Anthropologie

I always felt this way about Anthropologie until the past few weeks. I have 2 incidents in particular that have made me come to the saddening decision that I will never shop at this store again & it makes me tear up to say this. The first is w/ trying to obtain my Registry Gift List. I had recently been married in June 2022 & had received several items from guests; however, most of the packages did not depict whom had purchased these items. Also, some of these items were never received. I tried for months to either receive a list of whom had purchased what & when I can expect the rest of the items that had been purchased by guests, but I never have received any updates to alleviate my issues. When going into the stores, the employees try to be helpful, but they too were unsure on how to resolve my issue.

My second issue pertains to: trying to make an online purchase thru their website for my Grandfather's Induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame this past weekend. However, each time I had tried placing the order, w/in 12-24 hrs, the order was cancelled. I would receive an email notifying me: The order was cancelled; however, it did not disclose to me why the order was cancelled. The first 2 times I placed the order, I thought it was due to my bank account or was the wrong billing address. So, I tried again, & it continued to not work. After the third cancellation, I decided to reach out to customer service. Unbeknownst to me, my account was put on hold. Although Customer was extremely kind & helpful, they were unable to see why my orders continued to be cancelled. What was depicted to me was they would file a record to have someone reach out to me w/in 24-48 hrs & if I don't, to call Customer Service again.

I did exactly as told & after 48 hrs, I had called them back & conducted the same steps. I continued to do these steps for 3 weeks. After the third week, I explained the situation to another very kind Customer Service Representative named Devin, & instead of filing a record, he provided me the phone # to call to resolve the "Account Hold." After thanking Devin for his assistance, I reached out to the phone # given. However, unlike my previous experiences w/ kind & helpful Customer Service Representatives, I was greeted immediately w/ an extremely Rude, Disrespectful & Accusatory Dispute Representative. Again, unbeknownst to me, my account was put on hold for an order that was shipped to the wrong address months ago:

Months ago: My husband & I had just been married & moved into my grandfathers' home in Indiana. We were a few days in & had my brother-in-law's wedding w/in a week & a Family Mountain House Trip immediately following. Since we had just moved from TX to IN, we didn't have any idea where our swimsuits were. So, I had decided to order this very cute, unique & sophisticated bikini from Anthro. When going thru Checkout I use PayPal because it has all of my CC & banking info needed to easily complete my purchase. To this tho, since we had just moved to my grandfather's house, I physically typed into PayPal & double checked on Anthro's website: my shipping address matched my grandfather's address (since we just got there 2 days ago) & I ensured my billing address matched my previous housing address since I had not updated my billing address for my bank accounts.

After double checking this info multiple times, I hit submit on the order. The website stated my order was placed & I would receive the items in time to our traveling down for my brother-in-law's wedding/Mt. House Trip. However, a few days later when out shopping for some housing goods, I had noticed the order was being shipped to an outdated address & billed to an outdated address from >4 yrs.

I immediately called Anthro's Customer Service, explained to them I know I did not enter the wrong address because I had typed in the new address & double checked both PayPal & Anthro prior to hitting submit order & the Rep. was very calm & handled the situation perfectly. She had stated to me "There was nothing that she could do from her end since the product had already shipped. This happens all the time w/our systems where if there's a new address added or if there's a glitch in the system, it can sometimes refer to an old address which this appears to be that case. It's completely fine - What I recommend you do is to see if you can retrieve the package myself or from a friend or if not applicable to contact your CC company & notify them that I had not received my package due to being sent to the wrong address. This way you can get your money back from the order & not be punished for it."

After thanking her for her help & assurance, I followed the steps as she had stated: I sent my family over to my previous address - which failed. Then, I had reached out to PayPal & notified them the package was sent to the wrong address. PayPal issued me a refund & I didn't hear a thing from Anthro until I reached out to the Dispute Representative that's now referring to this incident.

As stated above the Dispute Rep. was extremely Rude, Disrespectful & Accusatory. His response to my asking why my account was on hold was: "Ma'am you placed an order & after receiving your order decided to return the order & submitted a dispute w/ your PayPal Account that you never received the order when you clearly did. Are you ready to pay for the amount you owe?" I was taken aback by what I was accused of & calmly stated to him: What happened w/ what I disclosed above in hopes there might be some understanding.

