Lucky Brand Customer Service Fail

I love Lucky Brand.

No no…you don’t understand. I REALLY love Lucky Brand.

To give you an idea of how much I love Lucky Brand, here are a couple photos of my current Lucky closet:

Here’s the grand tally:

• 7 pairs of jeans (of course not including the umpteen pairs I owned previously and were worn out or no longer fit)
• 2 pairs of shorts
• 3 hoodies
• 1 cardigan
• 1 sweater
• 3 tank tops
• 6 printed tees
• 1 dress
• 1 plaid button down
• 1 long sleeved embroidered tee
• 7 thermal henleys (yes, I know I have a problem…)
• 8 necklaces
• 3 bracelets
• 1 ring
• 11 pairs ofearrings
• 1 pair of shoes

I purchase Lucky Brand from many places, including the Lucky Brand store, of course, but also the Lucky Brand Outlet, luckybrand.com, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Nordstrom Rack. I also receive it frequently from family and friends as holiday and birthday gifts.

Now that we’ve established I have a brand obsession (or customer loyalty, if you will), you can understand how surprised and discouraged I was when I encountered their bullshit return policies.

Bullshit Lucky Brand Customer Service Policy #1: Lucky Brand Only Accepts Returns for Items Purchased at Lucky Brand Stores

Back in April, I purchased a couple pairs of jeans from the Lucky Brand outlet in Marysville. Strangely, the zippers on both pairs of pants broke within the same week. As I had no intention of driving all the way back to Marysville (about an hour each way), just for some zippers, I brought the pants by the local Lucky Brand store at University Village with the assumption that I could at least get them repaired. However, that was definitely IMPOSSIBLE. Apparently, if an item is purchased from a Lucky Brand outlet, the Lucky Brand store will not take any responsibility for faulty products.

The pants I brought in had obviously barely been worn, they were clearly Lucky Brand, and the zippers were clearly broken – yet all the sales staff could do was look at me blankly and say, “Well, we have an outlet in Marysville. You should take them there.”

I don’t have a lot of free time – certainly not enough of it to waste two hours on a couple broken zippers – so I took them to the alterations place and paid $30 to fix my brand new pants.

Bullshit Lucky Brand Customer Service Policy #2: Exchanges Should be EXTREMELY Difficult

A couple weeks ago, I ordered a graphic tee from luckybrand.com. The shirt was awesome and it was 30% off that day. I paid with PayPal. I ordered a size small because that’s what the size chart recommended and because all my other Lucky Brand graphic tees are smalls. When it arrived, it was just a bit too small. The shoulders were a little narrow and it didn’t fit well over my hips.

I called up the Lucky Brand store to see if they had the shirt in a medium, thinking I’d just pop over and try it on. They hadn’t received it yet and didn’t know if they would. No big deal, right? Just slap that return label on the box, fill out an exchange slip, and send it back for a medium! Again, a horrible assumption on my part.

• Fail: The return label didn’t provide the option of an exchange. So I called customer service to ask.
• Fail: The only way to talk to a real person on their customer service line is if you select option #1 – indicating intention to place an order. I finally got through to a real person – yay! (I’d like to note here that the representative I spoke with was incredibly helpful and friendly. He was also apologetic for all of the following bullshittery as Lucky Brand was his only client that had any of these messed up policies.)
• Fail: Apparently you can’t do a true exchange with items ordered online. If you want a different size you have to return the item you don’t want and then go back online to order the replacement.
• Fail: If you use the return label, they reduce $8 from your refund. This means, if the shirt you purchased was $38, you’ll only receive $30 as your refund because you used the provided return label. And no…I’m not joking. It actually says it in the fine print right on the label.
• Fail: If the item you originally purchased was on sale and you wish to exchange it for the same item at the same price, BUT that item is no longer on sale, the only way you can get your original price is by allowing Lucky Brand to charge you the current price and then refund the difference on a separate transaction.
• Fail: Unfortunately, any type of refund for purchases made online only applies to customers who paid directly with their credit cards. They cannot refund customers who paid with PayPal. FML.
• WTF: Wait wait…customers who paid with PayPal can get a refund if they go into a Lucky Brand store to make a return.

After 45 minutes on the phone with customer service, the final resolution was this:

1. Place an order over the phone for the full priced shirt.
2. Receive a refund for the amount of the original discount a few days later.
3. Take the too-small shirt to the Lucky Brand store so that I could return it.

I am so irritated by this ridiculous experience that I think it might be time to sever  ties with one of my favorite brands.

Dear Lucky Brand,

Welcome to the twenty-first century where shopping online is supposed to be easy and returns/exchanges should be no big deal. These policies were clearly written with the company’s best interest in mind – and not mine, your very loyal customer.

I am so discouraged by your recent treatment of me that I am seriously considering terminating our long-term relationship, which I see now has been entirely one-sided. This saddens me, as I know winter is coming and I’ll have to brave it without a new, cozy thermal henley. It’s ok, I’ll console myself elsewhere. I’m sure Anthropologie will set me up with something just as cozy, just as cute, and with a much better customer service.

Love,

Meg