blogger profile

Margaret Pilarski

editorial assistant

i'm a feminist, and if you're reading this then you are too, you just might not know it yet. i like to eat cheese and travel, but i'm usually broke and/or spending my money on shoes and cocktail rings. i love dogs, rain, and driving offensively (and putting the last comma in a listed series). i'm se...

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customer service lessons

the other day, in one hour i had two very different shopping-related customer experiences. (yes, even while sitting at my desk)

first – over a month ago, i made one of those ‘drunk with style’ mass purchases on jcrew.com. i know they send me those 30% off! last chance! more styles added! emails on purpose because they know i click through and make hypothetical shopping bags with $487 worth of goodies that i envision myself wearing to nonexistent stylish galas and greek isle cruises. then sometimes i narrow my shopping bag to $215. sometimes i get it to $135. then occasionally i buy what’s in my now much more realistic bag.

and that’s what i did one july day... i bought two cardigans and two dresses. but i only ever received one cardigan and the two dresses... i emailed. no response. a few days later i got one of those mass “with our apologies” emails – apparently, many other shoppers who had been sucked into the weekend sale vortex were also having troubles receiving their actual order. so i got an apology email. no explanation and offensively, no apology coupon! i have JUST (one month later) received an email saying that my other sweater is on its way and i hope you were expecting it because we just charged $40 to your credit card without telling you! ah well, another sweater. yippee.

second – after pining for lush leather boots to fit my chicken legs, i flew 3000 miles to get them (okay and for a wedding, but for the boots too) at duo boots in the uk. i bought two fabu pairs and a few days after buying them, a tassel fell off of the zipper pull of one pair. so the other day, i emailed one of the shops and explained what had happened and asked if they had spare tassels that they could mail to me (silly, but not out of the question i hoped). this morning i received a personal email from the store manager where i purchased the boots saying:

“I have been given your details by our colleagues in London.. First of all, I am very sorry to hear that your Florence tassels have broken already after such a short time... I am in the process of trying to find some spare tassels for you but I am waiting to hear back from our warehouse before I can confirm that we have a spare pair. I do not anticipate this will be a problem...”

how refreshingly normal!

so in the end – hurray duo, boo jcrew.

(but small hurray for silk-linen swing cardigan that i may be receiving this week)