Sunday, August 21, 2011

Dear J.Crew, Stop Double Charging International Customers {part two}

In the "Dear J.Crew, Stop Double Charging International Customers" post, we have heard the voices of {international and American} JCAs outraged over the price hikes and double charge J.Crew is imposing on international customers.

There are lots of great comments being made in the post too. The following are just a few that I wanted to highlight.

DaniBP shares:
I emailed Mickey this morning, have had a reply from him and a phone call from one of his assistants. Apparently the situation is under a complete review.

They have heard us loud and clear, but keep emailing and phoning. And posting here too (THANKS ALEXIS!) I told the lovely young man who phoned me that things should just go back to the way they were, we all know we have to pay duty and HST, we live in Canada, we "get" taxes! ...It will be interesting to see what happens.
Sudu shares:
An update for all the outraged JCAs…A photographer from the Globe & Mail was at my house earlier this afternoon (taking pictures of me and my soon-to-be-returned Toronto JCrew purchases) and I just got off the phone with the reporter – things can always change with newspapers, but it seems at this point that the JCrew story will be running in tomorrow’s edition.

I try to keep a low profile and I’ve only lurked here in the past, but I am posting now and pursuing this story for all of us because it is just so wrong. ... I do love and live in JCrew and I thought this was an important consumer issue to bring to light and was able to find a way to do it.

When I realized on Thursday what was going on, this was the first place I turned to and it made me feel better to see that the JCAs were already way ahead of me. All of your comments here are just as important as your emails to the company, because you had better believe there are both PR people and reporters reading this site regularly, too. I also know they are looking at the math some of you have done and it does not look good for JCrew. Clearly, none of us are fooled by the responses we have received about pricing needing to be consistent with the Toronto store etc. We’re Canadian, we’re used to getting screwed at the cash register, but even if we might have found an increase acceptable in-store to offset duty charges, there is no acceptable explanation for why an order I paid $260 for a month ago online would cost me $385 today on the Canadian JCrew site when the only circumstance that has changed is that they’ve opened a store here. I wish now that I hadn’t spent the past 9 years asking JCrew when they were going to come to Canada every single time I had a customer service interaction with them.

I haven’t heard anything further about Global News (which I’d mentioned on Friday), but there is always the possibility that once this hits a national newspaper it will stir up further media interest. I will keep you all posted. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for tomorrow’s paper and keep making your opinions known!
"Thanks!" DaniBP, Sudu, and everyone for continuing to share your concerns and thoughts on the price hike and double charge.

For my part, I will continue to post and shed light on this topic until J.Crew provides a better solution or even a reasonable explanation. (Right now, the lines of "the cost of doing business internationally" and "to keep pricing consistent with our new - and expanding - retail operations in Canada" seem unsatisfactory to me.)

Viva la JCAs!

15 comments:

  1. Sudu....you rock!
    I know we all appreciate you putting yourself out there like this for the good of all Canadian JCA's.
    I also think it's important to reiterate DaniBP's point that we ALL need to keep emailing and calling. Many voices together will be heard. :)
    I am now hoping I win the sweepstakes just to give Jenna a piece of my mind! LOL

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  2. Yay Sudu! Thanks for taking one for the Cdn J. Crew team! I am actually somewhat hopeful that we might actually get somewhere with this...

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  3. Thanks Alexis and everyone else! As per Dani's suggestion I wrote back to my new penpal, Jenna Lyons (no disrespect really, I actually LOVE Jenna) and reiterated all of the key messages! I am like all others - would be happy to simply rewind the clock to last Wednesday night and order my stuff :-)

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  4. hooray! ANd for those that are interested, the Globe and mail is available free of charge online at www.globeandmail.com So even if you don't live in Canada, you can access the article tomorrow. Good job ladies (and gentlemen)!

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  5. Way to go, Sudu!! My husband was saying just this morning that we should contact the media about this issue because it needs more attention. Looking forward to tomorrow's Globe & Mail!

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  6. DOUBLE DUTY @Sudu just another vote of thanks for putting general awareness ahead of your personal privacy. @DBP ta for taking the call and being articulate on behalf of us all. @TJ and WMM keep the messages coming. And again @Alexis, thanks for making this blog about customer service as well as style and shopping. Maybe as West Coast Crew'ner says we can turn the tide on this one. Would cross fingers but need to word verify...PS Told the sales assoc. at Yorkdale today the specific reason for my first B&M return as well.

