So before I start on this lovely dress purchase (on sale now!) from & Other Stories I want to ‘bitch’ a little about shopping at brick & mortar shops these days. I ordered this dress online as with most of my stuff now, because long lines at fitting rooms and snotty staff are just too much to handle for me, not to mention the fact I get actual panick attacks when it gets really crowded in town.
But last Friday early in the morning I went into town with youngest to pick up his new prescription sunglasses, which turned out not to be ready yet (despite the fact I was told on the phone that they were) so we headed out for coffee and when the glasses still were not ready after that we sauntered over to & Other Stories where I bought, after hesitating for ages over the size as I was in between sizes, a pair of amazing loafer mules.
Over the weekend I decided though I made a wrong choice, the size I got was not good enough length wise and as the bigger size was too wide for my feet I went in today to return them (and I am still bummed out about it because I do love those mules!). The girl at the till chatted amicably at first, took them out of the box and then suddenly looked at me coolly and proclaimed with a stern tone ‘I can not take these back, you have worn them already’. Excuse me? I most certainly had not, I had walked around in them in the store on Friday under the eyes of a shop assistant and at home a few times in my dressing room in front of the mirror.
I informed her of this and she proceeded to make a whole show of looking at me suspiciously, taking out a cloth from a cupboard and rubbing at the soles with it. I just stood and stared her down. After lots more rubbing and turning the shoes over plenty of times, even bringing them closer to her face and swiping her hands over the leather, she said reluctantly ‘Oh okay then’, went to the till and handled the refund.
Now I am asking you: is this proper customer service? Let me answer that for you: not it is bloody well not! I stayed polite and friendly but I felt that girl simply put on a whole show in an attempt to…well what exactly? This is just another reason to add to my list of reasons why real life shopping can be such a disappointing experience, up to handling returns and all, just…yikes.
That said, back to the dress: can not wait to wear this while on vacation. A perfect flirty number for dinner out, and without feeling too naked because it is in fact fully lined so thumbs up for that!
MM + CO 