To save a long drive, I had phoned the Austin A&F branch 0n 13 June 11 beforehand to ask if they had a specific item of clothing (mens pants) including the size and the serial number of the item in stock. The shop person I spoke to (Diana) assured me it was there and would be waiting for me to pick up that day. When I arrived at the store the person I spoke to on the phone was not available and according to the staff member dealing with me, the ordered item (and I apparently) did not exist. The attitude/performance of the staff (besides them all being nice to look at) was pathetically arrogant. The overall people skills I experienced on that particular day bordered on the rather useless with the non existent.

Bought a pair jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch. Within 60 days they had a 6" rip in the back. Fit was good. Wear was gentle. Product was defective. Went to store of purchase and was rudely “blown off” by an attractive Gen-Y Assistant Manager. I asked her to have the manager call me, and she promised he would. However, the manager never called. So, I called customer service in Columbus OH and was asked to spend my valuable time writing emails and providing pictures. After doing so (twice), I never heard a word. So, I called customer service several months later to follow up and was bureaucratically "blown off."

As the saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...” I will never make another purchase at Abercrombie & Fitch. In my experience, they not only provided a substandard product, but were also unprofessional and dishonest. I wash my hands of them and will let the competitive entrepreneurial market do its work. Even if I never get justice, at least, I’m confident they will… Good riddance.

About 4 months ago my 47 year son came to visit me from England. He is severly handicapped as he has been deaf from birth and is legally blind. While he was visiting me he wanted to purchase a piece of clothing so I took him to the Abercrombe & Fitch store in Costa Mesa California which is the closest one to where I live in Southern California. He made the purchase of a shirt at a cost of $76.13 but did not try on the shirt while he was in the store and chose to take it home to try on after he was assured by the salesman that if it did not fit, he could return it for a refund.

After trying the shirt on he found that it was not a comfortable fit for him because it was a tapered shirt and was too snug around his mid section. He left the shirt with me as he was returning to England the following day and I told him I would return the shirt after he left. I refunded the money for the cost of the shirt to him out of my own pocket in full anticipation that I would get a cash refund for the merchandise when I returned it.

About a week after my son returned to England, I returned the shirt along with the store receipt for the purchase and the sales clerk insisted that the only refund that I could get was a merchandise credit. I was quite angry because I was present when my son and I were told that he could get a cash refund if he was not happy with the fit of the shirt. I was given a merchandise credit card in the amount of $76.13 and the store clerk said that he had no way of refunding me the cash for my purchase at that particular store but if I would go to the store in the mall in Brea California, they would be able to refund the money on the surrender of the merchandise credit card that I was given. Brea California is 52 miles from where I live and since I was determined to get my money back, I made the trip at a great expense of time and fuel cost to myself. When I presented the merchandise credit card at the Brea California store I was dealt with in a rather rude and abrupt manner and told that it was company policy to never give a cash refund and that the only way was for me to use the card to purchase merchandise. I am a 75 year old woman with severe health problems and I have absolutely no need for the type of clothing your store carries.

I called your telephone call center and spoke with your company representative by the name of Joe (Employee #1573 he would not give me his last name ) who also addressed the situation in a rude manner and after a few angry words I requested that I speak with his supervisor and he informed me that the supervisor does not ever speak with the customers and that the problem had to be handled through him. He finally agreed that he would write up the complaint and send it on. The complaint letter reference number was #101213-002899 and was dated 12/13/2010. I have waited almost a month and have not had any response from your company. I am at my wits end and the only thing that I could think of doing is to write to you so that you might get a glimpse of what goes on with your company and how it deals with customers.

I am attaching a copy of the receipt I received and the back of the merchandise credit card that I was given. I am hoping that this matter can be settled in a courteous and calm way by not only refunding my money but reimburse me for the time and travel distance that I had to go on your store employees instruction.

If I get not response from you in this matter I regret that you give me no choice than go to my local small claims court and attempt to get a judgment for the money that you owe me. I also would not hesitate to tell my story to the better business bureau, and the local newspapers. Please be reasonable and don’t make me have to take further action to get my money back.

