This is the weekly "Looking to VENT with J.Crew" post, a place to share our not-so-stellar experiences with J.Crew.If you have recently experienced a frustrating situation with J.Crew, maybe you might be willing to share that information with us in this post.
Please feel free to share your story on almost any topic— including poor experiences with purchases & orders, promotions/ offers, in-store visits, transactions with store associates, etc.
The excursion vest in herringbone showed up in an xs and s this morning, sold out within literally one minute..most likely a reseller. That's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the starting price for these on eBay?! yikes! You could be right. Maybe a JCA can help you find one in store and do a charge-send?
DeleteWhoa. This person is serious. I was up early and didn't even see these.
DeleteMy mum has a saying that roughly translates as "if there are no encouragers, there'll be no thieves". People are paying those ridiculous prices, so the resellers will do just that.
I wake my butt up early so I won't have to pay said ridiculous prices. If I miss out on a pop-back, I feel loads better knowing that it went to a fellow JCA or J.Crew lover.
There are so many of those vests sitting in the Toronto Eaton Centre JC, it's sad that US customers can't purchase them.
DeleteThis isn't really my vent, but it is my opinion that J. Crew is very much turning off shoppers who cannot return merchandise to a brick-and-mortar store. Returning by mail is expensive, and even more so for customers who live outside of the United States. I love shopping J. Crew because it is so easy for me to return what does not work out. If it weren't, I'd be shopping somewhere else, which is what I am reading more and more of online. I won't pay for shipping either direction and where I shop directly correlates to this. I order from Boden because, while there is no brick-and-mortar store near me, Boden pays my shipping both ways. I order from Zappos or Nordstroms for that reason too, returns are incredibly easy. If their bottom line can handle covering return shipping, can't J. Crew's? J. Crew is losing sales and consequently customers altogether because of this.
ReplyDeletecate: I agree! Not to mention the differences between online and in-store prices, as well as not allowing the educator/student to be applied to online orders, either.
DeleteYes,I have not been able to get to a mall to return several pre final sale orders/deals before Christmas. I think two items are past the 60 days so will likely give them to my sister. I am not going to be ordering anything unless I can get to a store and try on which only happens a couple of times a year.
DeleteI wouldn't take half the chances that I do on items, sight unseen, if I didn't have a B&M close by. I had to return a pair of boots by mail to Madewell and didn't like the fact that I had to pay for return one bit. It's a good thing that I rarely find items that I like there but I probably would order more to try out if there was a nearby B&M. And just why isn't there a Madewell here in this 'college town'?
DeleteOrdered something last Thursday am and it STILL hasn't shipped. Called yesterday and they said it's "being packaged" and would be shipped soon. I wanted to wear it to something this weekend and that seemed totally reasonable but it seems pretty unlikely now. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteTeeny, I think there's hope. I was shipped something on Monday (14) and it arrived yesterday. I'm in Canada and no where near VA. Typically, I was receiving packages in 8 business days.
DeleteYou're right, there's hope. I'm just being impatient!! I'm in Canada too...which usually adds to the delay.
Delete*I receive....:)
ReplyDeleteTwo vents:
ReplyDeleteFirst, I really don't like the gold buttons that JC is putting on sweaters and tees for women and kids. I think they look cheap. My daughters have been longtime fans of the "Caroline" sweater, which had buttons that matched the color of the sweater. We haven't bought any recently because of the ugly new gold buttons. Is this a cost saving measure being packaged as a style feature?
Second, pricing discrepancies are driving me wild. The differences between the stores and the web site are enormous. I have lost confidence in the system, and feel like I'm being played. (And there's goofy stuff too - the crewcuts velvet schoolboy is $129 on sale, and the women's is $79 - really????)
Yuck. Haven't seen in person but I wouldn't even consider a sweater with gold buttons! I prefer matching buttons as well or at least unique ones like the Melanie sweater from a few years ago.
DeleteThis is a little OT because its about Madewell, but is it normal for the package to just sit in the warehouse and not get picked up? I placed an order on Friday and it shipped on Monday, but the tracking number still has not updated as of this morning. Should I be calling or is that normal? I ordered the Camden Satchel and I'm really excited.
ReplyDeleteKelly, same here with a J Crew order. I read that some other JCAs received stuff even though the tracking hadn't updated. Mine has been sitting there for 2 days according to my shipping confirmation.
DeleteMy J.Crew packages regularly sit in the warehouse for several days after I received the "shipped" e-mail. It really annoys me. I assume they send the e-mail when the shipping label is printed, but they don't actually ship it right away.