After my explanation, the Dispute Rep stated well "Ma'am our systems never glitch, no, yeah, You, put that address in & You Must Pay for your mistakes & these are the consequences you face when You decide to file a dispute w/ an order you receive." I then stated to him I felt it was quite unfair to be punished for following the advice of a Customer Rep, it was unfair to be punished for the actions of another individual whom I have no control over, it was unfair to be punished for something I know I did do - type in the correct address & how it's also unfair to be held hostage to paying for an unreceived order or being banned from shopping at Anthro for life despite being a loyal customer w/ all of these companies for as many years as I had.

His responses thereafter were, "Ma'am I don't care how much you have spent or if we're your Wedding Registry or whether you believe you're a loyal customer or who's at fault for your mistakes, & even if you don't have access to that address you are responsible for anyone taking your package & returning it to the store." This was also the case when asking to speak to a manager or trying to reason w/ this individual.

After coming to the realization that either I have to pay for this order I had never received & for my previous home's owners actions of returning the order or being banned, I gave him a grand Goodbye & started to reflect on the ordeal. I was in tears. I loved Anthro & have never given them a reason to lose trust in me as a customer. I have spent far more than I should have & loved to purchase their items as gifts to friends & talk about their items to others. & to hear this one individual's stance of me is shattering & provides me w/ clarity as to how Anthropologie truly feels about me => Nothing, a Criminal, a Nobody, a Liar & Thief. I know the customer isn't always right, but to be treated in this manner is completely unacceptable & should never be tolerated by anyone. Everyone deserves much more respect than this & I hope this is never the case w/anyone else...

When reflecting and researching why I was being treated this way, I came across the following article where several customers had endured the same experiences: **. After reviewing this article in disbelief, reflecting on my most recent experiences I came to my husband & asked him for his advice. He decided to investigate himself by contacting Customer Service & the Dispute Rep & Researched online - he unfortunately was met w/ the same obstacles (mind you, he's much more calm & understanding than me) & his response to everything he had heard from myself & his own experiences was we're returning everything from the Registry, we are never shopping from this place again and everything that we have not used is getting returned too.

No one should be treated in this manner especially when spending a lot of money on goods, no one should encounter as many obstacles w/ trying to spend their money on something as expensive as Anthro & we will not endorse a company that has proven to be an advocate of treating others in this manner. For him to come to such a definitive stance like this is enough for me to draw the line & never go back.

This feels like a scam. I am truly bewildered that a company as big as Anthropologie and with its reputation would take this position. Basically, buyer beware to anyone who buys from this company that is selling expensive home products without taking any responsibility for its own errors or about the fact it is selling goods that can’t even be used for their intended purpose.

I would expect this from some random cheap company trying to scam people out of a quick buck but not from a company like Anthropologie. Now I have two oversized lamp shades that are completely worthless to me. Truly shocking experience! A message to Anthropologie executives: you will have zero staying power if you treat customers like this. Customers: stick to the Crate &Barrels and CB2s of the world, who have real customer service.

Now they’ve flagged my account so I can’t order from them. No one has ever reached out to me which really sucks but it sends a message to be done with them. Too bad Anthropologie, you had years and years with a customer who was willing to pay more for some things that were probably not worth the price. It’s a shame because I can’t recommend anyone order from you, unless you want to risk being charged in error. If you dispute it no one in their customer service will help you!

To make a long story short, we ended up getting two dresses and being charged twice. I did not get refunded for their mistake until they got the dress back in their warehouse. You would think I would have learned my lesson but, we went back to Anthropologie's Orlando store and ordered a pair of jeans for my girlfriend. This time I made sure to have them send the jeans to my at my billing address. They ended up shipping it to my office with my first name and my girlfriend's last name. Of course the girl at our front desk didn't know who that package was meant for and sent it back. After this I called customer service and found out that the one that was sent back was the only size 25 in the whole store. Worse than that, they had no way to identify the one that was being returned to them to redirect it back to me.

