STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

halleybird · Hermes

(My) American Eagle

FashionPrincess · Hermes

I know, I found out the hard way that the store and online store are run separately, like Anthro and several others. That stinks though, I think they should still honor the price if you point it out.

HeatherLynn · Gucci

Wow. I can't believe that happened. I would call customer service and complain. That type of customer service should never happen in a store, regardless if they can or cannot honor online prices.

NCshopper · Hermes

OMG!!!!!!! That is HORRIBLE customer service! I can't believe that!!! But part of me can believe it, b/c my American Eagle was really bad too last time I was there. I went to try on one tank and the Customer Service girl tried to persuade me on three different occaisions that I shouldn't just leave with one tank top, but that I should really buy it in all three colors that it came in. I mean, I know that's her job and all, but she was so obvious about it and pretty darn pushy/rude about it too. Arg.

Part of me thinks that the boys that helped you probably just didn't know better, but on the other hand, the company should make it a point to a) hire people that are competant and not lazy b) train them adequately so that they know how to deal w/ situations like this (or at least get the manager on duty to help you) and c) make sure their prices on the website and in their stores are consistent. There is no excuse for customer service like this. I think AE and Abercrombie are owned by the same parent company and my last few experiences w/ both have been horrendous. I'm not going back to either of them.

CarrieS · Marc Jacobs

Damn, I would have been pissed! And he's obviously an idiot, because at my store, if something is on sale online but not in the store, the salesperson will call wherever and double check that. If it IS cheaper online, they will ring up the cheaper online price instead of what the store price is. They did that for me on a pair of sandals, and i would think they would do it at ALL AE stores too.

I would definitely be complaining. So sorry that happened to you!

halleybird · Hermes

I have sympathy for not knowing stuff like this (although they really should), but I didn't appreciate the complete unwillingness to find out. It's not like they were busy -- there was no one waiting behind me or anything. Also, I have a sinking feeling that one of those guys was the manager -- there was no one else in the store except for a girl in the fitting room.

kenzie · Chanel

I used to work at AE and I can say that the online store and the regular stores are completely separate entities as far as pricing. We were not supposed to honor sale prices that appeared online. The store price was the store price and the online price was the online price.

But, halleybird, those two were assholes about it!! They could have simply told you the policy and apologize for the sucky policy and then offered you a discount with a coupon that they probably currently have running.

NCShopper, about your experience...maybe the DM was in the store that day? We used to have to act like that if the DM was there. And at my last job it was even worse. We would literally have to chase people around with clothing and try to herd them into the dressing room. And once they were in the dressing room, we had to bring at least 5 more items and 'make them try them on' and 'make sure that no customer leaves the store without purchasing at least 4 items.' What a nightmare!

JoceyBaby23 · Gucci

NCshopper wrote:

I think AE and Abercrombie are owned by the same parent company and my last few experiences w/ both have been horrendous. I'm not going back to either of them.

Unless AE was recently bought out, A&F does not own it. A&F kids, A&F and Hollister are all owned by a single parent company. (I used to work at A&F).

AE is completely separate. The only thing they have in common is hiring idiot kids to work there (myself including in my day).

kenzie · Chanel

JoceyBaby23 wrote:

NCshopper wrote: I think AE and Abercrombie are owned by the same parent company and my last few experiences w/ both have been horrendous. I'm not going back to either of them. Unless AE was recently bought out, A&F does not own it. A&F kids, A&F and Hollister are all owned by a single parent company. (I used to work at A&F). AE is completely separate. The only thing they have in common is hiring idiot kids to work there (myself including in my day).

That's correct. They are not owned by the same company. AE is completely separate and headquartered in Warrendale, PA. I'm not sure where A&F's headquarters are, but they own Hollister and Rhuel.

Andrea Julia · Coach

Ohh, that's horrible! If the policy says they can't honor online prices, they should have at least been nice about it. Like Nylabelle said, they should have empathized with you about the sucky policy, and just said they wished they could do something, but they can't. I hate how in general, people in the service industry have become less concerned with pleasing their customers. Lately, anytime I have had a problem with a policy or an employee and have mentioned I was going to switch to another service or not buy something, the employee or manager, is just like "Okay. Go ahead." instead of trying to fix the situation.

kenzie · Chanel

Andrea Julia wrote:

I hate how in general, people in the service industry have become less concerned with pleasing their customers. Lately, anytime I have had a problem with a policy or an employee and have mentioned I was going to switch to another service or not buy something, the employee or manager, is just like "Okay. Go ahead." instead of trying to fix the situation.

I agree, but there's a flip side. When I worked in retail, I was horribly abused and sometimes even threatened by customers. It's really hard to deal with that day and day out without it starting to wear on you. But when I got a nice customer (even one who had an issue with a policy, but wasn't obnoxious about it), and I'm sure halleybird and yourself are nice, I was happy to help them as much as I could. I was never rude just for the sake of being rude. I was rude when I was defending myself and my staff's personal safety, but that's a different story.

jen · Kate Spade

Welllll, AE just started a program about a month ago where they can order things online for you by phone and have it sent to your house free of charge. So that little rugrat could do it for you. I'm sure they could honor the 19.95 price as well. I order stuff for customers all the time.

halleybird · Hermes

jen wrote:

Welllll, AE just started a program about a month ago where they can order things online for you by phone and have it sent to your house free of charge. So that little rugrat could do it for you. I'm sure they could honor the 19.95 price as well. I order stuff for customers all the time.

I just love that you said "little rugrat."