DeleteI bought a pair of toothpick jeans in a dark wash this past summer and wear them maybe once a week and wash every few wears. Over time, I've noticed below the knee getting a little faded, which was a bit odd as the dark color still runs in the wash if I accidentally leave a light shirt in with the pair. Just yesterday morning, I put on these jeans, knelt down to grab something off of the floor and what do you know, the knee split right open. For either $125 or $135...I can't remember what I spent on them, I was so disappointed. I buy jeans from many other more or less expensive retailers and all pairs hold up for years! I happened to put out a tweet about this and they directly messaged me to help, which I appreciate as good customer service - but they now want me to produce a receipt from over 6 months ago, which of course I don't have, foolish me - perhaps I should keep them from now on? Anyone else have problems with the denim wearing quickly over time? My husband has the same problem and he wears his jcrew jeans much less frequently than I.
ReplyDeleteI had a customer service problem and no receipt awhile ago. I searched my credit card statement for the approx time that I made the purchase and found the transaction date and store number and they were able to look it up. It took AGES to get the refund, but it was worth it since the purchase was basically a sunk cost. Give that a try?
DeleteI had the EXACT same problem with the toothpick jeans!
DeleteHaven't bought any JCrew jeans in years as I don't wear jeans anymore but on a similar note paid a fortune for Justice jeans for my daughter (who is very gentle on clothing) and they split right out as well after only a few wears.
DeleteJ Crew change their material on their tissue tees! They were my favorite and never produced holes. I just received a few v-necks on sale and they are different - thinner! The white is practically see through. So bummed as they were my go-to t-shirts.
Deletesorry - this should have been a new thread - not sure how it got here :/
DeleteAnyone notice there is now a "bonus" section under the rewards? Never saw that before....
ReplyDeleteMy vent is regarding pants with hook closures at the top of the zippers (Minnies and Pixies). I absolutely love them but after only one or two wears, the hook closure has either fallen off or is hanging by a thread. Yes, it's easily sewn back on, but come on J.Crew, I promise I'm not too fat for my pants and they're not straining.
ReplyDeleteI despise those hook closure thingys. I never fasten them but maybe I should since they'll eventually fall off.
DeleteI hate those too. They always poke me... it hurts!
DeleteAgree....I have the same problem with the hook closures...bought my daughter three pairs for Christmas and you guessed it, all three have fallen off...J.Crew, you can do better. :)
DeleteThey poke me too, J.CrewJD! Aritzia makes pants that are almost identical to the Minnie, but they put the hook and eye closure on the other way (so the hook is pointing away from your body, instead of towards your body)...it's so much better!
DeleteI wish mine WOULD fall off - they are so uncomfortable!
DeleteHave any Canadian shoppers had problems with the Madewell site? When I enter my postal code to estimate taxes, it tells me my zip code/postal code is incorrect and to try again. It is correct, I do try again, and I get the same message!
ReplyDeleteI am American, but I have had problems in the past with the Madewell site. It kept "correcting" my street address, except it was changing it to something that was not correct. Eventually I just deleted all my addresses and started over and that seemed to help. But yeah, it is really weird.
DeleteSorry I can't reply under the two comments above, but in terms of the delays with the UPS site being updated (for me it takes about one business day after receiving the shipping message for the package to show up on the UPS site; I am in NY): it was explained to me a year or more ago that JC had changed the way it was dealing with UPS. I was told that all packages are now leaving the warehouse on a truck and being dropped at a UPS hub (the one my packages go to is in NJ). So this is perhaps why you are seeing a delay. By the time my packages are finally updated, they are only a day away from me. so they are definitely in transit even though the UPS site doesn't show it for a while. HTH.
ReplyDeleteThank you Amy! That is helpful. I'm so excited about my new bag that I'm being impatient.
DeleteThanks Amy! I am hoping that this is what happened to my package, but it's been "delivered" for a while.
DeletePlaced an order for the navy dot brocade no 2 pencil skirt and a week later i get an email that the order was cancelled because no stock was available. A couple days later the same size in the skirt pops back up on sale and I was able to snag it and it shipped!
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced that's what's happening with the shirt I ordered a week ago. I'm just waiting...
DeleteThe same thing happened to me with a cashmere sweater. Very annoying.
DeleteCan someone please explain to me why my last bill was $267 and my current bill is $832 yet I have only 432 points (not enough for a reward)? I haven't received a reward in ages so it's not like I should have been penalized for after-the-fact returns.
