Tuesday, December 2, 2008

J.Crew's Site Is Down Again :(

As many of you have mentioned, J.Crew's website is down again. :( I should add that the site is down for periods of time, then up and running, then down again, and so on. {Hopefully the site will be "up and running" soon.} :)

My sympathies to the holiday shoppers trying to buy online, as well as sales associates (at stores) and customer service representatives (at call centers). I am sure their jobs have not been easy the past few days.

Incidentally, I came across a post at the Preppy Princess blog (click here for link), with a very interesting quote:

J.Crew CFO James Scully told stock analysts last week about some of those expenses: “…approximately $1 million in customer accommodations related to the direct system initiatives in the form of free and upgraded shipping and other customer appeasements…”

39 comments:

  1. Am I ever going to be able to complete my online order???? I have my selections sitting in the shopping cart and have been able to get on the website twice (half of my selections are sold out at this point) only to get kicked off again. This is driving me nuts! Hopefully the JCREW IT folks can get this situation rectified.

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  2. It is working for me right now!

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  3. OMG - I am so bummed out -- I just got home from work, got kids in bed, poured a glass of wine, turned on my computer to shop and got that awful message again! I guess I'll go organize my closet....I did get some deliveries today - but from the shoe promotion - no Turkey items yet...tick tock!

    --lucegirl

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  4. Really, what the h*ll can be causing these problems??? I am no techie but it seems to me that load issues (if that is what is causing the problem) could have been anticipated back in July and fixed by now. Sh*t, what would have happened if JC was having a good holiday season--we'd be paying closer to retail and still chasing orders and items.

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  5. Buyers Beware!

    I have received two orders from TURKEY already. I guess I should consider myself lucky for that, but both orders were missing pieces. One order was missing the invoice as well!?? HONESTLY!! And of course, they were missing great sale items that are out of stock now! I also was shorted the fireball bracelet, which is not on sale, but I purchased with the code. It is out of stock now. :(

    I called to try to do a "We will find it" for the bracelet and other items, which by the way they will only do for full price items now, and the poor CS told me that the system went down. UGH!!

    Thank you for allowing me to vent, but seriously J.Crew. What's up?

    PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE be polite to the CS, it is truly not their fault.
    It is the poor system.

    If you receive your order intact, be thankful, I guess.

    Athena

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  6. UGH. these comments worry me, I cannot get on to check out my shopping cart. All I have to say is they better get it together by tomorrow, because the 30% off ends tomorrow and if I don't get it because of this nonsense I will be seriously pissed.

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  7. I have to wonder what is really going on with J Crew. They were a legitimate company for years. These problems have been going on for 6 months. Some of them seem so easily fixable. For example, how hard is it to check the boxes before they are mailed out? They must know by now that it's a major problem! All of their many, many issues should have been worked out months ago. It's turning into such a, well, joke! And I can't believe how long their final sale went on online. No other good retailer does that. It means that you don't stand by your products, and don't really care about customer satisaction. I think it's terible that they still have it instore. What other comparable mall store does this?... Shopping with this company, or any company shouldn't have to be such a game of wits.

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  8. I wonder if they are going to extend the promotions another day or so with the site being down so much. I was just about to browse some blazers but I guess I'll bet getting some zzz's instead. Good night all.

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  9. GOOD IDEA, AMEILIA!

    J.Crew, are you listening?

    Due to all of the problems, will you please extend the promotion so that we actually have time to take advantage of it?

    I truly do not like to complain, but I am laughing out loud when I check the site to see it down again and again.

