or services. As a marketing manager, feedback (good or bad) is vital to continuing to provide (or to improve upon) quality products or services. I have even gone as far as to mail back (on the companies dime) a product to their quality assurance team for inspections Lysol wipes is a good example. I couldn’t ‘tear’ the wipes off when you pulled them out of the container. Their quality assurance team asked if I could send the remainder of unused wipes back in the original container so they could find out what happened. I was happy to do so.

In the past few years, I have contacted:

  • Pampers – I bought a package of diapers and the tabs on almost half of them was affixed to the next diaper- effectively making them unable to close.
  • Campbell’s Soup – I opened a can of Spaghetti O’s and it was obvious by the horrendous stench and odd look of the product that something wasn’t quite right with it.
  • Pillsbury – I purchased a can of Orange Danish (YUM) for the girls for breakfast, and when I opened it, the rolls were flat as pancakes and hard. (But the expiration date was still weeks away.)
  • Charmin Toilet Paper – About a year ago, I picked up a large package of their product from Target. When I opened it, there were several rolls that had black (what looked to me like oil) on them and were unusable.

In all the experiences I have had (and there are many more I didn’t list), The Charmin experience had to be the most disappointing. In most of my experiences, the companies politely apologized for the grievance and mailed me a coupon for a replacement product (or in some cases 2 or 3 – thanks Campbell’s Soup & Pampers), which, in my opinion was very appropriate.

Now let me be clear here, I am not the type to call and complain about something just to be a pain in the you-know-what. I call because there is a real issue with the product. Let’s face it, I spend my hard earned cash on this stuff (however small the cost) and I expect to get what I paid for.

Charmin (owned by Proctor & Gamble) kindly asked me to send them the “defective” TP back for their own internal investigation. I agreed and promptly sent it back in return packaging they provided me. A few weeks later, I received a letter from their “Quality Control” department which stated they were not sure what the foreign substance was, but they were certain it must have happened after leaving their facilities. WHAT? Are you seriously suggesting I did something to the TP? Unbelievable…

As if their letter wasn’t insulting enough, a few weeks later I received a coupon from them to purchase a new product. But it wasn’t a “free product” coupon – it was a BUY ONE GET ONE FREE coupon! So basically, (from my professional marketing perspective) they were trying to get me to buy MORE of their product without compensating me for the error on the previous item I purchased that was defective. I was NOT pleased. Needless to say, I have not purchased Charmin again.

Have you even had a situation where you purchased a defective product and contacted customer service for a resolution? If so – what was your experience?

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