Service Untitled

A few days before Christmas, I went shopping at the mall with my friend and her daughter. One of the  favorite stops for her daughter is Abercrombie and Fitch; of course, it caters to the fashionable, modern collegiate lifestyle. My friend’s daughter is very petite, barely standing five feet tall and being a gymnast who is also very slim, wears either a size “O” or a size “OO”.

Immediately, a pair of pale blue designer jeans in size “OO” catches her eye. So off we went to the dressing room, but the store was very crowded and the two dressing rooms in the rear of the store had a waiting line. There were no sales people available, so we wandered over to the front of the store and noticed two vacant  dressing rooms. My friend’s daughter slipped underneath the locked door while her mother and I went in search of a sales person.

When we found a sales representative, she told us we could not use the dressing rooms in front of the store, and we would have to wait in line. As she took the jeans to hold them until one of the two dressing rooms was vacant, she told us the jeans were not for sale since size “OO” were only used on the mannequins, and someone had made a mistake by hanging the jeans on a rack for sale.

My friend’s daughter then asked about a leather belt. Again, the only “extra small” was on the mannequin, and again she was denied the merchandise even though she asked why the sales person just could not replace the belt on the mannequin? Needless to say how disappointed the shopping experience was that day.

Perhaps Abercrombie and Fitch would have better served us  if they had more sales people available on such a busy shopping day immediately before Christmas. Their reputation indicates they hire more sales staff than needed on a daily basis and since sales people are used on a rotational basis,  increasing the sales force would have allowed more dressing rooms to be made available.

As to the jeans in the extra small size, I can appreciate the need to keep the mannequins well fitted, but these jeans were  on the rack, even if by error, and not needed to be on any display mannequin. Abercrombine enforced a policy that essentially made no difference (and inconvenienced a customer) on principle.

Also, as to the belt, I think it would have been a well-intentioned decision to take the belt that my friend’s daughter wanted off the mannequin and replaced it with another belt. Afterall, isn’t that what customer service is about?

photo credit: kevinspencer

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