Elena C.
4/5
Oh, where to begin with this story.. I had purchased some pants July 22nd. Beautiful cream wide leg cargo pants. After about two wears a hole began to develop in a very strange spot - these were cargo pants, no premade holes and this hole was developing in a low stress area on the pants. It was very clear that this was some manufacturing error/defect. This was very upsetting to me, I had treated myself to these pants and for them to start ripping in this weird area was so upsetting for $80 pants that I had worn twice. As any 20 year old girl in distress would do, I went to my mom to complain because I have, for the past however many years, always preached Cotton On to my family. Cotton On is always number one on recommended brands for my Christmas wishlist and I was so upset that these pants seemed to have defective quality. My mom assured me that she would try to help me - so together we called the store location from which the pants were bought. (Westfarms Mall, West Hartford, CT) This manager we spoke to informed us that she could do absolutely not one thing about it - it was out of her power. She said if we don’t have tags on it anymore, she couldn’t help. She directed us to call the general Cotton On customer service number. We proceeded to call this number and had a very non constructive, unhelpful, frustrating conversation. The representative was repeating the same information, telling us there was absolutely nothing SHE could do and that we would have to call the store. She refused to acknowledge the fact that we had just called the store (who directed us to her) and was getting noticeably annoyed. Meanwhile we kept very calm composure. In the middle of my mother speaking, this lady slammed the phone and hung up on us. My mom and I sat for 20 seconds straight silent just mouth open so surprised and shocked. I’ve always thought my experience with Cotton On was positive and lighthearted but here we were asking for help and being met with anything but. About a week later we called Customer Service back and actually got somewhere - they said if we went in person to the location we bought the pants from, THEN called the customer service line, THEN they could help us. So there we go to the store, explain the story to a lovely manager named Steffany - who first apologize before trying to help. This whole misadventure has now taken about 2 months and this is the first apology we’ve gotten from anyone. We were only able to return the pants after being on a 30 minute phone call with Customer Service that was about 10x more complicated than it had to be. During this 30-40 minute phone call, we giggled while reading the advertisement that was advertising… wait for it(this is not a joke) unlimited returns regardless of the reason (I’m serious) with any proof of purchase (I’m still not joking). We brought proof of purchase but Steffany said it still wouldn’t let her - I don’t blame her for this I’m sure it actually wouldn’t let her. Anyways, all the while during the phone call Steffany was assuring us she’ll do everything she can. To be SO clear, I was ready to never shop at this store again if this issue did not get resolved and the only reason this is not a 1 star review is because of Steffany. She informed us that she had only been working there for a month which was absurd to me considering she was being more helpful than the 3 other employees we had spoken to and only had been there a mere month. So thank you to Steffany and to Cotton On I just want to say please train more people like Steffany, our knight in shining armor. And maybe try to have everyone on the same page. I love your clothes but if I have to make 10 phone calls to return one pair… cmon. I was so upset for so many weeks about these stupid pants that I loved so I’m glad that after a month, my blood sweat and tears, and going through 3 different representatives of Cotton On, that I was able to return 1 measly pair of pants. I did love them though.