Very stupidly bought some goods off this site 20.09.1o and presumed they were original and coming from USA. The eventually arrived via EMS courier from China. They are NOT what I ordered, incorrect sizes, incorrect styles, they stink and are 100% fake. I immediately contacted them to demand a full refund and am still waiting. They continue to email me the same email over and over again that their "specialists are investigating my complaint". I spent €219.12 and would like that money back so that I can then go and purchase the original clothing off the authentic site, this is NOT but VERY similar. After some investigation I have found that they sell several fake goods. My money was deducted by a company in Russia named coolnetstore.co I have also tried several times to email them and keep getting the same emails. "I am their no.1 priority and customer satisfactions is their aim" Yeah ripping them off more likely.
This is a 100% SCAM.

THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT ANF, FROM THE INSIDE:

I have been reading many of the complaints on this and many other Web Sites involving Abercrombie & Fitch stores. I have been working for this company for nearly 5 years now and I am the store manager at a busy location.

Let me clear some things up for you. Most of these complaints are very reasonable and even if they seem astounding to you, trust me when I tell you that these are very typical problems that come up. Believe me when I tell you that I am truthfully on your side, but our penny pinching corporate office keeps our hands tied so tightly that we often seem like the bad guy in these events.

Everything I will tell you now is true. I am hoping that maybe sharing these secrets will help this company make some changes, especially in customer service areas because we all know that it is needed.

First off, there is no excuse for the rudeness and bad attitudes that many of you say you've experienced. I know that working in these stores can sometimes get stressful beyond belief, but I am able to keep myself composed so others should also. Abercrombie requires its managers to work 45, sometimes 50 hour weeks without overtime pay. We spend that amount of time in the same high-volume music pumping, cologne-drenched store you visit for a short time. Imagine the headaches we go home with everyday! All these complaints that are a result of ridiculous ANF policies, we have to handle all day, every day - with very little we can do about any of them.

Abercrombie is all about the dollar. It doesn't matter who it takes it from. It's not just the customers, it's also its workers. Store associates make minimum wage. Managers are the lowest paid of all major retail stores, yet they have strict requirements that managers have at least a 4 year degree and meet the company's "look policy." <- more on this later! Most managers want out, but no other reputable company will hire us because of the hole ANF digs us in. So we are stuck!

Another not so well known fact about ANF is its use of foreign labor, sweat shops, and even rumored to use child labor in its manufacturing! Don't believe me? GOOGLE IT! Abercrombie was inducted into the "Sweatshop Hall of Shame" for its unethical practices. Look at any item of clothing you own. Nothing is made in the USA. The most productive factories used by ANF are now in Indonesia, Vietnam, China, India, Guatamala, and even Pakistan. It is said that these workers are forced to work all day for pennies! All so ANF can make that mighty dollar.

One of the complains I read actually said "I will never step foot in Abercrombie again. I am taking my business to Hollister." I am surprised that many consumers still don't know that Hollister is owned by Abercrombie & Fitch and practices all the exact same poor policies.

I wish I could address all the issues here, but it would be impossible considering how many issues there really are. Every day I come across incidents that I know should be on a television news special like Dateline NBC. Chris Hansen, take notice. The truth is out there, but it isn't in the public eye. I really believe if all consumers knew about ANF's practices and policies, the company would be either out of business within a year OR the necessary changes would finally be made.

For example, the company requires all management to "recruit" the greatest looking associates. This is a requirement. Every time we find a beautiful person to hire in, the least attractive worker on the roster falls off. They aren't necessarily fired right away, but they just aren't scheduled anymore. Eventually that employee just gives up. We are able to track how often that employee comes in to check their schedule, which is done on a computer system, so once that employee goes 2 or 3 weeks without checking his or her schedule, we terminate them for "job abandonment."

Next, management is required to hold at least a bachelor's degree in any fiend. Mine was in a fine art. It doesn't matter, as long as we look good in their clothes. For the low pay we start at, nobody would take this job other than fresh out of college graduates. This is how most of us got our start. We are actually "recruited" also by management staff. They go to local colleges in search of good looking students who are near graduation. They are hired and trained from scratch. For this reason, most of these managers have never really worked with the general public and don't know how to handle any situation. I have gone through many managers at my stores, and yes I can teach them the rules and how to fold, but it's much harder to teach them common sense or people skills.

