A Customer Service Story

A while back, the Mrs. and I were at the mall. Typically we go our separate ways when shopping, because she finds waiting around while I shop boring, and I feel the same way about waiting for her to shop. But in this instance we stayed together for a while; it's possible that we were getting something we needed for the house.

We headed into J. Crew, which is not a store where the Mrs. has interest in shopping, so she was getting ready to leave me and go off on her own. This particular store is L-shaped and has an entrance on either end. One enters onto their children's section, which is not in many stores. As we were passing through into the adult part of the store, I spotted a straw hat on a shelf. It looked like an adult man's panama hat, but smaller, with a narrow brim and a madras plaid decorative band. I grabbed it and put it on her head.

She's not a hat lover, but it looked cute. She stepped over to a mirror to see for herself and said, "I think it's actually a little big." I took a look inside and saw that it was sized L/XL. (Being so short, she is sometimes able to fit into children's clothing, depending on how it's cut, so a kid's hat isn't a stretch either.) Later I looked up the hat on the J. Crew web site. The smaller size was backordered, but looked like it would be available in time for her birthday, so I added it to an order I was placing.

Earlier this week, I received an email from J. Crew telling me that the hat had shipped, somewhat earlier than I'd expected it, so this was good news. I didn't bother looking at the tracking info, because I figured it would be several days before it arrived. Yesterday a coworker brought a box to me. It was from J. Crew, but it was a flat rectangular box, three inches high, the kind of box you'd receive a shirt or pair of pants in. It was also very light. As my coworker handed me the box, he said "You got a box of air."

I opened it and found the hat inside, squished down to fit. There was also a loop of rigid foam resting on the brim and surrounding the crown. I suppose this was meant to prevent the hat from being misshapen from the side, which seemed rather ironic considering its condition. The hat is made of straw, so I was more or less able to reshape the crown into something resembling its original state, but the brim had been muckled as well, and would not return to its proper shape.

At first I figured I would just stop at the Copley store on my way home from work and exchange the hat, but then I remembered that that store doesn't carry the kid's line. The only stores around here that do are in suburban malls. I probably wouldn't be able to get the Mrs. to drive me to the mall without explaining why or without her seeing the hat. So I wrote an email to J. Crew customer service.

I sent the email yesterday (at 4:45 PM, according to my account) and included my cell phone number. As I was getting ready to leave work, my phone buzzed. I didn't recognize the number, so I thought, could this be J. Crew calling me? I answered, and it was. It took them less than 15 minutes to contact me. The service rep acknowledged that the way the hat was packed was a mistake, and described it as "insane" that someone would put a hat into a flat box. He said they were sending me another one overnight, and would include a label so I could return the other hat.

It arrived a short while ago, along with a handwritten note from the rep who assisted me. This is certainly very impressive customer service, a genuine and emphatic effort to resolve a situation to my satisfaction, which J. Crew has indeed done. Thank you, J. Crew, for attending to this so quickly and pleasantly. You made me a very happy customer.