ReplyDeleteI would be curious to know how they are calculated as well.
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DeleteFlower Power - The credit card site is so bizarre and often inaccurate, esp when it comes to reward points. I don't feel I can't trust it at all.
DeleteI also can't reply to other posts above! Am I missing something? Are the stores no longer going to be taking returns from online orders? If so, I am thoroughly annoyed.
ReplyDeleteI think the comment above is from a Canadian JCA - those of us north of the border are not allowed to return online purchases to the B&M stores, we have to mail them back to VA and pay for the return shipping ourselves. Makes me think very carefully before ordering anything I haven't tried on instore.
DeleteGeneral vent about putting items up on the website that aren't expected to ship for weeks at a time. For instance, the Boyfriend Fatigue Jacket isn't expected to ship until March 25th! That's silly. I know that sometimes an order will ship before the expected date, but you're out of luck if you have someplace you want to wear that item before April!
ReplyDeleteI ordered that and it shipped, but that was a few weeks ago. They must not have gotten many in yet. I hope it ships to you sooner than expected, sometimes that happens.
DeleteThanks, cate! I'm probably not going to buy it, even though I do like the look of it. My plan is to save up for a Barbour, instead.
DeleteThe Boyfriend Fatigue Jacket is a heavy-ish cotton jacket and it's really cute but it's not for serious weather so you are much better off with the Barbour for that (and the Barbours are cute too).
Deleteit's annoying that there is no way to search for size xxs in the sale section... it's just not in the 'refine search' options...
ReplyDeleteI KNOW!! Do they not realize they make that size, or not realize that people actually would like to buy it?!
DeleteThat bug is a very annoying oversight, but I figured out a way around it! A search for 'xx small' using the box in the upper left corner brings up a page - not unlike the sale page - of all items in that size. You can now narrow down the items by clicking the 'SALE' link in the right hand column. This should help!
Deletethanks! that solved it!
DeleteI was shopping at the U Village Seattle store today. I asked one of the SAs if they would honor the online sales price of the cotton v-neck sweater in stripe of $49.99. When she went to look it up, theere weren't any left online. So, she told me that because there weren't any available online, she couldn't honor the sale price, and I would have to pay full price. Really? Has anyone ever heard of this?
ReplyDeleteYup heard this one before - apparently it's because it's not technically "for sale" (available for sale) at the sale price. Just more inconsistencies
DeleteI took a screen shot picture of an item on sale In the early morning on my Iphone and took it in to the store prepared to battle! They reluctantly gave me the sale price so you might try this next time.
DeleteI'm so sorry to hear that! My SA offered to honor the sold-out online price of my pave pendant today. They really are being penny-wise and a pound foolish to not honor it for you. How much more eager to return would you be if they helped you out?
DeleteHi Debi! Yes, the same happened to me as well.
DeleteShopping Celle, good planning!
I have asked for online prices matches many times when an item is sold out online. The SA at my store gets on the phone and calls to see what the last selling price was and then they honor it. So there is a way for them to find out the price.
DeleteMy experience is similar to kms -the VPS/SA has always been able to look up the price of an online sold out item on the iPad for me to make the adjustment.
DeleteI was told unless the item is in stock online in my size they will not match the price.
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ReplyDeleteI have to vent about Madewell.
ReplyDeleteYesterday they had a one day sale - some select 'new arrivals' were marked down 40%. Then last night they started an extra 40% off sale styles. Some of the 'new arrivals' were then on sale!
So, I was looking at the Silk Boyshirt which was $66.50 yesterday during the 'new arrival' one day sale. Last night it went on 'permanent' sale for $66.50 plus the extra 40% when you enter a code = 39.90. Now today the same shirt's sale price has jumped to $79.99! With 40% off it will be $47.99.
Is this a normal occurrence? Prices fluctuating?
Val, yes the prices have rubber in them and bounce frequently. The one day promo prices were still showing when the LOVEIT code went up. Some of those promo items went on sale ending in .99 and those new prices were reflected when the site updated, after LOVEIT went up. HTH
DeleteYeah, I grabbed the Jean Jacket in Storm Cloud Wash last night for $42 with the promo and the 40% sale. I didn't even realize it was on promo instead of regular sale but if I had waited until this morning it would have been $70. Hopefully it will fit. There is no Madewell in Oregon, so I have to take my chances online. It looks like we will have to stay up all night to wait for sales to combine with promos and also wake up early in the morning to check for popbacks!
