I have been a loyal Marc O'Polo customer for many years - my family also shops there regularly, and…read moreover the years we've spent a considerable amount of money on products from the brand.
All the more shocking, then, was my most recent visit to the store on Theatinerstraße in Munich.
I brought in a pair of dark blue chino trousers (model Stig) that I had purchased at the store two months earlier. They had been damaged by the Velcro fasteners on a jacket that I had also bought at Marc O'Polo. The day before, I had contacted the Theatinerstraße store by phone, explained the situation in detail, and was explicitly asked to come by. I was assured that we would find a solution together.
Once there, however, Mr. Martin Görek - apparently in a management position - immediately declared that the damage was my own fault. He then called the store manager, Mr. Florian Firnbach, and continued the conversation loudly in front of other customers instead of handling the matter calmly and respectfully. Any objective or discreet resolution was thus impossible - the situation amounted to a public embarrassment.
Completely ignored in this context was Section 477 of the German Civil Code (BGB), which states that since the damage occurred after only a short period of use, it is legally presumed that the defect (a material fault) already existed at the time of purchase.
The entire trip to the city center was therefore a complete waste of time and caused significant inconvenience. No solution was offered; instead, I was simply ignored. This left me angry and deeply disappointed. Is this really how loyal customers are treated? Unbelievable!
The incident was so shocking that I felt compelled, for the first time ever, to write a Google review.
In my subsequent research, I also found several similar reviews mentioning store manager Mr. Firnbach, in which customers reported being promised an exchange or a solution over the phone, only to be turned away in person. So this does not appear to be an isolated case.
From a brand like Marc O'Polo, I would have expected professionalism, appreciation, and customer orientation. Instead, I was left with an extremely negative impression that falls far short of what the brand claims to represent.
