Peter C.

I've received a couple of shirts from this company as gifts. My brother and his wife sent me a faux long sleeve work shirt meant to be worn during the summer. It was well made with very thin cotton fabric. The light blue slightly distressed garment was made to look like an old comfortable shirt that had somehow managed to remain in my wardrobe past its expiration date. Sent as a gift to encourage my recovery from major surgery, this company mistakenly included an invoice with full pricing. The invoice should have gone to my brother. Also, the shirt should have been priced at about $30. I was shocked to see that it cost $90! With tax and $14 shipping and handling this $30 shirt cost my brother $111! I could have bought 2 or possibly even 3 shirts of equal quality at a Nordstrom sale. However, since it was a gift, I couldn't very well complain to my brother that the cost was ridiculous. So I sent a polite thank you note and decided not to worry about it. Not until I noticed a tear on the shirt front opposite the pocket. The package was not cut or ripped. The tear must have happened as it was folded and taken out of in stock for shipment. Since this is a casual and not a dress shirt, I decided one option was to get my dry cleaner to sew the hole shut. I wouldn't do that with a dress shirt, but for this distressed classic I thought I could get away with it.

After a week in bed slowly recovering, I decided to call the company. I got right through to a bright pleasant young woman in Cincinnati. Jalyn. After recounting the situation I told her I was not interested in packing up the shirt and mailing it back. Too much work required! I had already been disappointed and inconvenienced. I'm still spending most of my time in bed. I had the rep pull the invoice on her computer. She could see that my family had ordered more than a half dozen items in the last 2 years. I proposed that they send me another shirt for $50 and that we call it even. She had to consult her supervisor who rejected my proposal. He informed me through her that I would need to return the item. I repeated that I wasn't interested in doing that. I reminded them that their products were extremely expensive, and added that thinking "outside the box" might prevent a good account from leaving in this case. I asked the still friendly intelligent gal to imagine that this was her company. Wouldn't it make sense for her to do what it took to keep a profitable active account? They could do that by sending me another shirt at cost. But "no", their policy was to have me return the shirt. If I owned the company, I would have asked for a photo of the damage, and sent out another shirt with my apologies since my computer showed this to be an active account. Not the biggest, but a good account. Please "have another shirt on us" with my apology. Instead, they just went with the classic "there's no good reason, it's just corporate policy". They just lost the account.