J.Crew's Red Phone Changes {downgrade}

A big "thanks!" to Sydneygirl (in this post) who shared the following news about J.Crew's red phone:

"...they will no longer allow you to have both free shipping from the red phone on full price items AND your teacher/student discount. You can only have one or the other. The red phone used to be their big thing they promoted vs other stores. Now they are taking away their discounts all over the place. I was told this was a new policy."

This is sad J.Crew-related news. It seems as though the benefits and perks keep getting reduced. With that said, I am still very thankful for the teacher/educator and student discounts at J.Crew- and I hope they do not remove it altogether. Especially since the retail industry is still hurting (just look at retailers like Eddie Bauer, who recently filed for bankruptcy protection).

What are your thoughts on this latest change? Did you know about this change? Will this have an impact on your future orders?

J.Crew {Happy Ending} Customer Stories

I think we all can agree that J.Crew has one of the best customer service in the retail industry (even with the occasional mess up-- that we have all definitely encountered at one point or another). ;) The following are some customer stories that I think are great to share:

The first customer story comes from Liz:
So, I've been buying cashmere from J.Crew since about 2003. For the holiday 2008 season I bought about 6 sweaters and noticed they were not holding up as well as previous seasons: they were pilling happened almost immediately and did not seem as soft. I saw other comments on this blog regarding the cashmere quality so I knew I was not alone in thinking things had gone downhill. I finally got sick of just complaining about it and decided to take action, so I wrote to Mickey. My aim was not to get my sweaters replaced or refunded, but to let him know that something had changed in their construction and I wanted him to get to the bottom of it.

I love J.Crew cashmere, but there was no way I could ever justify buying more unless things improved. So I sent my email. Within two hours I had the email ...from Mickey as well as a message from him on my cell phone, plus an email & voicemail from a woman on his production team. This amazingly quick response blew me away. I have always been a J.Crew fanatic, but because they took my concerns seriously and responded immediately, I am a fan for life. That is the kind of response a longtime customer should get, because we give them a lot of money over the years!

To wrap up the story, I've been in contact with the production team and elaborated on my concerns. I also loaned them two of my sweaters so they could examine them and see if anything has changed: a long sleeve cashmere tee from 2005 and one from 2008. Since then, they've identified some "opportunities" (I don't know exactly what these opportunities are, but I am hopeful) and said that changes will be reflected in the summer rollout cashmere. They are also sending me a test sweater to wear and report back on. I am eager to receive it and be able to say that it is better constructed than before!

My point here is that if you have a legitimate complaint about J.Crew, tell them. As my experience shows, they take constructive criticism seriously and the products may change for the better as a result.

The second customer story comes from Melissa:
Since I am a huge J.Crew fan ... I wanted to take a moment to contact you about my recent experience with J.Crew. I had my J.Crew Robin wedding dress (size 6) altered and it was completly RUINIED by my seamstress!! My wedding is one week from today (Monday, May 18th) in Maui. Since the dress is compeltely unfixable I had to order a replacement. To make matters more complicated, I live in Anchorage, Alaska.

I called J Crew Sunday to order a new dress in size 6 petite and requested overnight FedEx shipping. J.Crew normally will not overnight ship to Alaska. After 35 minutes on the phone I was told that although I could place the order they could not guarantee that it would arrive until Wednesday or Thursday at the latest! I was also told the dress would not even ship until after 4 pm Monday. I leave for Hawaii this Friday so that seemed to be cutting it awfully close!

I begged and pleded but the person in Special Events wasn't able to make an exception. I placed the order but was disappointed and worried I wouldn't receive it in time. I decided to make a call to J Crew's corporate office in NYC. I ended up finding a number for Jill Hennessy-Brown, the VP of Operations. I left her a message explaining the situation and asking for an exception to be made. I was delightfully surprised when she called me first thing Monday morning! She assured me that she had spoke with someone at the Richmond facility and the dress was being FedEx overnight shipped to me! Hopefully the dress will get here on Tuesday leaving me time to make changes if they are needed.

