Today was a day like any other.
I wasn't working today and felt a little lethargic so made myself get up, do stuff, then get out of the house.
A couple of months ago I travelled to a factory outlet shop with a friend and purchased a couple of items of clothing.
One shirt I bought I rather liked...I could wear it with jeans, dress up pants or a skirt if I wished.
I loved the colours and it fitted well with my sense of 'style'.
The top was worn twice and being the pedantic person I am...a bit of O.C.D there too no doubt I washed it gently in between wears as I just love the perfume and feel of freshly laundered clothes.
Instructions on the label said to gently handwash, hang away out of the sun and iron with a warm iron.
This I did without question.
Not two weeks ago, I brought it out of the wardrobe for yet another wear and put it on thinking I looked tres chic and all of that.
Halfway through the evening, which was a group mingling of sorts I actually felt the material fray in my hands.
To my dismay I looked down at a front panel and saw a gigantic rip...it appeared that the material had just disintegrated, and so, for the remainder of the evening I clutched my bag in front of me to hide the tear.
You can imagine my dismay when I returned home and gave the top a closer inspection and found throughout the fabric a number of areas that were just holding it together so to speak. Any pressure on the remaining intact material would cause it to separate and create even more tears.
Initially I was at a loss as to what to do. I felt the store would not listen to my complaint (past experience made me think this) but I actually emailed the company and stated my case. They replied with a reasonably terse..."Well, we will have to leave it to the manager of the store to decide". No apology about their material quality or anything, and so today I took the bull between the horns (figuratively speaking) and took the top back to the store.
The lady I spoke to could not have been any more pleasant than she was and very gracefully apologised for my inconvenience...(I had to travel 40 kms. to get there I might add).
I was given a choice of a refund or a replacement and I took the replacement as I do love the shirt and its colours so time will tell if this one will deteriorate before my eyes also.
The long and the short of this story though is that even if you feel disempowered and that you have no rights...you actually do have the right to state your case and make a complaint...even in the nicest possible way.
I did...and I got my shirt back intact.
So, ladies and gents...this was a win for the consumer!
A great post Jen. It's hard at times not feeling empowered and getting intimidated by the responses of shop keepers. This is just gr8, you have encouraged me to keep going and keep up this walk of being secure in my own skin. Believing that I can have a voice and be heard
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