Customer service could not help and I got bumped up to a supervisor who said all she could do was but a note in the system and offer me a discount code. The call ended with no satisfaction and no discount code. For a company that is so proud of their product (judging by the pricing), they have the systems and customer service acumen of a discount thrift store. It seems like they could invest some of those exorbitant margins into themselves and have their operations match their pricing. No way to talk to company management and no one accountable for the time and effort I had to spend just to buy this overpriced clothing. This seems like a trend coming out of California based companies. Buyer beware. Just another dissatisfied customer.

An hour later I get an e-mail stating and I quote “I'm sorry that you didn't receive your package. Since the tracking information, here, shows that the package was delivered, on October 25, to the address that was verified at the time the order was submitted for processing, we will not be able to process a refund or ship a replacement for this package. Per our policy, it is the responsibility of the customer to retrieve the package from the address which it was delivered.

“There is a possibility that this package will be returned to us as undeliverable. In that case, the warehouse will issue a refund. This process can take up to 3 weeks, and you will be notified when the order is returned to us. If this package is delivered to the address that was entered during checkout, it is the responsibility of the customer to retrieve their order from the location where it was delivered. We do recommend that you delete and remove all old and outdated address from your account.”

I then responded: "Can you prove that the package was actually delivered at that address? I need a picture of where the package was delivered as proof that it was actually delivered to... like the previous package was. The freight company is run by humans that make mistakes and it could have been delivered to a wrong address, these are human mistakes that happen often. Please provide proof of delivery and then we can talk about not refunding what I never received."

Which this was the last straw: "Unfortunately, a picture of the delivery was not provided because pictures are not required to deliver packages to the requested address. If you are unable to locate your shipment, please file a theft report with your local police and use that report to open a claim with your homeowners or renter’s insurance. The only thing we have is the tracking. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

I feel cheated out of my money and very disappointed. I will definitely never ever buy from this store again and advise anyone thinking of ordering online not to. As I said, it is humanly possible that the package was delivered elsewhere and I got the bad end of the stick with the store not taking responsibility for it. Very disappointed in this store. They definitely lost me as a loyal customer.

However, 6 months later I saw there was a new charge $130 from Anthropologie, I felt weird because I didn't shop on their site that month. And after I talked with them I just realised that they claimed they didn't receive the dress I returned so they charged from the credit card I used. This is absolutely ridiculous, because first of all I swore to GOD I returned that dress. And more than that dress. I returned overall 3-4 items, put them in the same box, they received the rest of them but not the dress? I asked them to give me the proof the dress wasn't in the box or the weight record of the package from the post office. They couldn't provide. To me, charge me for something I don't own, it's stealing!!!

Second, if they didn't receive it they should contact me immediately or even just before they charged me, not charging me 6 months later without any notification. I contacted them at least 3, 4 times they always tell me it's a systemic error and they'll refund me but it never happened. What's even worse is after they charged me for the item I never have, they put me on their blacklist. While I'm still waiting for their investigation for a month, I found all the recent orders I placed have been canceled. The orders that I spent hours shopped on their site, they cancelled it with no reason. I tried to contact them many many times, of course, they never contact you back after they "investigate" as they promise. And now I can't even place any order on their sister company Urban Outfitter!

I can't believe they are this evil, this is definitely the worst shopping experience I ever have, especially I love this brand so much and it accompanies me for so many years. But it's time to say Goodbye, this world is never lack of good brand. Only the one treat value their customer will be successful. As so many similar awful reviews I read about Anthropologie I can foresee in a soon future they'll lose a ton of their loyal customers they've been working so hard on for years soon.

In terms of online - they need a new inventory management system. In the last two years if I buy more than 4 items in a single order I usually get an email 2 weeks after placing the order a certain item sold out and the order was cancelled. Very slow shipping and processing times where I'm waiting 3 weeks for items when the site makes it sound like I’ll receive the goods in a 5 days.