    Athena

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  10. I'm kind of mad and kind of glad at the same time...I have a big 'ole order in my shopping cart (at least I did!) that I really don't need but would surely order if the site was up! So, at least I'm saving some $$ while the site is down. :)

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  11. Man, oh man. I got my TURKEY order today, so that was nice and quick (comparatively.) BUT I was short an item AGAIN. At least this time it was a $20 sweater (long dream cardi in bright rhubarb) as opposed to last time, my ill fated Frankie bag. UGH I am just getting so frustrated. After the purse mishap which I am still peeved over, I of course caved and bought tons of goodies due to my lack of sense/ OCD/ clothes lust. When I called CS, I got a decent solution to the missing sweater. I am being sent the same sweater but in another color for the same sale price even though the only ones left in my size are considerably more expensive. I was denied having my shipping refunded for the original order, but won't have to pay shipping on the replacement. I am just so happy that the problem was with am item for myself and not one of the items I was getting as gifts! I got DH the V neck cashmere in the jungle green, and it is a winner, big time. The green is much darker than I thought it would be, super nice looking. Anyway, I am serious this time, no more J Crew until after Christmas. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that all fellow aficionadas get their packages without any more missing items!

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  12. Anon @ 11:22, I also received my TURKEY order today and was also short an item. What is going on with JCrew lately? It seems like quite a few people have faced this problem. I called CS, and they resolved the problem and were very helpful and kind.

    Actually, this may have been a blessing in disguise. I originally ordered a small in the cashmere heirloom (the item that was missing), but after trying on a friend's, realized I needed an XS. CS said they would send me an XS, honor the sale price and give me free shipping!!

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  13. Okay, just got through opening a couple of JC packages that arrived today and everything was there that was supposed to be (thankfully!). One weird thing, though...

    I received my Lydia Watercolor as ordered, but the invoice belongs to someone else. It seems we ordered the same item, but our receipts got switched. I plan to keep my Lydia, but wonder if the other person might need their invoice back to be able to return. So, Pat D, if you're out there and you want your invoice for a size small Lydia Watercolor, let me know!!

    stephanie.marty@gmail.com

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  14. site up for me! 1137 EST

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  15. anybody think that there might be a conspiracy btw the workers @ JC to mess up the orders? Maybe BR is paying them, lol..

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  16. All I have to say is please go back to the old website and system, J.Crew! I loved the old site - how it was organized, how easy it was to browse the sale section, how much better it was to check out, everything!

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  17. It's still down for me!!! AGGHHH

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  18. I was able to get into the website, but after I logged in to access my orders, it froze and has remained that way.

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  19. I did the same thing. Trying to figure out what happened to my turkey order. I have over 10 items and the only one that shipped was the full priced merchandise. It figures.

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  20. Today I received one of my TURKEY orders - 3 items were missing and there was no invoice included either. Of course one of those items is no longer available.

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  21. Received a turkey order today, and three items were missing, all of which were charged to my credit card, of course. And during the tiny little window that the site was up, I was able to see that two of the three are now sold out. So frustrating!

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  22. I didn't order anything with the TURKEY promo and I am so glad because of it. When I read all these comments, I feel sorry for both the customers and all CS people trying to resolve issues.

    It would be nice if JCrew acknowledged these mistakes and gave you all coupons as a compensation. If they can send them out of nowhere and randomly, perfect timing would be now as well.

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  23. Hey J.Crew, guess what? You suck.

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  24. Goodness -- I'm looking forward to my TURKEY order tomorrow. I hope all is in the box. I ordered the berry trimmed astrid in charcoal. And since I am not convinced about the Plaza in ivory, I ordered the Madeline in Sea Salt. I've tried on the Mad in Sea Salt in b&m and liked it. If the Plaza had on-seam pockets, I'd keep it. Just talking out loud since the f-reaking website is down. I'm going to try to visit b&m in person. I was one of the lucky that recvd a 25% coupon in the mail. Yay.

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  25. Some of J.Crews problems seem to be getting lost in the press with other retailers also experiencing issues. But this captures it:

    'The site of apparel retailer J. Crew Group Inc. went down about 11:30 a.m. Eastern time yesterday and remained offline until 3:30 p.m., then operated sporadically at best until returning to a steady operation at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, says Shawn White, director of external operations for Keynote Systems. “Every year during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we see some issues with sites,” he says. “But we’ve never seen it to this scale, where a site had a problem literally all day.” J. Crew did not return a call for comment. '

    Full article here:
    http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=28654

    And the site is down again tonight. Sigh.

