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.
I placed a Factory order on the 12th and it is still sitting in "released" status. I'm ticked. My last order arrived two days after I ordered it! I emailed CS yesterday inquiring about the status and have received no response.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm not the only one. I placed a Factory order on the 10th. Status is still "open". I'll be placing a call to CS today.
DeleteI literally just got an email from CS - she said I'll receive the order "no later than the 24th." I understand that is within the 6-8 business day ship time but I still find it ludicrous, especially since the order was >$200. I live an hour away from the distribution center, for goodness sake.
DeleteFirefighter Wife, I hope you get your stuff!
Same, just checked status for an August 12th order and it is still "open". boo
DeleteSame thing happened with me. I called CS and she said, "they are really backed up with orders." Anyway, both my ordered are being sent next day air. Getting them today.
Delete*orders
DeleteSame issue. received email this morning. they have sent my order "overnight" due to a glitch (their words) in the new shipping system .
Deletei placed an order on the 12th too and still have not received a shipping notice. I called CS on Monday and he was not concerned at all. Told me at that point it had only been 2 business days and they had 6-8 to get it out to me...
DeleteSame. I emailed CS yesterday to inquire about it. Still haven't received a response. Maybe they will wait 6-8 days to respond...
DeleteI am expecting an order, overnighted. I placed it on the 12th, as well. Glitch, after glitch after glitch. Crying wolf.
DeleteI am suspecting the problem is with billing. During that 75% sale, I have receive ordered that still have not been billed! Order in hands, no charge on community. Same this time, I am expecting an overnighted order from the 12th, still not billed at Comenity.
DeleteAlso, a few week ago, I was making a return. And couldn't, because....the charge was not there. Was under my account, but somehow, the Associate, could not process it. They had to call, gave me a pre-return credit...My friend was returning an item, just this week, and there was a problem with it too- with the tax part of return. The store had to call "someone" too.
So my guess is, the glitch is on the billing end. But what do I, mortar, know.
I had issues as well. Placed an order (regular jcrew) on the Monday the 10th in the am, chose UPS $8 shipping, and it said "Open" or "Released" until late Thursday. This was for a freaking wedding dress, too! It arrived Monday 8/17. They are really stretching it with the 6-8 day shipping... once it gets into the UPS system it seems ok, but what the heck is going on at the warehouse/billing. Something shouldn't be sitting open or released for 3+ days.
DeleteThe gown didn't even come nicely wrapped. I guess if you get a wedding dress on sale, they can't be arsed to put a little tissue paper in the box?
tasty moog! *waves*
DeleteWhat's up, tasty moog! Good to see you!
DeleteHi there, gigi and silver_lining! Yea, I mostly lurk these days... I haven't been shopping much at jcrew lately. :-/ Hoping this fall is an improvement.
DeleteNot a vent but I got my rewards card yesterday in the mail. I also got my new J.Crew card in the mail last week with a 20% off purchase of $125.00 I think. The store told me I could combine the 20% off with any current promos and also use my rewards card. I am pretty happy about that. It's funny though, I don't really see anything I want, go figure.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine was denied combining that 20% with other promo....I haven't tried it yet.
DeleteI was able to use the 20% off promo with my rewards online so it works online!
DeleteThe 20% promo + rewards card works fine, as there is separate "link", for better lack of words, to use both. But if you want to use a current promo (eg. additional 30% off ) + the 20% code, you can't - you can use only one code when placing an order online. You have to either call them or buy stuff in a store.
DeleteThat friend of mine was trying to place a phone order to stack both promos - they said no, so she replied - not a big deal, a store will do it.....
OT: A review of the J. Crew Carrie Cami in Watercolor Floral
ReplyDeletethe canadian site. dress $200 US site $69 come on. this is just ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI am so disappointed with the new Canadian site. I agree with your vent and will add a couple of others. The Canadian sale section has half the number of items as the U.S. site and there appear to be a limited number of sizes available. There is one dress in particular that I had wanted to buy which has a full size run on the U.S. site and only has one size available in Canada. Does Jcrew not want to sell product to Canadians?
DeleteI'm so disappointed too and agree with both of you about these issues. It looks like a lot of items that were on sale before Borderfree have gone back to full price. (I've seen shoes, dresses, shorts etc on supersale before that are now full price.) I'm glad I snagged a few deals before the change because the price differences are insulting.
DeleteNew arrivals also have a number of crazy price differences (ie watercolor tiered skirt is $186 cdn for poly. Come on!)