But what sent me over the edge to write this review is their ambiguity and lack of service with returning items in the store. On receipts some items say you can’t return in the store (furniture, bathing suits) but most items do NOT have that label so you attempt to return in store and they say they can’t accept it. I asked an employee in store for help decoding how am I supposed to know which items I can return in store or not as the item I tried to return didn’t have the “CANNOT RETIRN IN STORE” line item like other items in my order, and her response was - "You need to cal the store beforehand on each item to confirm as the site and receipt is not reliable".... Something doesn’t math out. If y’all want to be a bargain store and cut corners on service and quality - no prob - but charge bargain prices. I'm sad to write this review - because I loved the store so much, but it’s time to move on and save others from the pain of anthropologie.

I immediately chatted with an Anthropologie customer service agent explaining that the package was being sent to the wrong address. This agent informed me that although the package was not yet ready to ship, they were unable to change the delivery address or cancel the order. I then chatted with another agent who told me they could also do nothing to help me and I would have to contact the shipping service. When I asked which service would be taking care of the delivery, they could not tell me because the package was not yet ready to be sent. I was advised to wait until the package had a tracking number, indicating it was ready for delivery, and then contact the deliverer.

In the meantime, I chatted with Anthropologie via Facebook and explained my situation. I was told that nothing could be done to stop or change an order except during a 5- to 10-minute window after it has been placed. I received no assistance, as I expected, but I asked that my feedback be passed on to a supervisor. I received a generic response that my feedback was valued.

As advised, I waited until I received a tracking number, then called the delivery service (OnTrac). They informed me that although I had the correct tracking number, the package was not yet in the OnTrac system, so they were not able to change the address. Because it was a Saturday, I was told to call back on Monday and request a change of address. (The package was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday.)

This representative also informed me that after I called OnTrac back on Monday, I would also have to call Anthropologie and ask the store to confirm the change of address, because OnTrac is not authorized to reroute a package without approval from the sender. This perplexed me, as Anthropologie had indicated that they could do nothing to change the address and my only option was to contact OnTrac. I tried calling on Sunday just in case, but OnTrac was closed, so I filled out the online form requesting a reroute in case that would speed up the process.

The next day (Monday), I called OnTrac as I had been directed, and the agent who answered informed me that the package was already out for delivery (ahead of schedule) to the incorrect address. I asked her to stop the package, and she told me while I was on the phone with her that she had paged the driver and rerouted the package to the correct address. She said the driver would bring the package back to the processing facility in Hayward, California, and then reroute it. I also told her that I had filled out the online form yesterday just in case, so she made a note in OnTrac’s system that the request had been taken care of over the phone. I thanked her for resolving this issue for me.

That evening, I received a confirmation email from Anthropologie that my package had been delivered to the incorrect address in California. Confused, I emailed OnTrac to explain that an agent had rerouted my package, and they told me there was nothing they could do to help me and that I must contact the sender to resolve the situation, as the package had been delivered. I received no explanation as to why the package was delivered after the driver had been paged to stop the delivery.

I contacted Anthropologie again and explained the situation, and the customer service agent told me she would note that the delivery was a lost package and I should receive an email within 72 hours detailing next steps. I waited a week. I had not received an email, so I chatted with another customer service representative, who told me that the request for a lost package had been submitted but not processed yet. Once it was processed, they told me, I would receive an email and would then have to dispute the charges with my bank.

Rarely have I engaged with a company so disinterested in providing actual customer service. It is disappointing that a corporation as large as Anthropologie apparently has zero control over its own orders and inventory. I find it hard to believe that Anthropologie cannot afford to reimburse me $180 when I pursued every possible means of rectifying a situation that could have been easily fixed if one employee were willing to provide a human experience instead of using the system as an excuse.

Meanwhile there are holds on all of my accounts for this order. And I asked my friend to place the order for me in case I was banned for some unknown reason and her order too was cancelled just like clockwork. I have wasted so much time and money which is on hold in my accounts and I am not getting these clothes which I dearly want and I am beyond angry and frustrated. Not a good way to do business and not a way to treat a lifelong loyal customer.

End of the week came and nothing, I emailed and called again and they promised by Monday. It's Thursday, still no refund and no apology. This was 100% their mistake, yet I am spending my time trying to get the refund they clearly owe me. Guess I will be moving on to a new Go-to store and will be opening up a dispute with my credit card. Warning to Anthro customers, check your credit card statements!!