Foreign Exchange

If I could give it zero stars, I would! My family and I had the worst customer service experience ever here yesterday! I LOVE to shop and up until yesterday, I liked shopping at this store. I had to return an item I purchased the week prior and I had another accessory that literally broke as soon as I put it on (a flower headband, the flower fell off the first time I was gonna wear it. Pic to follow). I asked to speak to the manager because they said they do not exchange or return accessories and I thought maybe the manager could see the defective item and may be able to do something about it. She didn’t seem to care, simply stating «it was policy» so I proceeded with my return.
She asked for the credit card that the dress was purchased with and unfortunately my mom had it elsewhere in the mall. I told the «manager» (and I use that term loosely) I will find the card and will come back to complete the return. A few hours of shopping at other stores go by and my husband and I finally found my mom with the credit card needed for the return at Foreign Exchange. We head back to the store and asked the girl behind the counter to assist us in the return, my mom, husband, aunt and myself. She looked confused and said «Oh only the managers can do returns and they are both out to lunch.» Really? The only two people that could do returns were both out to lunch at the same time? BAD MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES! Heaven forbid 10 people came in with returns and a line of people had to wait for them to finish their lunch. Since I guess there was only 4 customers waiting it was OK. Unfathomable in retail to let that happen.
I own my own business and have worked in retail in my youth and I have NEVER heard of keeping the customer waiting to do a simple return. We waited a total of 25 – 30 minutes before it was all over. The sales girl said that they should be back soon, and I asked her to call the manager to let her know that I was here earlier and we don’t have time to come back and forth as the mall was closing in an hour and we still had a lot of shopping to do. She called the manager and get this… the two managers come from the back. The manager I was dealing with earlier looks at the register and says, «WE HAVE A STRICT POLICY OF WORKING OFF CLOCK. WE HAVE TEN MORE MINUTES ON OUR LUNCH BREAK. I WILL HELP YOU GUYS OUT IN 10 MINUTES.»
Seriously?! My mom, who has a short fuse, says why cant you take one minute to help out a customer? TO which the manager robotically replied «IT IS COMPANY POLICY NOT TO WORK OFF CLOCK.» My mom responded with «You are so immature» to which the manager turned around and walked away to finish her lunch break. Sooooo RUDE! I’m sure when the policy writers of Foreign Exchange wrote that so called policy not to work off clock they did not intend for the customers to be neglected in pursuit of adhering to that policy.
Here is the kicker, when she comes out she was not even apologetic. I mentioned that I worked for Nordstrom back in the day. The «manager» said you worked in retail you know you can’t work off clock. To which I replied, when I worked at Nordstrom we took Customer Service very seriously. She said «WE DO HERE TOO.» At this point my mom loses it and screams that she should be fired. My husband who is the kindest man ever, was irritated. Even after my mom left, the manager was being very combative and snippy with her remarks.
I was speaking with a very calm voice but I let her know that I was very dissatisfied. I told her that one day I hope that she received the same treatment from a sales person when she is out shopping with her family so she knows our frustration and she responds, «Oh, I have, PLENTY OF TIMES.» My husband said, «Really? Cause this is the first time for me.» If she has experienced that type of frustration before, why would she want to put her customers through it? As we left we could hear her running her mouth about how HER store would be OK without our business, and justifying her bad behavior to her co workers. I refuse to shop here until that manager no longer works there. I have trained businesses in Customer Service and this will be one of the «bad examples» I will be using in future presentations. I hope the right people read this and make a change in «the policy» or personnel. People like her have no place in retail and as long as she treats customers in that manner, this store will continue to lose patrons.