My Breakup with Zara

I usually don’t do this, but in this case, I had to say something publicly because I am so disappointed in a company that I’ve had a long, seemingly happy relationship with for years.

Here’s the situation: last week, I bought a pair of $80 shoes that were as kick ass as could be. I didn’t think about how close it was to “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday”. In any case, I bought those bad boys and wore them a day later, of course getting compliments on them everywhere I went (even if just to CVS). I just so happened to look online for any upcoming Cyber Monday deals and I thought, well let’s see what Zara has to offer; low and behold, I found those same shoes on sale for $50! “Ok, customer service isn’t open this late, so I’ll call in the morning”, I thought. That’s important because later they will say that since it’s ‘sold out’ online and in the stores that they can’t do anything about it. How the hell was I supposed to get this resolved in the middle of the night?

Well, when it came time to call Zara, not only was I transferred 5 times between customer service, corporate and the Santa Monica store (because apparently one doesn’t have control over the other and vice versa – I call bullshit), but they told me that their systems were not set up for a price adjustment. Now, I could have been a complete bitch and just cleaned the bottoms off of the shoes (because they had been worn), put them back in their box with their tags (because I do save tags for a few weeks in case of something like this) and marched right into the store, taken them back then rebought them. But it just wasn’t worth my time. Instead, I thought being the ‘great’ company I thought they were, they would make an exception for this loyal customer and credit me back the measly $30. You know what they told me? After ‘reviewing the situation’, they called me back and said ‘The only thing we can do to resolve this situation is have you send the shoes back to the online store for a full refund’. Umm, how is that resolving the situation in the slightest? You want me to TAKE BACK an item I wanted? THAT’S your solution? Of course I asked for a manager multiple times; and guess what…none available…shock.  That’s when I took to writing about it, because I’m tired of big companies treating us little people like shit. $30 bucks to Zara isn’t shit compared to what that $30 means to me. But even that’s beside the point.

As women, we develop relationships with our favorite brands. Hell, I just endorsed Zara after someone asked me on my blog about where to get a particular kind of pant. But when something as small as a $30 credit could have resolved this situation, it’s also $30 that causes a situation as big as this that could make me as a loyal customer feel betrayed, just like in a relationship. And that’s what it is (well, was)…a relationship between loyal customer and company brand. However, as in any relationship, sometimes there is a situation where the other party shows you their true colors.

Now, this is going to be a bad breakup, because like most of those, you usually go back for a late-night booty call hoping they will prove you wrong. So I may have the urge to shop there again, but I will try hard as hell not to go back to a place that has wronged me, not over something so small.

You know what, maybe this is all my fault. I shouldn’t have been as thoughtless as to buy ANYTHING right before Black Friday. But I did, and for that I take responsibility. But I also know, after having worked in retail for 5 years, that a company can do MANY things to ‘makeup’ to a customer how they ‘wronged’ him/her. But Zara didn’t even try with me. They basically gave me a “fuck off” response. What about a ‘20% coupon off your next purchase’ or a ‘$10 off coupon’ – shit, I would have been happy with that and that wasn’t even half of what I was asking for back. But you live and you learn. Thanks Zara for proving to me how wrong I was about you.