Thursday, March 19, 2009

J.Crew Online Ordering: Making Changes

"Thanks!" to both Anon at 8:50 AM and Soon to be PhD (in this post) who found out that J.Crew is now offering up to 60 minutes to make updates to online orders. This feature use to offer up to 20 minutes to make changes to orders.

I am not sure how long this increase in time has been available for customers, but I do appreciate the feature. It is wonderful to know that customers have the opportunity to modify/ cancel orders for a considerable time after an order has been placed. :)

Are you a fan of this feature? Do you think the increase in time (from 20 to 60 minutes) is beneficial to customers?

38 comments:

  1. I like the flexibility. Wish I had known that this afternoon when I kept putting items in my bag only to have them disappear after a couple of minutes.

    While I am at it, I have to say I am rather disappointed in J Crew's spring collection so far. I have been a fan of J Crew for well over ten years now ( ever since they opened their store in the Houston Galleria years ago) and I purchase sale items and when something is truly fabulous I pay full price for it for fear it may sell out.
    Ninety percent of my wardrobe is J Crew, filled in with the sporadic item from Anthropologie or Calvin Klein.

    I just don't see anything I really loooove this season so far. I just bought the Melody slub silk dress with the 20% discount and the cute meringue blouse to get some warmer weather items. But I keep looking through the regular priced items and feel......blah.

    Where are the fabulous prints I am used to seeing? The can't live without them dresses that I have come to rely on? The spring sweaters that I can dress up or down? And everything is in these boring colors.

    When I walk into my B&M store I see nothing but pale washed out hues and capri pants. The Crewcuts collection for kids is better than the stuff for women. I bought tons of stuff from the fall winter collection and usually look forward to spring for some cute, edgy but classy ideas but there's nothing I can't live without right now.

    Please, fellow JCA's, am I missing something?

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  2. Anony@12:15

    You are not missing anything. I have been a JCrew fan for 8 years and I feel exactly the same way as you...of all times for horrible neutrals and washed out colors to be in style! Why now when we could use a burst of cheerful color in this economy????

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  3. No you are not missing something, the colors are bad, most people cannot wear them and other stores have saturated colors out that look better than J Crews.

    Also J Crew quality sucks right now it is not worth spending the money on.

    The cocktail capris with the narrow leg opening especially in the lighter colors make your hips look bigger than they are if you have curves, everything is soooo boring.

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  4. I really appreciate this post...I think it's great to have 60 minutes to make changes instead of 20 minutes.

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  5. I agree with you, anon at 12:15. The only reason I have been buying is that I have a wardrobe filled with bright colors and needed some neutrals, but even at that all I got this spring was a sweatshirt and cardigan. Everything else I have picked up has been from past seasons in the final sale section.

    Where is all the color?

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  6. I also appreciate the time to change or cancel my order. Because of the race to buy restocks before they sell out I always feel flustered when I'm ordering, trying to fill my cart and check out as quick as I possibly can. It's nice to have the opportunity to then sit and think about it for a few minutes - especially with final sale items. :) Thanks for the update on the time change. When I ordered last Friday (March 13) it was still 20 minutes.

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  7. Its about time! I think it is a great and much needed feature.

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  8. The 60 minute rule sounds like it gives you 60 minutes to change your mind about a "placed order," but until you do PLACE an order, anyone who comes along ready to buy can yank something from your shopping cart, right??

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  9. Jenna did say they were going with pale and lighter shades this season. I may not wear pale colors all the time but it does add a mixture of colors to my wardrobe. I am going to take advantage of the pale yellow, blues and greens along with melon.

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  10. After you place an order, can you cancel just one item from it or do you have to cancel the whole thing?

    Thanks!

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  11. I LOVE all the colors.....I am really super impressed with J Crew at the moment. The quality, colors and prints have been horrible for the past couple years, I canceled my J Crew CC due to this. Now I really wish I had it back. The crisp whites, dark and light grays, pale pinks are perfect contrasts to light and dark bottoms. :-)

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  12. Count me among those unenthused by the spring collection. I do usually like the fall/winter stuff more, but this is the least interested I've been in a spring roll-out in ages. Plus, like others have mentioned, the appalling quality is such a turn-off - no way am I dropping any more $$ on j.crew's cashmere, or dream sweaters. As for tees, I keep reading on here how j.crew's fall apart on first washing or quickly develop holes ....