I emailed cs and complained on the phone too and was told they'll forward the comments etc. I should note that in over 10 years shopping loyally at jcrew I've only previously complained once to cs. I don't understand what they're thinking and how the prices can be so unfair now. I haven't seen such large discrepancies at other retailers including nordstrom canada, BR, MK etc.
Hi Jan. I also emailed CS about these issues. I have never done emailed CS before. The response that I received was, quite frankly, completely unintelligible corporate double speak. If I can get around to it I will post the email response that I received. I am so disappointed with Jcrew right now and I truly hope that someone is listening to these concerns. Otherwise, I see my shopping dollars migrating to other retailers like those you have mentioned. Here in Vancouver, the Nordstrom store is opening soon!
DeleteI am so glad to hear that others are upset about the canadian site and prices! I too called and complained to CS and was told that my comments would get passed on. Jan I hear ya about $186 for a poly dress I sat there looking at some of the prices thinking, do they think I am stupid? Urgggh again why J crew? Why the repeated poor decisions?!
DeleteI can't speak for the selection - but the pricing could be attributable in part to the closed off Canadian economy. I have friends & relatives who live in Vancouver and Toronto and they complain about the lack of options in mobile/wireless providers, airlines, etc.
DeleteMoreover, the Canadian population is under 30 million. About a tenth that of the US. The lack of demand probably has something to do with the lack of supply. Target abandoned Canada because it was abysmally unprofitable.
Sorry, the population of Canada is under 40 million. Even still ...
DeleteI don't think that pricing for Jcrew would be attributable to a closed off canadian economy. There is nothing specific to the regulation of clothing retailers that might result in limited providers, unlike the situation with mobile/wireless providers and airlines which are highly regulated in Canada. With respect to the Canadian population, there is no question that the Country would present a much smaller market than the United States and therefore less demand. However, the price differences have manifested themselves, in particular since the switch to the Borderfree platform which is stated on the jcrew website to allow jcrew to display prices in Canadian dollars. I can see the benefit in displaying prices in Canadian dollars as those prices would not be subject to the daily fluctuations in currency prices as would have been the case prior to the Borderfree platform when Canadians made online orders. One would think then that the Canadian prices would be approximately equivalent to the difference in currency, which is about a 30% difference. However, some of the price differences between the Canadian and U.S. websites are far in excess of 30%. Even if one takes into account that Jcrew is obviously paying some fee to Borderfree, that would be unlikely to account for the more than 50% (and in some cases even more than that) price differences. In my view, this is someone at JCrew thinking this is an opportunity to extract more dollars out of its Canadian customers and they are just hoping that we can't do math and don't understand currency exchange rates.
Delete"One would think then that the Canadian prices would be approximately equivalent to the difference in currency, which is about a 30% difference."
DeleteIf you take a look at The Economist's Big Mac index, mispricing isn't limited to J.Crew clothing across country borders.
I think the big problem is that jcrew is saying shopping using Borderfree is now easier and faster for Canadians per their emails and website. Well to sum up Borderfree changes 1. Prices are now unfairly high IMO (and higher than the Canadian store prices) 2. You can't use a jcrew credit card online anymore 3. You can't use gift cards anymore 4. Shipping is now canada post (no offence but UPS is def faster) 5. A lot of sale items went back to full price including super sale items
DeleteRe: phone and airlines as Shima stated it's due to high gov't regulations. As for poor Target (which I love) apparently the reasons for failure was because they had many empty shelves / not restocking and did not offer the same good selection as US which I saw to be true. For basic household items people were still shopping walmart or such for better prices and groceries are mostly purchased from grocery stores.
Again, other retailers seem to have a 15-20% markup in canada which I have come to expect but jcrew (online) has some clothes at 50% and higher prices online than the US. So if sephora, nordstrom, BR, Coach, Gap etc don't have crazy higher markups then why JCrew? Jcrew Canadian stores have fair markups - not the same prices as online. So I'm wondering if they'll raise Canadian store prices more. shouldn't shopping online be cheaper than at a b&m (less overhead etc)?
One common theme with Target & J.Crew seems to be poor selection/fewer offerings ... which ties in to my theory that the smaller population results in lower demand ... which in turn leads to less attention/care paid by the retailer/vendor. I'm not supporting or defending J.Crew but it seems like they simply don't care too much about their Canadian customer base. If I were a Canadian J.Crew fan, I'd try to find alternatives to shopping directly with J.Crew. Like asking friends/relatives in the US to buy at the lower price point and shipping it to me.
