Wednesday, February 11, 2015

"Looking to VENT" with J.Crew

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.

18 comments:

  1. I'm not sure if this comment goes into category, but looks like we may be having another additional % off sale. I remember the price of the downing tote because some JCAs mentioned it, but the sale price for most colors has gone up from $126 to $136.

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    1. it was $126 for a day or so with the 40% so who knows. what a poor sale for february!

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  2. I feel like the price bounces have really been excessive lately, at least on the items I have been interested in. Like daily! It's frustrating for a shopper like me because I don't do Factory (quality issues), and most of my purchases are retail or collection on steep discount, sale plus extra %. I'm getting whiplash as some items I have ordered have changed in "net price" three times between the time I placed my order and when it arrived!

    That said, CS has been wonderful about PAs lately too. I've gotten no pushback whatsoever on PAs for in store and online purchases. It's just stressful keeping up but I do it because a $20 difference on every item, or more, adds up.

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    1. Yes-I've noticed more bounce in the sale prices lately. Very irritating. Had my first pushback a couple weeks ago on a PA when stores were running 50% off sale and online was only 40% (I asked them to match the store promo). Not worth getting upset; it just helps me spend less in the long run (it discourages me from browsing). I will say experiences elsewhere (unresponsive CS, lack of quality) have reminded me JC's CS is generally spot-on.

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  3. vent..large # of items in sale with no % off...ridiculous in Feb.

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  4. Lovely, ordered a bikini for less than $10 from J Crew Factory, bottoms shipped today and got the email that the top was sold out...too late to cancel but they are nice enough to let me return the useless bottoms....or i guess i could just go topless! thanks for half a swim suit J Crew!

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  5. So annoyed and wanted to warn others. Just pulled out a JC Liberty print pouch and necklace which I had kept to give as a gift. Found that the faux suede drawstring storage bag which JC hands out with necklace purchases had deposited indelible black dye marks all over the plasticized lining of the Liberty pouch making it ugly and unusable. Couldn't remove the marks with soap and hot water . Glad I didn't pack my own JC jewelry in these bags amongst clothing when I travelled recently, or store the bags in drawers with light colour garments. Will try customer service but think the Liberty pouch is long sold out.

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    1. I had this happen recently - the bag dye rubbed off on the coloured stones of a necklace I purchased! I decided to just live with it as I got it on steep sale and nobody but me will know - but I know it will irritate me every time I wear it!

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    2. Yikes. Thanks for the warning!

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    3. Thanks for the tip. I have used the larger black pouches for a couple of trips but will go back to the off-white ones just to be safe.

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  6. I ordered about 8 things recently, in a single order. 3 of them were back ordered t-shirts. Today I got all 3 of them, in 3 separate packages ugh. I absolutely hate this. I keep vowing not to order anything any more, because this is ridiculous and embarrassing and wasteful. I've cut way back, but I can do better.

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    1. I know what you mean! I recently ordered 5 items from Madewell. They arrived in 5 separate packages - and two of the packages each contained nothing but a single pair of socks. They paid to ship me a single pair of socks, not just once, but twice! Madness, I tell you!

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    2. Often time items are shipped from the warehouse and various stores around the country.

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  7. Also - has anyone else noticed "inaccuracies" in the fabric descriptions on the JC website recently. I noticed the Harlow pant is described as wool online. I read the content label in store as I always do before purchase and saw the Harlow was not in fact pure wool fabric, or even mostly wool with a few percent of lycra/nylon. It is actually a blend of 50% wool with viscose and some other materials.

    They also seem to have removed the online classifications of merino wool by gauge on sweaters. For example Tippi's used to be described as 14-gauge merino and I found that useful as a benchmark for knowing how heavy or light other merino styles might be if ordering online. New season Tippi's feel thinner than my old ones. Tilly appears to be an even lighter weight merino than Tippi - the lightweight short sister to Tippi and the Tilly cardigan I think would be classified as featherweight.
    Perhaps this is just another symptom of JC trying to cut production costs and improve margins by sourcing cheaper materials while giving customers the impression with online wording that the garment fabric quality is the same as a couple of years ago.

    Big thank you shout out to Gigi and other JCA reviewers who put garment fabric content detail in their reviews. The extra detail really helps

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    1. Wow. Some of the higher-ups at J.Crew should be alarmed by the customer response to the dip in quality and, now, to the misinformation. This is awful!

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    2. Yes! The metallic pleated midi skirt is described as poly/viscose online, but the label on the actual skirt says cotton/viscose. Not that it matters either way, I thought the fabric of the skirt was gross.

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  8. When sorting through my closet this weekend, I came across a good example of declining quality/vanity sizing. I was looking at two pairs of trousers - Fall 2009 (100% wool, fully lined, size 2) and Collection Fall 2014 (wool and small % of other fibers, unlined, size 0). The wool on the older pair is almost as thick as what J Crew used on the Fall 2014 pencil skirts. They look almost new. The fabric on the newer pair is almost "silk blouse" thin. These trousers show signs of wear after a couple of dry cleanings and are loose almost to the point of needing alteration. I have not lost weight. FWIW the thin J Crew wool fabric bears no resemblance to that of a pair of (lined) wool trousers I have from Barneys. The 2014 trousers retailed for at least 50% more than the older pair. I don't want JC to re-issue the older style. I would like to see an offering with upgraded fabric and a lining in a current silhouette. I'm willing to accept a higher price point; it's the more money for less that bothers me.

    Vent 2: J Crew needs to reflect a spectrum of current trends; and not limit themselves to what might best flatter Jenna. Other JCAs touched on this a couple of weeks ago. Where is the gingham? Where are the awesome denim and suede skirts, jackets & accessories? The "we visited the xyz archives from the '70s and here is our interpretation..." Both J Crew's higher end competitors and the fast fashion crowd are doing this. There will be alternatives. I doubt that Mickey and Jenna want us to develop the habit of visiting other retailers first.

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  9. 5 cancellations in 1 week. And as a courtesy, the lady that called told me that she could find a another style as a replacement for one of the necklaces I bought and honor what I paid, but since I wasn't near a computer, I said I would call back once I had a chance to look. She sent me a $30 gift card for the trouble. I called back, none of the people I spoke to honored the price, and were suggesting alternatives to the item that were over 4 times the amount of the original necklace. The gift card I was sent got lost in the mail. Enough said. Get your act together, J. Crew!

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