DeleteAs with J. Crew, there can be big price differences between online and in-store. I got the skinny-skinny pants in stitch-dot for $21 in store after the promo, while they're $54 after the discount online. Same with the Honeydew items I purchased.
DeleteI am so annoyed. I was up this morning for the sale update (it was like 1250, I think!), and I was ready to buy 3 things that popped back this morning. I was well over the $100 free shipping minimum, even with the discount applied, but the system was trying to charge me $17 for shipping! I didn't want to call on the phone b/c it was 4:30 in the morning and the rest of the house was asleep, and the live chat wasn't working. So I didn't place the order and missed out on my things.
ReplyDeleteSo frustrating!
I totally agree, especially after the early morning wake-up! For future reference, when similar things have happened to me, I went ahead and ordered anyway. When it became a more reasonable time and the rest of the house was awake, I simply called customer service and they took care of the problem and refunded the money to my account. In my experience the CS has always been helpful and resolved any issues, even when I reordered a final sale in a better size.
DeleteThe system has been glitchy lately as far as applying free shipping. I had two orders that should have had free shipping because of bathing suits in the orders but they charged me $8.95. I didn't notice it until later, though. When I called ask for refund on shipping, they were very nice about it and took care of it. Hope your items pop back again soon, that is so frustrating. One day it wouldn't let me log in. Made no sense, I ended up checking out as a guest.
DeleteThis is not J.Crew's fault necessarily but I am a little ticked. I purchased the factory wool skimmers on popback in my size...J. Crew's system somehow deleted the second line of my address, and my package was "delivered" but never showed up. Of course they're sold out in my size now!!
ReplyDeleteI also placed an order that was waitlisted and the address glitch happened again (I didn't catch it in time), so I will have to call again once that package is "delivered." Boo!
On a positive note, CS was as helpful as they could be in a bizarre situation.
Cate, do you mean that if you add a bathing suit to an order, it will make it free shipping? Even if there are non-bathing suits in the order, too?
ReplyDeleteHi Lark, yes. They run this promo a lot but it's not well advertised. If you click on a swimsuit while the promo is running, it will say "FREE SHIPPING" on the product page. But if you add something else to the order that is not swimwear, the order stays free shipping as long as you are buying a swimsuit. This is how it has worked in my experience.
DeleteI'm surprised that you were able to get free shipping on your entire order just by adding the swimsuit?! I order Crewcuts stuff quite a bit (and it is always free shipping) and still have to pay for shipping if there are non-crewcuts items in my cart...
DeleteHm, I'll have to try that next time! Too bad the suit I really wanted is now sold out...that's always the way it works, right? ;)
DeleteMaybe I just got lucky? But customer service didn't act like I was requesting anything odd when I called to ask for shipping reimbursement.
DeleteIt's true- even if the swimsuit item is on sale, it still renders your entire order free shipping. I did it a couple times last summer. But I also thought that it worked that way with crewcuts? My flower girl dresses were crewcuts and I'm pretty sure I was able to get my order shipped free. But that was almost two years ago...
DeleteSo...waited a week for an item to ship, finally received it yesterday and of course it's the wrong size. SO ANNOYING. Ordered an x-small and received a large. Naturally the item is sold out now. Argh!!
ReplyDeleteWhat is up with new items being on backorder til February already? If they are new and aren't available yet, why do they even bother to put them on the site? Now I will be checking daily to see if they are available. Such a tease, J.Crew and nobody likes a tease!! :)
ReplyDeleteInconsistent pricing across the board is frustrating me. I want to snag cashmere sweaters for $48 too.
ReplyDeleteExactly why I have cut my shopping with JCrew! I don't have a store nearby at all. I have been shopping Talbots a lot b/c store and online match. Easier.
DeleteStill fighting with JC over the fact that my Perfect Shirt in Ivory Tartan came with defective buttons that disintegrate with each wash...they will not send me any extra buttons! So I escalated the problem. I'll report what happens next.
ReplyDeleteDoubt you will hear anything sadly. I would simply buy new buttons and sew them on myself and go on my way.
DeletePurchased a lady coat and it smells awful- like burnt hair or burnt plastic. This has never happened before though I own several. Has anyone else had this experience? Bought in December so I don't think it was a return. Wondering if the smell will dry-clean out.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't sound right. Contact CS if you haven't already. I would air it outside if possible. If the smell doesn't go away after a day in sunshine/fresh air I would return it.
Delete