CONSUMER ADVICE THREAD

thx for the advice elmo--weve been very measured and open so far, and made sure to stress that wed be happy to just accept a replacement dress--and it seemed like the one girl was going to give it to us until she consulted w/ another manager (corny)

i know how fascinated u are with this saga so ill make sure 2 update

btw jenny's idea of writing to corporate level isn't a bad one -- anyone higher up the chain is way more likely to grant your request than somebody dealing with daily operations, if for the simple fact that occupying the time of a regional manager or whatever will cost them more in payroll than the sale of the dress is worth to them

the problem now is finding the corporate masters

did you ever get this sorted? opening ceremony doesnt really have "corporate masters" though, so curious to know what happened

not really, no. Ari sent a letter to the guy who owns the store outlining the situation along the lines Elmo outlined but we never heard back.

It is what it is; I'm not sure we had a strong case for a refund but it was so frustrating that this one girl was abou to replace the dress until another mgr told her not to

yeah, it would have been nice of them to let you exchange it for the one that was on further sale, but i dont think they really were obligated to do anything. wonder which mgr it was. im sorta acquainted with the OC owners/staff (but not well enough to intervene on your behalf, unfortunately...)

the idea that the consumer is a pariah, has no voting power with their dollar, and is forced to endure abysmal service (often for important services) because of endless mergers and mega-corporations who are so rich to not give a fuck...isn't mind-blowing, and quite possibly *tReNcHaNt*.

but when did this begin? Like, I complained about customer service more than a decade ago, but it was better then, at least I could reach people and get problems resolved. Nowadays, you get treated like a nuisance and given few channels to get problems fixed.

like, some of the shit is small-scale, like, I don't give a fuck if someone gives me a quarter pounder instead of a double quarter pounder, but like earlier this year, I had a debit card company inactivate one of my debit cards from my COVID study. reissuing it, which should have been easy, took four months, because they had an old address for me, and claimed only my study could update it, and my study said "we have no idea how to do that", and they sent me in a circle until I contacted the office of the Attorney General of the state they were in.

I had no access to $400 worth of money! It was important, and it wasted probably 50 hours or more of my time.

anyway just curious as to where we think the model shifted to customer triage vs customer service (I know different countries have different experiences, so no need to make this US-centric)

https://inews.co.uk/news/consumer/shein-fast-fashion-workers-paid-3p-18-hour-days-undercover-filming-china-1909073