Now lets talk about company policy. Of all the important things we are told about in our stores, customer service is never a focus. In writing, maybe, but never truthfully. I have been told to outright LIE to customers if it makes things go the way we want. And yes, this year the company stopped their customer service phone number and turned it into an email address instead. Good luck getting a response on that one!

Our district managers are trained to spot secret shoppers, which our company sends out weekly. (You wonder where all your ripped-off money goes? There is one answer!) As long as we get good secret shop scores, the company leaves us alone.

All new employees are required to watch a video about loss prevention. It shows employees how to steal. Theft is a huge problem for ANF, and the company loses many, many millions of dollars annually from it. That is the reason management is told to deny most refunds/exchanges unless there is almost certain reasoning that everything is in perfect order. This is why so many of you experience issues with returns. Even when the manager knows he will return or exchange the item, it is his job to make it as uncomfortable for you as possible, to discourage more returns in the future.

It is true that the company cares more about whether we have a hot new girl working than if we made a customer angry or not. We are to keep the store looking up to "standard" so assossiates have to constatly fold and replenish, regardless if there is a long line at the register.

We have two main positions for associates. One is called "model" and the other is called "impact team." The model is called that so we can legally hire based on looks. You will NOT EVER EVER EVER, unless there was a huge mistake somewhere, NEVER EVER EVER EVER find an unattractive model nor an old model nor a fat model working at one of our stores. I have hired some models I considered good looking, only to take heat from my regional manager. They have actually said to me about several of my hires, "that person should not be working for our company." This was before I learned the now commonly practiced drill of changing schedules when we are being audited. Yes, we actually switch shifts around when we know our DM or RM are coming to town, in order to have the best looking workers on duty at that time. We simply lie to the "ugly" models and tell them that we are over on budgeted hours and we have to cut some random shifts. Easy fix.

If we did a company wide age demographic study of all models, I absolutely guarantee you will find that 95% or more will be under the age of 25 and that 75% or more are under the age of 21. Even though we start hiring at age 18, this is just to avoid the laws for minors working long hours or taking breaks and so forth. We overwork all our associates. I also guarantee that a vast majority of models are still WHITE, despite losing a class action lawsuit some time ago about this exact thing. We do hire more minorities, but we stick them in the back. That is the second position I mentioned, called Impact Team.

The Impact Team is the group of workers who work in the stockroom, mostly unseen, processing incoming shipment and merchandise. These people do come on the sales floor to place the merchandise where it belongs, but they return right to the back when finished with that simple task. Take the race study of impactors, and the numbers will switch. More than 75% of minority workers are part of the impact team. We are encouraged to hire a certain number of minorities, but company "look policy" standards are set up so that if they don't fit the typical ANF look, we can't let them be models. So we then imply that we have an immediate opening for "impact team" and voila, we got ourself a minority to meet the numbers game, but yet no customer ever has to see.

Oh, one more UNBELIEVEABLE THING regarding this whole minority thing. Abercrombie & Fitch actually put a policy in place earlier this year, that officially spoke about hiring minorities and in that policy, it was stated that workers of non-white backgrounds are to be referred to as "PEOPLE OF COLOR." This is NOT a joke. Look it up! "Person of Color" is the 2009 Abercrombie & Fitch official designation to minority employees.

I'm just hitting the beginning here. I might consider doing a follow up, or even writing a book. It is unbelievable how bad of a company Abercrombie & Fitch is. Our CEO, Mike Jeffries is a selfish idiot who got lucky once and still holds a position that he should have lost a long time ago. In fact, he is constantly criticized by prestigious publications on his imcompetence. He was voted "worst performing CEO" last year. He has been called "Most Overpayed CEO" by a major financial news publication. His company's stocks have plummeted.

Yeah, I threw this posting together quickly. I noticed a bunch of grammatical errors and typos. I don't claim to be the smartest person in the world, but I know I'd do a better job running this company than Mike Jeffries.

I wrote this thing for free.
Idiot Mike Jeffries gets paid MULTI-MILLIONS.
Yet by writing this, I probably just did more good for ANF in ten minutes than he has the past 5 years.

IT'S TIME FOR CHANGE!
Demand Abercrombie & Fitch become a better company or make a stand and stop shopping at our stores. I might lose my job, but oh well, it'll probably be the best thing that ever happened to me.

BM