January 21, 2011

Quality Control Issues and Customer Response


I bought a dress from Urban Outfitters back in October and am having a dilemma. Although the dress is very cute, the button loop at the neckline broke immediately and after I laundered it (exactly according to the care instructions, although I did not tumble dry like it said I could for fear of shrinking) the already short dress shrunk considerably. Now I realize it was not the world's most expensive dress. But even for $44 I expected it to hold up for longer than 2 short (dinner-length) wears and 1 wash!

I am still within the holiday return window and need to decide whether I should take the dress to the store or call and ask if I can mail it back due to defects. Or should I just eat the money and be annoyed? What would you do?

Do you ever feel timid about asking retailers to stand by their products? I normally wouldn't but the idea of staring the hip Urban Outfitter customer service staff in the face, explaining that "I simply cannot wear a butt-displaying former-dress-now-tunic, therefore I want a refund," makes me nervous.

This entire experience is also a lesson about the futility of buying cute but cheap thrills. It is a lesson I have learned too many times over!

9 comments:

St Germain said...

Uh, for sure I would return it. If you have a store nearby, I'd take it there so that you can show them what happened. THe button loop alone is reason enough to return (both b/c broken and b/c signifies quality problem). If you would rather mail, I'd call the 800 # and explain the situation and ask what they can do.

St Germain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Karlye said...

Yes, return the dress. Don't eat the money and be annoyed. As a consumer, you have to your own advocate. Good luck!

M. (formerly known as Shakespeare's Feminine Ending) said...

Call them. Call customer service and tell them what happened and ask to be compensated. And then report back. On your blog. Repeatedly.

roxyturtle said...

I try to balance out the time I'll spend getting my money back against the return cost. To me, $44 is worth it. But if it were $20 or under I'd probably just eat it.

Jessica said...

I'd return and I wouldn't feel badly about getting on my sassy horse at all. If you're laundering items to their care instructions and it doesn't maintain the integrity of the item, it's UO's fault.

...off my sassy horse.

(Drop by! I have a giveaway right now for a fab necklace!)

A Stylized Hysteria said...

I agree with Roxy. If it's a store notorious for lukewarm customer service and/or a very inexpensive item, I'd just deal with it. But in this case, I'd go into a store and ask for a refund. I bet you get it- let us know!

jess s said...

do not keep that dress! they sell garbagey clothes because there are no repercussions for selling garbagey clothes. return it immediately! consider clothing companies like lands end that you can return items to after 10 years of wearing them. they aren't my style, but i almost wish they were so i could stop buying disposable crap. timbuk2 will take back a bag due to manufacturing defects no matter how many years you have used it. companies like that build their merchandise to last. anyway, we bought some furniture from the UO website and it was damaged in shipping. they were hella nice, helpful and accommodating, but i never would have kept a defective or damaged piece of merchandise. $44 is a lot of money for something that contributed like $1 worth of value to your life.

Jennifer said...

Unless you can make the now tunic dress work for you, take it back. Companies need to stand behind their products.

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