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  13. Speaking of falling apart/ holes... I haven't had any problem with my slub Ts, but the painter and luxe knit styles I got this fall/ winter are sub-par. I have one luxe knit hanging in my closet with tags still attached that has a small hole on the back shoulder area. I don't know if it was there when I opened the package or what but I didn't notice it until I took it out to wear yesterday. I love the feel of the painter T material but it's so fragile! It tears so easily even pulling it out of the washing machine has caused problems.

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  14. To those who inquired about what you can remove from your order after placing it: you can remove one item at a time or cancel the entire order. It will not, however, let you add anything to your order. So if, at the last minute you decided you want something and want to add to try to save on shipping (with a whole other order), you are toast. I am sure that probably a SA over the phone would be able to fix it, but that is the extent of the ability of the online system.

    I have used this feature twice...in both cases to cancel orders that I felt I didn't need. I think it's a very handy feature and probably saves their SA phone agents quite a bit of time.

    Regarding Spring styles, I can pick a few pieces here and there but I don't know if I feel the same way about Spring offerings as I do about Fall/Winter offerings. By far 2007 holiday was my most extensive shopping "season".

    Unfortunately, I have felt kind of uninspired by Gap and BR - even though they have fantastic sales. Don't spend the same way there. I don't why..but when I look through all the jeweled-tone BR blouses/shirts, I feel like I'm looking through an executive's wardrobe catalog. Maybe it's their models...they look a little too severe (their hair? their expressions? can't figure that one out).

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  15. I agree with the others. I can only own so many items in light pewter. The washed out colors, thin fabrics, blousy, unflattering fits, and overall low quality are enough to make me focus my clothing budget elsewhere. At least my bank account is happy!

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  16. anon 9:38, can you take the shirt back to the store? I think the only way j.crew is going to be forced to address the declining quality issue is by taking a financial hit, i.e. returns. I've been thinking about taking one of the cashmere sweaters I bought with the HOHOHO promos in for a return - it is over the 60 day period, but at the very least, I want them to acknowledge that a sweater shouldn't look like garbage three months later :-(

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  17. I do agree Fall and Winter JC is always much better than Spring. I always fall in love with the Holiday Catalog offerings and do spend quite alot during that timeframe.

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  18. La Belle Helene, I bought the holey shirt well over 90 days ago on an Internet order. I called CS about it and had a kind of sucky experience. First of all, it took a year to find the order that had the shirt in it! (Pitfalls of being a somewhat obsessive JCA, that's JC-AHOLIC!) Then, I got the bum rush of over 90 days, the hole could be my fault. I really think that it is indicative of JC's full knowledge of declining quality that they don't want to be stuck with their own stuff. In short, they know alot of their stuff sucks and they don't want it back on their hands or in their warehouses! Hello, no returns on FS. EW. At least I said something and I support your doing so with your cashmere. What's the saying, "If good people stand by and do nothing...?" I think it applies to retail as well! -9:38

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  19. audball -- I agree. The BR models are too couture for the clothing. They don't look healthy either.

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  20. It's still 20 minutes today when I ordered online. Just fyi.

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  21. To Anon, 9:13am (and everyone else) I tried to use the cancel order feature once but was told that if I want to cancel any item(s), I have to cancel the ENTIRE order but I am allowed to ADD item(s) to it during this interval.

    The cancel option isn't appealing because you risk losing any other items you were lucky to snag.

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  22. FYI -

    I just spoke to a CS rep at Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio and she told me that their new arrivals are out on the floor now.

    I'm going to check them out tomorrow.

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  23. I placed an order this morning and it was 60 minutes. Can only cancel the entire order, and doesn't allow adding new items.

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  24. Well, I'm too chicken to test the "finer" points of this new feature with a mock order, since I don't want to have anything "accidentally" stay on my account, but nor do I want to purchase something by accident LOL!

    I just know that when I went to change order page (though My Account) there was a column for Remove (I can't remember the terminology...maybe it was change), but no button or place where you could add an item. To be honest, I didn't click one of my items in that column because I did want those items. There was a button at the bottom of the page that said "Cancel Entire Order" or some such thing...

