Anthropologie is a delightful store. I don’t know a woman over the age of 15 who doesn’t love it. The store at least. Assuming their online experience would be as great as the brick & mortar, I foolishly placed an order. And then it never came.
I ordered a pair of shoes – oxford espadrilles I had already planned at least 10 outfits around – a bracelet, and a couple of other things. I received some curtains, a comb, a brush, and a book. When I called to rectify the situation the representative on the other end notified me that all of the items were sold out. BUT she could refund the entire order, including shipping. What great customer service – they’re not going to make me pay for something I didn’t get! A solution that is wholly unsatisfying to me.
But this shouldn’t just be problematic for me. Anthropologie has made a very important statement about their customer service philosophy: they don’t have to pay for their mistakes. Without penalty, a retailer has no incentive to offer better customer service. Take Sports Authority, for example. If the price rings up as greater than the price on the shelf, they’ll take $3 off the lower of the two prices. Because they have a monetary incentive you can bet all of their prices are correctly labeled. Anthropologie doesn’t seem to have any incentive to do better. It hasn’t cost them a cent that they didn’t send me what I ordered.
I once ordered a pair of shoes from a Kenneth Cole store that came damaged. At first they tried to blame it on UPS, but once they owned up to it they gave me a coupon for 20% off my next purchase. Not to sound crass, but in this type of situation “sorry” means a lot more when it comes with something.
At the very least, a retailer should set expectations for sale items (all the stuff I bought was on sale). Companies like J. Crew and Kate Spade offer “final sale” items, which I interpret to mean the prices are so low it’s no longer cost-effective for them to provide customer service. But at least they’re up front about it.
There is one industry, however, that has the same customer service practices as Anthropologie: the airlines! They oversell their product (seats on a plane) and then leave a few unlucky customers out in the cold. Anthropologie has sold all of their product, so they’re fine. I didn’t get what I paid for, but clearly that’s none of their concern.
PS: For the record, here are the shoes I am very unhappy about not getting:
PPS: After I tweeted about this Anthropologie DM’d me with an email address where I could try to get help, but no one has responded to me.
Update 1: This morning at 6:36am I received an email saying that they found the ring from my original order in a store, and were sending it to me. #Progress.
Update 2: At 9:00am I received a phone call from Brandie at Anthropologie, who told me they found the shoes in a store in Texas and were overnighting them to me. Jackpot!
In the end this is better customer service than I could have hoped for. The worst customer service experience I’ve had has now turned into the best. Anthropologie comes through!
What's your opinion?