The American Apparel floral stretch lace bra. I own 5. It's only a matter of time before they fall apart.
I am trying to promise myself I will never shop at American Apparel again. I know that will be hard, because I am addicted to some of their stuff, but I am SICK to death of their crappy quality and even worse customer service. Every time I have to exchange an item of clothing there, because it is faulty, I get scared. Because I know it will be a battle with the (often) rude sales staff to get a replacement product. It has happened THREE times. The third time is the last.
The first time it was in the Downtown Vancouver store, and the manager was possibly the rudest, most ignorant person I have ever met in my entire life. I had to battle with him for half an hour to exchange my shirt (which, after one wear, had stretched to gargantuan proportions, and it was not meant to be oversized.) The idiotic manager had the nerve to suggest to me that I had put it into the dryer, which is “not allowed.” He clearly does not know the basics of laundry, because if you put something into the dryer, IT SHRINKS, not stretches. The second time it was in London, and the sales girl didn’t want to exchange a lace bra because I had cut off the tags. Sorry that I don’t want big white labels on my black lace bra. And the third time was Tuesday… (actually, Tuesday was the fourth time. I did return a faulty garment to the store on 4th avenue once, and the girl happily exchanged it, although the problem here is the fact that I have had to return four items to American Apparel for being faulty, out of about 40 pieces I own. That is not a good percentage)
The American Apparel floral stretch lace panty. Sob! What a mistake buying 12 of them!
On Tuesday I had to return a pair of lace panties that had fallen apart at the seam. I stupidly bought about 15 pieces from their lace lingerie line at once, because I loved them so much, and have had to echange three of them so far. I explained that they were faulty, and wanted to exchange them. She said they didn’t exchange underwear. I told her it was faulty, and it is their responsibility to give me a new one. She asked for the receipt. I told her I didn’t have one (I don’t keep lingerie receipts, since you can’t exchange them.) This argument went on for about 20 minutes, in which I had to go out to refill the metre on my car twice. She even called her manager, who wanted to know the DATE I had bought them (as if I remembered. ) I then had to call the Montreal head office (from my cell phone), be transfered twice, and the someone finally arranged for me to get a new pair of panties. All this hassle and stress, to replace a faulty piece of merchandise.
I am sick of their crappy quality and I am sick of their non-existent customer service. Actually, I can almost deal with the crappy quality, because I love the shapes so much, but I have to be secure in the knowledge that the company will take responsibility for this and actually exchange a faulty product. Without hassle.
A pile of my American Apparel underwear. That's not including all the clothing I own.
Sorry American Apparel, but you are losing a good customer. I write about how much I love you ALL THE TIME. I support your dress codes and your policies. And I own 3 dresses, 5 pairs of shorts, 2 skirts, 5 t-shirts, a giant pile of underwear, and more. I deserve better than this.
Has anyone else had similar problems with them?
(If my readers are wondering why the hell I own so much underwear from them, it is because they do the best basic, everyday underwear. You can’t wear LaPerla to the gym, now can you?)
- – - – UPDATE – - – -
American Apparel have VERY quickly responded to this post with an apology and a promise to address the issue in the retail stores and the factory. I am glad, I don’t want the break up to be permanent, but I never want to deal with their crappy customer service again. Let’s see what happens.
