I specifically visited this store after seeing a couple of dresses online that I wanted to try. It's a well laid out store and the clothes and accessories are lovely.
I took several items into the changing room including 1 sale item dress with no price tag. There were only 2 of these dresses left in the store, neither had a price tag. 1 was badly damaged and the other had several missing sequins. I must point out that the dress was not reduced due to defects, it was reduced as it was not current winter stock. I fell in love with the dress and took it to the counter. I was served by a lovely young lady. Still having no idea how. much the dress was, I asked if there was a bag of spare sequins as several were missing. Unfortunately there wasn't. After a bit of a chat the lady informed me that I could obtain a 10% discount due to the damage. When she ran the item through the till it was coming up as over £83.00 before discount. I had reservations as even with the discount, it was a lot of money to pay for a less than perfect dress. Sensing my reservation and after a bit of a chat, the assistant suggested I could obtain a further 10% taking the item down to £66. This would mean signing up for online updates which I didn't mnd at all. This seemed more manageable and I appreciated the offer, put the dress to one side behind the till whilst I popped to the cash machine.
Upon returning to the store the lovely young lady wasn't at the till, I explained the situation again to the person behind the till, the manager. She was hostile and unhelpful from the outset and started inspecting the item stating they would never normally give a discount in her words 'for a few missing sequins'. I explained that I'd had a lengthy Chat with her assistant and been told that I could purchase the item for. £66. She said it had been misinformed and was reluctant to offer me 10% let alone the 2 discounts I had been offered. I kept calm and polite whist being spoken Down to by the manager who was clearly very ruffled by the situation. She told me that her till had no capacity to perform the 2 discounts. When I asked her further questions she stated 'I am not getting into an argument with you'. Losing her cool she then berated me for asking her too many questions (and later denied ever having said this). It was this final comment, along wit her complete lack of understanding or professionalism that prompted me to request she put me through to the customer service department. She dialled and put me through and I spoke to them whilst stood at the till. They were very helpful when I explained the situation. All the while the manager was stood behind the till serving whilst huffing and puffing as I relayed my story to customer services on the phone. I must add that at no point had the manager ever put the dress through the till to see what the original price of it was, nor did she know.
The phone team asked to speak with her and she admitted some of what she had said to me and denied other parts. Her tone with the customer services team was just as surly as it was with me. She kept telling them that she wasn't prepared to put this discount through her till as this was not the way she was trained when she was in Bond Street. She kept on and on about the dress already being reduced by 70% so was unprepared to add 2 further 10% discounts on top of this.
At this point I interjected and asked what the original price of the dress was. She had no idea and said to me and the telephone agent "let me just check the original price'. On finding out that it was £167 she then realised it had only been reduced by 50% and not the 70% she wrongly assumed it had been reduced by. At this point I had been in the store 30 minutes trying to purchase this dress. Somehow the line between the manager and the customer service team mysteriously got cut off, the manager backtracked and gave me the dress for £66 I had originally been quoted. No apology.
If I hadn't loved the dress so much I would have left the store as they did not deserve my custom or money. I have never been treated so appallingly by a poorly trained shop manager. She is rude, patronising, has no empathy, no questioning or listening skills. The manager of this store needs some urgent customer service training if you want this store to flourish. I am baffled as to why you would have such an individual as the ambassador for your store.
Definitely worthy of 5 stars for the worse customer service experience I have ever received in a retail store of this standard. read more