DeleteI live in NY and I've ordered a Cuisinart food processor for my aunt in Vancouver off that was marked up about 5-fold on the Canadian Amazon website versus the US Amazon website. We finally ordered it on Home Depot in Washington and they had visiting friends pick it up in-store. Clearly there ARE issues with retailing in general in the great white north.
because I live in Vancouver....I can order through the US site and have items shipping to a postal service located just beyond the border in Wash state. This costs me a small fee per pkg ( hate when J C send one item per pkg) With the low Can $ gas and time it is still worth it to do so. The only time I lose is on returns because of the conversion of $$ each time. I had high hopes for borderfree but will not be using it ever. C
DeleteSame. I placed an order on 8/11 that hadn't shipped. I called yesterday to ask about it. They said they would get it here no matter what in the 6-8 day timeframe. So I suggested they would overnight it to me? We weren't counting our days the same - he said they still had a few days to go. So last night I get a shipping email -- it shipped! Economy :( and where I live - packages take the full 8 days to get to me :(
ReplyDeleteThey're clearly having problems with shipping and billing. I placed an order Aug 11th and still had not received a shipment confirmation as of yesterday afternoon. Last night my package arrived. I received the shipment confirmation email a couple hours after my package arrived at my door. My J.Crew credit card still hasn't reflected the purchase.
ReplyDeleteI had the same issue - now my package is arriving today while I am out of town. This wouldn't normally be a big deal but I made a large order so it will be a big box (not something that UPS can put between my doors and, of course, it's raining at my house so the package will sit outside in the rain for about 24 hours before I get home. ugh.
DeleteSame thing happened to me. Placed an order on the 12th, didn't receive a shipping confirmation so by the 17th I called CS. They promised to have delivery by the 20th. Shortly after that phone call, my package arrived, AS DID the shipping confirmation. Now today, Aug. 20th, I receive the same exact package, as well as a new billing for it. Oy vey.
DeleteMe too! I ordered a bunch of swimsuits on 8/15. It was supposed to be 1-2 days handling and then second day shipping. They only went out today, 8/20, ONE single pair of the bottoms is arriving tomorrow, Friday and the other pieces are in a separate shipment slated for Monday. I leave for vacation on Sunday! Now I have to get someone to pick up the package for me, I still need a suit, and to top it off, the CS Twice told me via email that it would "definitely" be here Friday. I"m hoping by some miracle the second package arrives Friday, too.
DeleteSo far, not impressed with the change in shipper from UPS to Borderfree (for Canada). I'm paying more to get no updates and longer shipping times. Lame.
ReplyDeleteI have a vent about the store in Philly, on Chestnut street. Went in yesterday, hoping to see some new arrivals in person (I haven't been there in a few months), only to find that the back section of the store, where the women's sale used to be, is now a crewcuts, and another part of the store is a petites section, so what was already a smallish selection of women's clothing is now even smaller. What they did have out wasn't very inspiring, either. A lot of button up shirts, and some pants, very few skirts, and almost no new stuff.
ReplyDeleteThere's been a similar change at the Mayfair store in Milwaukee. I stopped in recently to make a return and was hoping to try the Sunday slim chinos but they didn't have them. In fact that had very few women's items from the last few rollouts. Not sure crewcuts will generate much excitement here in the land of Oshkosh B'Gosh.
DeleteSame in San Antonio. Not having kids, I found it annoying.
DeleteI have children and I agree, that's annoying. I'm sorry, but I very rarely buy crewcuts for my children. The quality is not great and the prices are ridiculous. Most of the time, I pay less for the clothes that I purchase for myself at jcrew than what they charge for crewcuts (even on sale). I have two daughters a few years apart and I like to buy nice things but I also want them to wash well and last so they can be passed down to the younger one.
DeleteAgreed. I bought crewcuts for my kids once about 4 or 5 years ago. Have bought Lands' End exclusively ever since--lesson sadly learned.
DeleteThey did this to Lake Forest too - new crew cuts section. WHY?
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ReplyDeleteWhile we're on the subject of stores... Dropped by the newly renovated local store in MD and although nice n new, little disappointed. Space is open yet feels compact, bumping into other shoppers. Selection has not really expanded. Perhaps I'm missing the old jcrew- warm sepia hardwood shelves and store front . Now it's black plastic, like the rest of stores looking like Zara. Guess I'll just reminisce when I look at the pic from the "weekly share- other jcrew retailers post". So the real weird thing is a SA said they have no room for a sale section. He said they'll mark down few items then ship rest out to other stores. What?! Tell me it ain't so since I typically shop sale, and my other local stores are 45' away. Surely they can allot a few shelves for sale from crewcuts. Hopefully that SA was misinformed. The newly renovated jcrew store is almost symbolic of the direction j crew is trying to go ( high fashion). But design choices, fabric , quality- no bueno. Sorry for the long vent.
