Fashion Bug review: Poor customer service related to return 1

On April 4, 2010 I placed an order with Fashion Bug online to be picked up in store at a Lane Bryant located at Fashion Center in Pentagon City. Shortly after placing the order I was in an accident that resulted in a grade 2 left ankle sprain and a fractured dislocated right ankle that required surgery. The accident left me in a great deal of pain and wheelchair bound for eight weeks. After leaving the hospital on April 11, 2010 I contacted Fashion Bug to informed them I would not be able to pick up the package due to this accident and my newly acquired mobility issues. I inquired about my options.

Here is a history of my phone conversations with Fashion Bug's customer service.

Customer Service Agent: Gloria
Spoke on April 12, 2010
Resolution: I was told she would contact store about shipping order to home address or having the order cancelled, returned and a new order shipped from warehouse to my home. She would phone me when she had a resolution. She suggested sending a friend to pick up order.

I emailed customer service after I did not hear back from Gloria. Again I explained the situation and relayed the previous conversation with Gloria. The response I received from Patricia Barron from Fashion Bug customer service was that the order had been delivered to Lane Bryant on April 10, 2010 and is waiting for me to pick up. Obviously she did not read my email or did not understand the situation.

Customer Service Agent: Illia
Spoke on April 19, 2010
Resolution: I explained my situation, my previous call to customer service and that I had not heard back from Gloria about a resolution. The agent states there is more than one Gloria working there and she cannot verify my previous conversation took place. This agent says only I would be able to pickup the package and it is the company's policy that they do not ship from store to home address. My options: wait until items are sent back and warehouse processes refund, which should happen around mid May.

Customer Service Agent: Shirley
Spoke on June 17, 2010
Resolution: Agent called store to check on package status. Order is still with store waiting for pickup. Agent asks me if I can pick up package now. I explain that I am a student, the academic year has ended and I have moved back to California. I would not be making a trip to Virginia to pick up an order I was told would be returned. She speaks with Danaille (store manager?) who says they will send package back on 6/18/10. I am told to call back in 3 weeks if credit card account is not credited.

Customer Service Agent: Raquel
Spoke on July 20, 2010
Resolution: She says I must wait a minimum of two weeks before a refund is issued and that it has only been a few days since my last conversation. I explain it has been over a month since previous conversation and that this situation has been ongoing since mid-April. Agent says she will call back after contacting store and hangs up. She never calls back.

Tanisha
Spoke on July 27, 2010
Resolution: Will contact store to verify location of package. Establishes three way phone conversation with store. Package was sent but has yet to be received by warehouse. Since issue has been ongoing and shipment was confirmed, agent agreed to an immediate refund to be credited to credit card account.

I finally received an email on August 4, 2010 that the items have been refunded but a gift card has been issued instead of my Fashion Bug credit card being credited since the order was not returned within 90 days. I was surprised that this was the result since I have been told repeatedly that my credit card would be credited. As the process dragged on into months I brought up the issue of a gift card with agents and I was told, since I had been trying to process this return since April and the package was never in my possession, my credit card would be refunded. So I always assumed that would be the case.

In fact when I spoke with Shirley I was assured that the amount would be refunded to my account within two weeks. I was guaranteed that it would happen before another credit card payment was due and it wasn't. I did not realize this until the day before my payment was due when I checked my account to verify the credit. I admit I should not have waited so long to check my account. I scheduled a payment immediately that day but it was too late to have it credited by the due date. Now in addition to having paid interest on this purchase repeatedly I will have to pay a late charge since the payment was credited one day late. The only purchase made on this card was this order. Like I said I admit that the late charge for last month is my fault. It was ridiculous on my part to assume that this situation would be resolved as stated. At the very least I should have checked the account sooner to verify the account credit so I could make a timely payment if necessary.

What bothered me most was that each time I called customer service, agents would make it clear that this situation is my fault because of the mobility issues associated with my injury. I'm not sure how this would be considered the proper response to what I was going through. The injury was the result of an accident. Something I could not control. Believe me if I could have avoided the pain and discomfort of the last four months I would have. I have a plate and eight screws in my ankle as a result of that day. I don't imagine anyone would wish for that. I have done my best to resolved this situation as timely and efficiently as possible without causing too much fuss. Looking back maybe I should have been more difficult. Perhaps the situation would have been resolved much sooner. Having to deal with this while recovering from major surgery and undergoing therapy has been frustrating and stressful.

I will say, in the past, I have had good shopping experiences with Lane Bryant and Fashion Bug both in store and online. This was an unusual situation that I hoped would be handled a lot better than it was. I don't understand why this would take nearly four months to resolve considering they were made aware of my situation within a few days of the package delivery to the store, the package was always in company hands, never mine, and I had spoken with customer service on multiple occasions throughout trying to get this taken care of. There are other options for plus size shopping so I am not sure that I will shop with this company in the future. If I do, I doubt I will ever attempt to use ship to store again.