ATHLETA SUPPORTER — The Consumer Playbook

When I was a little girl, shopping with my mother was a special event. At around age 4, my mother would get me dressed up—a dress, simple but elegant coat, and patent leather shoes. And the white gloves—my mother always reminded me that “A lady always wears gloves”. And off we would go, on the trolley, to the wondrous department stores. To my young eyes, they were huge palaces. There were Gimbels, Wanamaker’s, Strawbridge and Clothier, and probably a few more that I don’t remember. We’d have lunch at Chock Full O’Nuts. I loved the hot dogs, served with mustard that the waitress scooped on the side with a flat wooden paddle. My mother would order a cream cheese and walnut sandwich, and of course, coffee. Trekking through the stores, we would always come home with something—pretty clothes, shoes, hats.
In the current world of online ordering, clothes shopping isn’t the experience that it used to be. It’s less fun, and it’s rare for me to walk out of a store with a clothing purchase. Either they don’t have the selection in the store, my size is missing, or there’s some other obstacle to an in-store purchase. What I wouldn’t give to go back to the old days, rather than ordering online. But, Athleta has been an exception to my usual experience. I've actually been able to walk out with real in-store purchases. Though recently, a snafu in the store created a problem. Hellbent to buy a jacket at a sale price, I plowed forward to resolution.
On a recent shopping trip, I found a jacket on a Sale rack. This was a good sale—reduced price and an additional 20% off. At the register, the associate told me that the jacket wasn’t on sale in the color I wanted, and the price was $158 rather than $82.39. She said that a customer must have left it on the Sale rack by mistake. I explained that this didn’t make sense—there were several jackets in this color in several sizes, spaced along the rack—a very high rack. I had even needed help to reach it. This constellation of issues made it unlikely that a customer randomly put it there in error. Given the circumstances, I asked for a price match. The manager offered 20% off. This didn’t come near the sale price, so I walked out without the jacket.
Wait a minute! I wanted the jacket. When there is a random error, it really isn’t the responsibility of the store to honor the Sale price. But this was different. What to do? Go up the ladder, of course. But how?
Since I had bought a top that day, the computer gremlins who know where you are at all times had sent me an email survey. In the comment section of the survey, I explained the problem, and asked for a manager call to arrange a price match. What do you know—no call, but I did receive an email response. They sent me a $20 voucher, and stated:
"Though we will typically follow the pricing in our registers, if we find there is an error, we empower our leadership to do what is best for the customer. We are concerned to hear that this was not what you encountered and we apologize for any frustration this caused you.”
They went on to say that I could call Customer Service to address the details, and they gave me a Work Order number so that the issue would be on record. I called Customer Service. After a very long wait, I reached someone who couldn’t help me, but said that she would transfer me to someone who could. I ended up in a Customer Service survey, without reaching a live person.
End of story?—of course not. I wrote back to Customer Service, expressed annoyance with the waste of time (an added lapse on their part) and asked for a call back and a real resolution. They wrote back and asked for the details about the jacket and the price that I expected to pay so that “we can reach out to the store to see what options are available to you”.
I did receive a voice mail message, though without a direct line to the associate. Damn! When will these Customer Service centers make it easy? They won’t. I did call back, asked for a supervisor, and reached Amber, who wasn’t helpful. Despite my quoting the email about doing “what’s best for the customer”, along with the logic of my argument, she sent me another $20 voucher (which was nice), but said that no one could reach out to the store manager to match the sale price.
At this point, was the jacket really that important? No. But could I give up? Of course not. I decided to add one more email to the existing chain. I summarized my latest experience, reminded them of their talk about empowering leadership and looking for options to resolve the issue., and said:
"Please clarify whether someone can reach out to the store, which seems to be the appropriate next step.” At this point, I’ve experienced another excessive waste of time, reaching a supervisor who didn’t understand the issue, reviewing the issue again, ad nauseum. However, I would prefer to speak with someone at a higher level who could address the poor service I’ve experienced and take the appropriate next step of talking with the store in order to resolve the issue.
Surprise, surprise! I received a call from Customer Service, letting me know that store management had been alerted, and would honor the Sale price. I now own this cute and versatile little jacket.
What Did I Do To Achieve My Goal?
1) I followed up after the in-store experience by using the current modus operandi—survey and email.
2) I had a logical explanation for the snafu, with an appropriate request for resolution.
3) I attempted to go through the Customer Service protocol. When that failed, I went further.
4) I used Customer Service email language to reinforce the fact that Athleta had the ability to rectify the problem.
5) As usual, I persisted.
LOGIC AND PERSISTENCE ARE A WINNING COMBINATION!
HAPPY SHOPPING!