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  7. Good work, Sudu and fellow JCA's! (claps hands)

    I've seen similar stories on the 6 o'clock news airing issues that concern consumers. You bet your loonies (for the US readers, our $1 coin features a Loon) that JC will be jumping all over this to resolve and address our concerns.

    But it still pi$$es me off to no end that JC would "try one on"...what were they thinking? that us Canadians were just going to roll over and not say anything? Or is this part of their continual snubbing of real customer feedback, social media, customer relations concerns?

    Would be happy for JC to revert to the old shipping arrangements. Period. No changes required, thank you very much.

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  8. BTW Sudu's article is already availabe on the Globe & Mail website.
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/j-crews-canadian-shoppers-balk-at-higher-prices/article2136570/
    Pretty shocked that J Crew''s only response seems to be same form letter many of us have gotten from "Jenna." They have a Canadian/ TO PR firm who is better known for product placement than issue management. But still should have used this as an opp. to turn the tide, vs. spout platitudes.

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  9. I've e-mailed Jenna and figured it might be time for a little flattery:

    "Hi Jenna,

    Through conversations with other Canadians who are equally upset about the recent changes in pricing, I have come to learn that J. Crew is reviewing the current, controversial policies around pricing. I am very pleased to hear that J. Crew is taking our concerns seriously and I am hopeful that a successful resolution will be met.

    J. Crew has a long history of striving for excellence in both product quality and customer service, and it would be terrible to destroy the confidence of many loyal customers with an issue that can be easily solved. Allowing Canadian customers to purchase items through the US website, at US prices, as we have done for years, will reverse the damage that this pricing issue has caused.

    As you expand your presence in Canada, perhaps the time will come to consider a Canadian-based distributor and the creation of Canadian-based website. Until then, please don’t punish the approximately 28 million Canadians who live outside the Greater Toronto Area and don’t have access to the new Yorktown store.

    I look forward to resuming being a loyal J. Crew customer."

    If anything, maybe drawing on the reputation of Canadians as being polite and level-headed will help our cause!

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  10. Thanks Sudu and everyone else who is emailing and calling JCrew and heading to the media about this issue. However, I feel kind of like the Globe article missed one major point - they failed to point out the major price difference between the store and internet as well. If I buy something in the Toronto store, it costs me about the same as if I had purchased online last week. However, if I purchase online, I am paying an extra 18% in duties. If they can offer a price for an item in the store that includes duties already, why can't they offer that same price online? It just seems completely unfair.

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  11. Hi all, newbie here so I can't claim to be a JCA .... just wanted to let you all know what happened with my very first jcrewonline order yesterday.
    After emailing back and forth with J.Crew associate Treva for a few days about specific measurements on particular styles, I finally placed my order for a dress for my daughter's wedding. Or tried to.
    The bugs on the site were many and interfered with the order process every step of the way. The big shock was the huge jump in "tax" from $29.55 on one page to $81.55 on the next page. I emailed contactus@jcrew.com about the "tax" mix up (yeah) and still haven't heard from them more than a day later about the 28%tax "mistake". After finding I couldn't modify the order by removing anything from my bag, I had to remove all personal info from my brand new account, remove everything else from the bag but the dress that I HAD to have for my daughter and checked out as a guest.
    After placing the order, I found this blog - and read all the entries and comments with increasing ire. When I checked back in my notes on the dress, I realized that the price had increased by $30 overnight - as you all know by now.(I'm Canadian, eh.)
    I emailed Mickey this afternoon at 6:32 and vented.(Thank you for posting that email address, Alexis)
    12! minutes later, his assistant phoned me and offered the original lower price and profuse apologies for the unexpected changes in price and tax.
    So, I just wanted to let everyone know that they are indeed keeping a close eye on this - they are very aware of the discontent and I just want to encourage everyone to keep calling and emailing.
    They are hearing us.
    Sorry for the long post.

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  12. I Tweeted several media people I have on my list and linked them to my post about this very issue. As I've said earlier, I've written to Mickey and Jenna about this and really hope that I'll hear from them.

    Does anyone want to see my e-mail?

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  13. Cynthia you could post your email here!

    As I told Mickey's assistant we are watching carefully. I feel action needs to be taken this week. It's simple: give us our US pricing back and charge us the duty and HST on checkout.
    No reason they can't immediately reverse this and save the situation.

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  14. I'd love to see your email Cynthia! have you had a response yet? I wrote to Mickey last night and nothing. I am wondering if they are waiting to see if it blows over or keeps going before they decide hwo they are going to proceed and then respond accordingly?

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