I was just so suprised that Jill Hennessy-Brown took the time to call me back and make sure my order would arrive in time. Later that morning I received a follow up call from Ellen in the Special Events department. She let me know that my dress had shipped and would arrive by Tuesday afternoon! I'm hoping you will post this email so I can share my experience with J Crew's WONDERFUL service!! A big thank you to Jill Hennessey-Brown for taking time out of her busy day to help a frazzled bride!

Melissa goes on to add that: I was so thrilled with the service I received from Jill Hennessey-Brown that I sent a thank you e-mail to Mickey Drexler and got a response from him later in the day!!

A big "thanks!" to Liz & Melissa for sharing their personal stories. I love reading these stories- it really makes me appreciate J.Crew. The retailer definitely does go above and beyond to make their customers happy when the special situation arises. And you got to love that CEO Mickey Drexler takes out the time to respond! :)

What are your thoughts on these customer stories? Do you have a customer service story that you would like to share?

The "Gift Guru" Available At J.Crew {wink!}

There is a post from awhile back (J.Crew Gift Gurus {tell me more}) that discussed a new shopping service from J.Crew. J.Crew now has a dedicated section on its website, to showcase this latest service, the Gift Guru, where they do all the shopping (e.g. pick out items and send them) for anyone on your "gift list" (click here to view).

J.Crew provides customers with a gift list (either online or printable pdf), where all one has "to do is fill in the blanks with gift ideas". You can be "as general ("something pink") or as specific (an item number will do) as you want". J.Crew also states that the "gift gurus will thoughtfully hand pick presents for everyone on your list" which sounds interesting. ;)

I will most likely not use one of J.Crew's gift gurus as I am pretty good at shopping and I enjoy it too {wink!}. However, I do think this is a great concept. This move might help attract holiday shoppers (who may not have to time to shop or, dare I write, hate to shop) to J.Crew, especially during these difficult times where retail stock and sales prices are dropping (click here for related news article).

What are your thoughts on the gift guru service? Do you think it is a worthwhile service? Would you consider using this service for the holidays?

J.Crew On The Phone {did you get the up-sell?}

Recently I placed an order online that got canceled. Imagine my surprise to see the very item I ordered (same color and everything) available the following day for sale online. I immediately called J.Crew to see if I could still get the item, when J.Crew's customer service rep decided to "sales pitch" me the J.Crew credit card as well as upgrade my shipping for a fee (which in the end didn't matter because my item was no longer available). I was taken a bit by surprised as I was more focused on getting my item than anything else at the time.

Well, thank goodness for this blog's members- because I have been reading so many accounts of members experiencing the same "up-sale" by J.Crew recently! (For a minute, I thought my experience was a strange, out of the norm, encounter.)

For example, in the "Expect Some New Arrivals At J.Crew Stores! ;)" post, Melanie shared the following: "Also, is it just me or has anyone else noticed an increase in upselling when you call in an order? I was on the red phone yesterday and the woman asked me if I wanted this item, because it sold well with the item I'd ordered. That's happened on my last four red phone orders, but has never really happened before that. I didn't know if it was a new trend or if I have only just been paying attention more recently." Casual-Crew in the same post mentioned "...I called CS to ask a question about my order and I had to listen to a 4 min speel about JC credit card and other stuff before my question got answered..."

So chances are, when you call J.Crew (through the red phone or elsewhere) you will hear some sort of sales-pitch. I realize J.Crew is thinking of ways to promote their services (like the credit card and more costly shipping methods), but I am not sure if this is the most effective method.

I always enjoyed shopping at J.Crew stores (and over the phone) with *out* getting the sales pitch (which I normally do hear at most other retailers like the Gap and Macy's). But maybe those days are over... :)

Did you recently get the "sales pitch" when you called J.Crew's customer service? What are your thoughts on the up-sell? Do you think it is a smart move (there is the opportunity to get customers to buy more!) or a bad move (there is also the opportunity to annoy customers)?