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  25. anon 9:38: I agree the slub cotton is a much higher quality than the painter tees. The painter tees stretch out in the wash, and they are so so thin you can see your bra even with the dark colors. The Ruffle Henley is really bad, the ruffle is distressed and it becomes unraveled when you wash it.

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  26. I have to agree, I am so disappointed in their spring collection, hopefully their summer collection will be much better.

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  27. I love the increased time to change an order. I called once to to change one item in a final sale order, only to be placed on hold. Then the CS agent tried to talk me out of cancelling the one item "it's so inexpensive, etc." - then she placed me on hold again. By this time the 20 minutes had run out and she told me they could not cancel the item, even when I had been on the phone with them when the 20 minues elapsed. That was one of the worst CS experiences I have ever had. I'm glad that those days will be over, another experience like that and I would have stopped buying J.Crew.

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  28. I am pleased with this new option, however, I have been very disappointed with the overall JCrew website....I purchased two of the Zebra tees on-line Monday morning....I called back the next day to check on the status of the order and was told it was ready for shipment. Two full days after placing the order, I received an e-mail stating those dreaded words, "We're sorry...." You guessed it, they let me know they did not have enough stock and one of the Zebra tees would not be shipped.....had it not taken 48 hours to determine, I would have placed an order for another size Zebra tee....In this day and time, how can it be so difficult to track stock?!?!?

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  29. OT but speaking of zebra tees, has any one tried on the crewcuts version (item number 13805)? I think the crewcuts versions, esp the metallic silver, are way cuter than the "grown up" versions (which I think have too much beading on one, and I don't like the orange print on the other)! I doubt they'd fit me well (though I typically wear an XS or S in JC tees) but thought I'd ask if anyone's tried....

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  30. i appreciate the extension of time in which i may change my order. however, this does not change the fact that jcrew may still cancel my order at any point because the website does not accurately reflect what merchandise is actually available for sale. so, while it is nice that i now have an hour to change my order, which is better than the twenty minutes i used to have, i would prefer for jcrew to just maintain an accurate inventory of their merchandise, which no other online retailer seems to have a problem with. i would also prefer that jcrew reserve items placed in my shopping cart for a certain amount of time (i don't know, let's just say an hour!!!) so that i have time to browse the website and place an entire all at once without having to worry that an item has sold out. perhaps this would eliminate the need for changing orders that have already been placed.

    honestly, considering all the problems jcrew has, this really seems like a low priority and there are certainly more important issues i think they should be worrying about.

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  31. I'm confused. Some of you are saying that you can delete single items from a pending order and add items, others of you are saying the only thing you can do is delete the entire order. I've never paid much attention but if it is possible to add items I would love to know how! And how to delete one item and not delete an entire order. If anyone can outline the steps, I'd appreciate it. As I said, I've never looked closely but as far as I can tell, the only option I've ever seen on that screen was "cancel order", which implies that the entire thing would go away.

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  32. I've been told by customer service that you can delete individual items, or the entire order but you cannot add items.

    However, if you do want to add an item you could always place a new order with all of the original items, plus the item that you want to add. And then, you delete the original order.

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  33. Slightly off topic: I was just browsing the Talbots website (not normally a shopper there, but I got a FABULOUS yellow tunic there last summer, and they have it in black this year)...and they have a feature on the product information page where you can "find it in a store/product locater". They will search the inventory of stores within 50 miles of your zipcode to see if it's in-stock! How *awesome* is that??? I can actually reserve it, drive over after work, and try it on. No wasted trips! THAT is great attention to customer service. I hope JCrew is listening....

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  34. 20 minutes is great and all but this is the THIRD time since the website has been upgraded that my order has mysteriously disappeared. The first time, I thought maybe I forgot to hit the final submit (even though I've been ordering things online for 12 years and NEVER forgot). The second time it was a sale item I didn't really care about, so never followed up with customer service. It seems to happen when there is an item in the order that is running low on stock - after I realize the order isn't in my account history, I look at the sale items again and it's always gone. Has anyone else had these problems. 9 months later and it looks like they're STILL having issues with the site besides the weird sorting and out of stock items still showing up.

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  35. I agree that the "sterile" look of the BR models on the website is a little off-putting and maybe even intimidating. The JC models, while also quite slender, appear much more real and personable. Might be the hair and makeup and lighting? Just a personal preference.

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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! :)