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  26. I’m shocked that JCrew has taken this long to update their website. They either don’t know what they are doing, or someone is giving them the worst advice ever. It’s bad enough that some of the pictures don’t load when your trying to look at an item in detail, but to be down during the time people are making decisions on where to spend their money doesn’t tell me that JCrew Is a “Place to shop”. They are not only in danger of angering their best customers; they are in danger of those same customers never coming back.
    A restaurant manager I worked for once told me a story. He said not to worry too much about the customer who always complains and you never seem to be able to please them…..worry about the customer who walks out the door without saying anything and never seeing them again.

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  27. It is absolutely absurd that a national company, such as JCrew, cannot kept there technology working. At the very *least*, they should have redundant servers that can kick in when the primary's go down. This completely undermines my confidence in the company and their management. If they could not anticipate these technological problems, how will they address the many unknowns with this economic climate.

    Jim Cramer in his stop trading CNBC segment says JCrew is a buy -and acknowledged inventory problems - but he fails to account for consumer sentiment. While JCrew has undoubtedly raised a significant amount of capital for their balance sheet, I fear they have alienated their customer base. I have always been happy with in store sales, but I must say, my recent online experiences with JCrew have be abysmal. With websites not up, orders not actually shipping, and incomplete orders, I begin to wonder if it is worth the hastle. I, for one, will be staying far away from JCG.

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  28. Well, after 7 years of spending approx. $1,000 a month JCrew has finally done me in....I can only shop online and I won't go into details and complain about all my problem orders but I am done. I am an intelligent, capable woman and I just can't "put up" with them anymore. Yes, I am moving on....My plan is to use my reward card when it comes next round in January and then cancel my JCrew card. No more orders. Period. Good-bye, JCrew.

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  29. A CSR actually called ME during the day yesterday to discuss my lost pre-TURKEY EXTRA20 order...when I called back last night, there was an 8 minute (!!!) wait for help, and when I finally got through, the person who called me was gone for the day, anyway...grrrrrrrrr! I knew when I got back to reading comments here today that I would be seeing more and more screwed up orders, because an 8 minute wait for help is unusual.

    I know that J.Crew is a big company, so it can't be that easy to fix all these tech problems, but Mickey Drexler's head must be ready to fly off at this point. So much lost revenue, so many alienated customers.

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  30. Something just isn't *right* about all of this...I just cannot believe that Mickey would continue to allow these type of issues to go on...there has to be something more to it.

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  31. FFM I agree with you something is not right somewhere, I don't understand how a parcel shows up in the UPS system as Billing Info Received and the parcel is MIA.

    I feel like sending an email to a news agency see if they pick this story up and give it some attention, then maybe J Crew will do something.

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  32. It seems that many business need to bump up their IT support and hardware. Just like our roads and highways, the internet and all the other hardware that goes with it needs an upgrade to handle the increased traffic.

    I bet if J.Crew bumped up the hardware end they could deal with the increased traffic on those heavy days.

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  33. j crew guy in cnada: They did bump up the hardware and look where it got them!

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  34. Not agaaiiiin! I hope my order from last night isn't lost..

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  35. Anyone else having trouble with their CC with online purchasing? I've tried twice now and it keeps saying "Credit Card refused". I can't figure out why, there is no balance on the card, i've used it on the J.Crew site before, i've checked all the numbers. :(

    I guess just another j.crew glitch :(

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  36. snow: That happened to me when I accidently punched in the wrong codes, call CS because they have a security feature that kicks in and a Hold in placed on the account.

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  37. I can happily report that I've never, ever had an order screwed up. They have alway arrived timely, there is always an email confirmation, and the order is always perfect. I know this seems odd, given all the problems I read about on this blog, but it's the truth.

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  38. Thank you, J.Crew, for extending the promotion to Thursday!!


    Athena

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  39. Site is down in a big way right now--Just "Error: JSP_EXECUTION_FAILED" in plain HTML...not even one of those custom announcement pages. What's going on over there??

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Dear J.Crew Aficionadas & Aficionados: Please feel free (and encouraged) to share your thoughts and opinions. :) However, please note that this is still a personal blog. So comments that are considered inappropriate (e.g. obscene, racist, homophobic, personal attacks, rude, and just plain mean) will be removed.

And now back to J.Crew! :)