ReplyDeleteMy "work" store was remodeled and I hate it. Always bumping into others, even when the store isn't crowded. The setup is horrible. Can't see the merchandise as it isn't displayed properly. Don't get me started on the sale section. At first, they crammed it into a corner and it was so bad you couldn't move in or get out. I miss the old design with the hardwood and more room to move and actually SEE the merchandise. IMO, the floor layouts for the new or remodeled stores = absolutely awful and not consumer friendly.
DeleteThanks for the "long" review on the Bethesda store. I had not had a chance to get up there and had wondered about the progress. When I found out that the store was closing for a revamp, I was taken by surprise (perhaps I don't visit that often and missed the "memo"). Glad its open but it sounds like the layout is something like Columbia, which I am not a fan of.
DeleteTotally agree with your last two statements, shopalot.
DeleteI haven't been to those stores but the Towson store is my B&M and it's tiny and crowded with a maze like layout. The Harbor East store seems much bigger and {I think} sells shoes but I have never been in it. The back of the store was men's, and then they expanded womens with giant sale section, and it's now back to mens.
Delete@shopalot, it's so bad that I hardly go any more!! But, honestly, I wouldn't mind some crewcuts action. I stalk for sale and buy for both kids -- but particularly my skinny son. On sale, I think crewcuts quality is more than acceptable.
DeleteTeriLynn13 - maze like is the perfect description. Someone must like it but certainly not me.
Deletercb.shops - I have no children but have purchased crewcuts for my nephew (on sale, of course). Sometimes I like the crewcuts better than the adult clothing. Sure wish I could squeeze into some of it!
Just another day for JCrew, they can't catch a break lately.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thestreet.com/story/13260518/1/class-action-lawsuits-filed-against-j-crew-and-build-a-bear-on-behalf-of-blind-customers-nationwide.html
I ordered sandals during the last major "Final Clearance" discount. They were black wedges, looked like the kind of things I could keep under my desk during the slow summer months. What did I receive instead? A pair of suede, wine coloured stilettos. Not even CLOSE. J.Crew was very nice about it and refunded my J.Crew card and then said, "We'll send you a return label in 48 hours." Two weeks later, I've exchanged four? e-mails with J.Crew Customer Service, no label, and these stupid shoes are still sitting in a box in my living room. And they were sent in one of those massive coat boxes so no. They're my size but I couldn't walk in 4" heels if my life depended upon it and I'm begging J.Crew to take them back because right now, I own them and they were FREE. This all sounds kind of ridiculous but I don't want to have the charge reversed because they never received the merchandise they mistakenly sent to me back nor do I want a pair of shoes that are wholly impractical for me just taking up space.
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ReplyDeleteMy order came and the top has one hole under one armpit and two in another!!!! Called CS and reported the problem and she was super sweet and giving me a return right away. But I'm annoyed that a simple top that took over a week to be delivered was so disappointing! J CREW get your act together!!!
ReplyDeleteI have sent back two different pairs of cyprus sandals. both were in poor condition ....go figure.
DeleteI have had the same problem. They have shipped from stores, worn looking without proper packaging.
DeleteA bit of a Canadian rant here. I was in the store on Monday and many of the new arrivals were out, but is there a major difference between the on line price and the store's price. I'm not talking sale, but the regular priced items.
ReplyDeleteA fleece sweatshirt #E0307 on line is 101.50 but in the store it's $79.50. Bowery slim cotton pants #03165 are $111.50 and $88 in store while some wool ones #C8753 were $162 on line and $128 in store.
This is brutal and I'm very disappointed in the major on line price hike.
J Crew has just really screwed up the Canadian online site . prices are just ridiculous. Hope they get it ( I emailed but got no response) and fix this.
DeleteI havent been in a store in ages, I was so put off by the online prices and thought those would be the in-store prices. However its still a shame since a lot of collection items don't make it up here.
DeleteI'm an American in Hong Kong and I categorically refuse to shop with Borderfree. The prices are obscene. What a turnoff!
ReplyDeleteI had problems with the coupon code TIMETOSHOP. I received the 30% but did not get the free shipping. Have other J.A.s encountered the same problem??? Super annoying. Good thing I noticed before hitting the submit button. Grrrrrr.....
ReplyDeleteI cannot find anything worth buying from J Crew anymore! I love their schoolboy blazers but this time all they have is this weird regent blazer that I don't like, so I am pretty disappointed. Plus the price skyrocketted and the sale items are not that appealing. I really feel J Crew should just stick to selling basic stuff made really well, instead of experimenting with new styles that they are not that good at. I have not bought any J Crew piece in a while because of this. I want to, but I can't find anything!
ReplyDelete